Happy Kiss-Me-I’m-a-Drunk-Caucasian Day

As anyone who has seen me in person can attest, I am not of Irish ancestry. So when it comes to St. Patrick’s Day, I’m not that interested. I don’t wear green, or get more drunk than usual. Nor do I consume green-tinted beer, or green-tinted anything else, for that matter. 

Musings on Processed Foods, Special Equine Edition

Food has been in the news quite a bit over the last few weeks, and for the most part, the news has not been good. Horse meat, it seems, has found its way into a large number of processed foods, and is appearing in various European retailers labeled as beef in hamburgers, lasagne, Swedish meatballs (say it ain’t so, IKEA) and other products. There is a Trojan horse joke to be made here, but I’m far too classy to make it.

Vegetables, Roasted

Having celebrated Pancake Day (alias Mardi Gras) in the last post, we shall discuss something more abstemious now that we have entered the Lenten season. For the moment, anyway—self-denial is not really in my nature. Nor are the dishes I’m talking about today particularly ascetic. Not from a flavor perspective, at any rate.

I’ve never been all that wild about boiling or steaming things. There are obvious exceptions, of course—one has to boil or steam some starches, like rice or pasta. But I generally prefer to use so-called “dry” cooking methods whenever possible—sautéing, for instance, or baking, or roasting.