The spousal unit likes to remind me that Thanksgiving is my Super Bowl. Training begins about March. Menu planning. What to plant in the garden. How to source the turkey. Options, backup plans, …
It’s been called America’s bechamel sauce. It’s been called a gift to the busy housewife (and how sexist is that?) It’s found in recipes from beef stroganoff to …
I’m almost afraid to say I like cooking Italian. The neighborhood has such a large Italian community that I fear anything I tell people I make will be dismissed by Italian-Americans as not …
My eggplant recipes don’t scale well. And this year, that’s a problem. Eggplant parmesan requires a certain amount of eggplant. So does ratatoullie. But this year, the spousal unit …
Before I became a reporter, I did an equally important job in town. I was the quesadilla chef at SUNY Cortland’s fan-favorite dining establishment, Hilltop. When you make so much of the …
I tell gardeners this all the time: Grow what you can’t get enough of. Beans suitable for drying, baking, soups and whatnot? Lots of them, because farmers at the farmers markets sell them …
Much about attending a Renaissance festival is actually pretty bogus. Fun, but bogus. Those giant turkey legs, slow-smoked over something and dipped in a tomato-based sauce? Turkey and tomatoes …
We were, in a way, partners in crime. Tia was a trained chef-turned-program administrator for the New York State Senate. I was a stay-at-home dad, recovering journalist and a low-level nobody in …
My mother made the worst corn chowder. There. I said it. I know I’m supposed to wax nostalgic for Mama’s home cookin’, and in fairness, my mother did have several good recipes. …
I had friends stay with me over the weekend, and there’s only so many things I can cook, especially as a vegetarian. I had already cooked my signature pasta, so I thought I’d add …
I never really had a good peach as a child, not that I knew the difference. I grew up in central New Hampshire in an area about 75 miles north of Cortland and a couple hundred miles east. My …
A couple I know likes to indulge from time to time: Dessert for supper. When they do that, the family heads out and typically gets ice cream sundaes. Rich, decadent, sweet — I get it. …
I met the Rev. Jessie Jackson for the first time when I was 18. This is about food. Trust me. The year was 1983; Jackson had visited a neighboring high school in New Hampshire on his way to …
I came across a box of tri-colored pasta while rummaging through the cupboard a couple of weeks ago. Now, something that looks like that shouldn’t be buried under a thick red sauce, not even an …
I will confess that the sum total of what I know about Italian cuisine can be summed up in an exchange I once had with an Italian grandmother, whose parents had come over on the boat. …
In my corner of western New York, the past winter was a lukewarm and muddy season. It rained more than it snowed. The landscape resembled a muddy impressionist painting rather than a frozen …
The spousal unit is a carbivore. Potatoes, pasta, white rice — if it has so little flavor that anything dresses it up, and such a soft texture that chewing isn’t necessary, she’s on …
Nobody told me the herb was a tree. Today, the potted bay plants I bought about a decade ago for about $8 at a farmers market are better termed “saplings.” If I stripped every leaf …
The Homer Regional Farmers Market has existed in many shapes and sizes before, but this summer, it will be held weekly, and it will be more than just a place to pick up some vegetables. The …
I grew up in a community with so little cultural diversity that if you looked at it from orbit, you’d go blind. No Asian people; no Hispanic people; no Jewish people and few (if any) …
ITHACA — May brings the return of Wednesday Market at East Hill and the addition of Sunday Market at Steamboat Landing, Ithaca Farmers Market organizers have announced. Wednesdays at East …
My mother would call home from work when I was 11. She had forgotten to take supper out of the freezer, and she needed me to cook. I was 11; I hadn’t learned anything about food except …
Most 6-year-olds can’t pronounce prosciutto, let alone film a cooking video with it that garners thousands of views. But Henry Carr of Scott can. The 6-year-old braved the cold weather and rain Wednesday to film an episode of his Youtube show “Cooking with Henry,” at the Community Learning Garden, 3 South Ave., Cortland.
Sometimes I can be such a doofus. The spouse and I were negotiating the big meal of the week, the meal that provides us our Sunday dinner then fills our lunches for much of the week. …
Watching my wife’s family get together is like watching performance art. But feeding them is the greatest challenge in easy eating that I can imagine. They actually like each other. My …
