Eats/Reads

This is my aunt's German potato salad which I'm recording here for posterity. I ate this dish several times a year - always at Christmas and Easter - while I was growing up. As an adult I've tried to recreate it several times - with mixed success. I could never get the dressing right. Then six months ago I found out she used the pickle juice! This would be easier to make in the US than the UK (where we live) because it's hard to get real dill pickles here - and even hard to find really good sweet pickles. Ah well. At least the bacon here is good! 5 lb bag of potatoes 1 lb of bacon 1 jar of sweet (bread & butter) pickles 1 jar of Kosher dill pickles 1 apple Boil potatoes until they burst - don't overboil. Pour off water. Cut pickles into tiny cubes. Save water from pickles. Fry bacon. Peal potatoes, slice into pieces the size of little finger. Mix pickles into potatoes. Add one-half jar of pickle water. Add one-third of the bacon fat. Taste and add fat and pickle...

We didn't have the right pickles to make Aunt Imme's German potato salad so we came up with this version, which we had all the ingredients for. It was great! We used sausage instead of the usual bacon (cause that's what we had on hand). It would have been great with bacon too (duh). Would also be nice served with fresh parsley. We served it with fresh lettuce - a great warm weather meal! I'm sure it would be possible to do a veggie version too - with no meat, just cooking the onions in oil. [The toddler ate some plain sausage, boiled potatoes with butter, and as much chopped up pickle as we would allow her.] 1 small onion, diced 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp white vinegar 1 Tbsp oil 2 tablespoons water 2 tablespoons white sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper About 1 lb potatoes 2 small sweet and sour pickles 3 small, organic gluten-free pork sausages About 1/2 a head of lettuce Boil potatoes until soft. Set aside. Cook sausages on medium heat in a cast-iron ski...

We thought we had absolutely nothing to eat in the house - and then we realised we had the ingredients for tuna casserole. Not exactly the most sophisticated dish but this is a tasty version - with, notably, no canned cream of mushroom soup (which about 99.9 per cent of the recipes we found online called for). The toddler was a bit suspicious of it but in the end ate several pieces of fusilli and a couple handfuls of the meat and sauce, once we separated them for her. If you don't have kids, add some dry white wine or sherry in the sauce and double or triple the garlic. Next time we'll try putting bread crumbs on top, under the grated cheese. 1 pound fusilli 2 tbsp olive oil 2 onions, chopped 4 cloves garlic, chopped 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced 300 g tinned tuna 1 cup frozen peas 6 tbsp butter 6 tbsp flour 3 cups milk 1/4 pound grated cheddar cheese Cheddar Parmesan Melt the butter, then stir in the flour. Slowly add the 6 cups milk on low to medium heat, stirring constantly. Y...

I was totally winging it with this one and it came out very tasty! I wanted to stew some meat because it makes for great family meals - very easy to eat for the family member who still doesn't have all her teeth. The rest was just a mix of what I remember from making other stews and Marcella Hazan tomato sauces (ie, LOTS of olive oil!). We ate it with pasta but it could also have been served over rice, with potatoes - or even with potatoes cooked in it. 2T veg oil 800g pork 1/2 cup olive oil 2 onions, chopped 2 medium carrots, sliced thin 1/2 courgette, sliced thin About 1/4-1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced thin 1/2 head garlic, chopped 2 splashes dry sherry 1 tsp oregano 1 enormous bay leaf 3 400ml/14 ox tins tomato 250ml/1 cup chicken stock 1 Tbsp flour (Would have added dried basil if I'd had it. Instead, chopped up some fresh basil and cilantro and used that as a garnish before serving) Heat veg oil in Dutch oven until very hot. Add cubed meat and brown on all sides. Set aside. Add...

This was great. Super writing - quiet, reserved, very Scandinavian. Made me want to visit Norway - those cold, running rivers, those thick forests. Left so many things unanswered at the end, but nicely.

This is a brief biography of Darwin's Origin of Species - its significance within Victorian England, how it came about, who Darwin was and the ramifications his work has had up to present day. Great for someone who's forgotten most of what she learned about this in university. What really got me was not the evolutionary science - though highly relevant politically today, the science of it is pretty much taken for granted - but the story of how great works happen. Darwin was mostly unaware of the significance of what he was writing. Many friends/colleagues helped him develop his ideas, gave encouragement etc - and especially gave council around when he had to publish. It was not created in isolation. Then there's the reminder that the current reaction to a work has little relevance to its long-term significance (though 'Origin of Species' made a splash, it was not nearly as popular as some other, now unknown writings on evolution at the time - and then there's M...

Paprika chicken is a longtime favourite in our home. It's a tasty, quick, warm meal when you don't have a ton of ingredients on hand. This recipe is based on a dish I saw on Food TV ages ago. Just today I made the mistake of putting in chili powder instead of paprika - and it was yummy - so now thanks to this happy mistake it's also our chili chicken recipe. 3 Tbsp olive oil 1 large onion, chopped 1-6 cloves of garlic, minced (depending on how garlicy you want it) 2 Tbsp paprika or chili powder 1 28oz/800ml tin of chopped tomato 4 chicken breasts, thighs or legs, skin on and bone in 1/2 cup broth or water 1 1/2 tsp flour 2-3 Tbsp yogurt, sour cream or creme fraiche Handful of fresh parsley, chopped Salt and pepper In large frying pan with lid, saute onion in oil at medium heat until tender. Add garlic and saute a minute or two. Add paprika/chili powder and stir for one minute. Add tomato and broth/water and bring to a simmer. Add chicken, meat side down, and return to simm...