by Brian | Jun 17, 2014 | Recipes
“How about this?” I handed Suzen the first recipe I had found thanks to Google. “No,” she said in a flash. Had she read the recipe? No. Did I mind? No. It was the first one. She always rejects the first one. “Okay, how about this?” She got the second. She...
by Brian | Jun 9, 2014 | Recipes
My mother was deathly allergic to garlic, so I never had garlic until I was about twenty-four and tried an Italian restaurant in East Baltimore. Cheap restaurant, so when the food tasted different to me, I made a face. A discussion with a waitress followed and I...
by Brian | Apr 10, 2014 | Recipes
When Suzen tells a group that has come to do a group event at Cooking by the Book that they will be preparing a sweet potato side dish, you can see the frowns on many faces. “Trust me. You haven’t had anything like this,” she reassures her audience. We never...
by Brian | Mar 15, 2014 | Recipes
On a snowy Sunday, I found Suzen checking out our cookbooks. “What are you looking for?” I asked. I can be helpful. Sometimes. “Something interesting,” she said calmly. She’s not six feet tall so her hand was reaching up to manipulate the books on the top row....
by Brian | Mar 1, 2013 | Cookbook Review, Recipes
Source: Pasta by The Culinary Institute of America [Gianni Scappin, Alberto Vanoli, and Francesco Tonelli] The Culinary Institute of America — yes, that CIA — is recognized as the best culinary school in America. If you can’t invest two or four years to attend, then...
