I just returned from England, which still celebrates an afternoon ritual: tea, specifically, cream tea, or tea and scones. A scone is similar in texture to a baking powder biscuit but sweeter, more dense, thick, and tender. It is a deceptively simple quick bread. Deceptive, because how carefully you handle the dough will decide whether the scone is moistly tender or tough and dry.
Comfort food. There’s a reason why it’s called that. We think of our favorite dishes from childhood, celebrations, holidays, feasts. Our mouths and noses water at the smell of apples and pastry stiffening in the oven, bean soup simmering on the stove, juicy chicken frying in a pan.
I know there is no substitute for real, deep-fried chicken. But if you’re in a healthy, guilty, or conscientious-parent mood and you want to save time and the hot, oily mess, try this.
You have to read between the lines to figure out the timing, that is, the steps that can be taken ahead of time and how they can be organized. Take the following classic Southern recipe for Shrimp and Grits ...
I never met a bean I didn’t like. I am a bean lover, a “mangiafagioli,” or bean-eater, the Italian nickname for people from Tuscany. Whether Boston-baked, refried, brothy, stewed, or my favorite--cooked and mixed with rice--the humble bean is a complete and perfect food. Protein-rich, nutritious, inexpensive, and stomach-satisfying, beans speak a universal message of home and where they grow.
Here’s one more recipe for using up leftover turkey that I guarantee will not taste left over. It’s a famous pasta dish with mushrooms called Turkey Tetrazzini that is so good and easy ...
What is the language you cry in? Can a song of lamentation reconnect us to our roots and bring us redemption? Renew our memory across time, distance, and exile? The Psalms are not just songs of praise and celebration. They are full of lamentations that speak of real sorrows. They often take the form of a cry that God answers in another Psalm. Take for example Psalm 22:2: “O my God, I cry in the day-time but thou dost not answer, in the night I cry but get no respite.” The cry is answered in Psalm 106:44: “And yet when he heard them wail and cry aloud, he looked with pity on their distress.”
Salad: a great dish in summer when you don’t feel like cooking or heating up the kitchen. Even better, a salad hearty enough to be a complete meal, like this month’s Deli Salad, which uses deli meats and cheese.
