Gilding the Lily since 2006
You know what I hate? Not knowing how to use my camera properly, even after all these years. If I use the auto macro settings, I can’t adjust the white balance. If I use the manual settings, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong that …
Some terrible things have positive outcomes. Take colonization, for example. You know what’s great about colonization? Bánh mì. It’s true. The French colonized Vietnam for the export of tobacco, indigo, tea and coffee, but when they taught the Vietnamese their baking secrets, a little magic …
Our piscine friend the albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) A few years ago I bought my first whole albacore, directly from a fisherman on a dock in Astoria. It was $1.50/lb., and I was cavalier and cocky in my purchase, insisting then that I could handle …
Now that summer is winding toward its long-lit end, our minds shift toward the harvest. Anyone with a patch of dirt is likely up to their ears in a plenitude of homegrown produce, and this overabundance can daunt the timid. What do you do with …
Last summer I was totally knocked up and not good for much. Thank god I still had the presence of mind to a) grow a vegetable garden that included scarlet runner beans and b) utilize some of October’s nesting instinct to harvest all of the …
It’s been so hard to muster the energy or interest to cook, what with fatigue and nausea running the show. Pasta with red sauce seems to be accepted without a hitch, and requires nearly no effort, particularly when I have one last, treasured jar of …
Lasagna always seems like such a fuss, and I’ll admit it, I usually just go for a frozen one. It always seems like too much work to make a real one, from scratch, and frozen ones aren’t that bad (if you avoid the orange grease …
A couple months ago, before the tomatoes were really getting good, I accidentally knocked a few off the vine trying to get to my beans or something. These were my first tomatoes, so I valued each one like my firstborn and I brought them in, …