Paper Palate

Small dishes from the realm where paper meets palate.
In the May/June ’08 issue of Draft magazine, Bruce Paton helps everyone with the often daunting task of what wild food should be paired with each obscure micro-brew. He suggests pairing wild blackberries with Maylon’s Dragoon’s Dry Irish Stout, trout with Mad River Steelhead Extra Pale Ale […]

How do you choose a new cookbook to buy?  For me, sometimes it is pure impulse. I walk by a store display and see something about the cover or title that just grabs me. Once I open the book, I know what I’m looking for – recipes that read like they will taste delicious, instructions and techniques that are clear […]

I am a very visual person. I love to have recipes with photographs … it makes the recipe that much more tempting and desirable. Often times, I will be flipping through a magazine and will fall in love with a photo of a recipe, only to take a look at the recipe and realize that I […]

Our good friend owns a little English bookshop here in France that she has sadly decided to close. Well, I say sadly because I enjoy visiting her there and will miss browsing through all of the new titles in the cozy, welcoming shop she created.
However…

the closing of the shop means that all of the books […]

In 1967 the small local chain of convenience stores known as Pronto Markets changed their name and in so doing became the model grocery store of the new millennium. The new name? Trader Joe’s, of course. Today there are over 280 stores in 23 states that feature the best for less. Sure, lots of people […]

As a fan of the lovely and talented Giada De Laurentiis, I’m not sure which I appreciate more: her entertaining Food Network programs or her growing collection of cookbooks.
Already the author of three well-received cookbooks (Everyday Italian, Giada’s Family Dinners, and Everyday Pasta), De Laurentiis has a much anticipated 4th book coming out entitled Giada’s […]

My family’s not vegetarian. In fact, my husband and daughter are just this side of partaking in the Caveman Diet. I like to incorporate (okay, sneak) as many vegetarian meals as they’ll tolerate into our diets, but since this isn’t my regular mode of cooking, I find myself stumped once I’ve made the cheese enchiladas, […]

Last January I picked up the issue of Gourmet that was on newsstands because my husband and I were planning a trip to Nashville. The January issue was a collector’s edition about Southern cooking with an article by author Ann Patchett about the food of Nashville.
I didn’t get to Patchett’s article until long after our […]

About eight years ago I went on a tear because I wanted to learn the dying art of home preserving but couldn’t find any equipment or guides. My ranting about how canning was an art that would die with our grandmothers fell on mostly deaf ears. Why would anyone go to the hot, miserable work […]

Do you really need a book devoted entirely to cookies? That was the question I was asking myself as I requested to review a copy of Martha Stewart’s newest book, Cookies: The Very Best Treats to Bake and to Share. After poring over the book for the past couple of weeks, I’ve learned that the answer is […]