A beauty queen of the first order, this dish flies in the face of the old saying, "two peas in a pod." The truth is no two peas are ever the same.
A classic, very spicy Chinese dish that is usually made with minced meat and tofu, but this vegan version still delivers the punch that is associated with the original.
Dressing:
Dressing:
Our wine-making pal, Nan Bailey, is the local Tom Sawyer. At harvest time at her Alexis Bailey Vineyard we are all invited to lunch, but first we have to pick. Kids and bees are everywhere, and appetites build to farmhand stature by noon.
Everyone in the South seems to love cheese straws - the thin, crisp pastry sticks with the tang of cayenne and sharp cheddar - and they are always served at cocktail parties and church socials alike. They are almost mandatory at weddings: I remember receptions where the only fare was a silver compote of cheese straws, another of mints, and the wedding cake. Usually cheese-straw dough is piped from a cookie press and snipped into short lengths. Miss Lewis uses the simple technique of rolling out the dough and slicing off the “straws.” Cheese straws improve as the flavors mellow, so make them a day before serving, if possible. A tin of cheese straws makes an excellent hostess gift.
This salad tastes like early summer to me -- sweet, herbal and fresh. When you thin slice two kinds of peas and toss them with spring greens and a creamy spring onion dressing, all sorts of gentle contrasts start playing against each other. The unique taste and texture of the 65ºC egg works beautifully here, too.
I love to come home, blast some music, pour myself a beverage, and make a meatloaf sandwich on a baguette with a pile of these fries. Since they aren’t fried, it’s not a super gross late-night snack. The thinness makes them crispy, so it’s really like half potato chip, half fry. As my best friend says, it’s all about the dipping sauces: BBQ, ketchup, honey mustard, ranch, and sriracha mayo.
One of the most classic and popular of all Spanish dishes, the egg and potato tortilla is, simply, iconic. It was, fittingly, the first dish I learned to make when I moved to Spain in 1996, in a lesson given to me by my future brother-in-law, Robert. Preparing a tortilla with potato alone is fine, but using an equal amount of onions produces a sweeter, moister, and, in my mind, superior result. While the key to a good tortilla is keeping it moist in the center, the real trick, he showed me, comes in flipping it. Or rather, flipping the tortilla without the bottom sticking.