The other night we were having dinner with friends, talking about their old dog Fred, our old dog Zoë, and the 16 year old dog of a fellow food blogger who wandered through a door left accidentally opened and never came home. We exchanged sorrowful exclamations and some rueful grins over the bittersweet aging process…

I am a fiend for cheeses, in general the stinkier the better. That barnyardy funk that some cheeses acquire after being washed with brandy or wine and stored away in a cave? It draws me like the aroma of truffles or baking bread, a powerful harbinger of good tastes to come. But recently I’ve been…

I think the world must be divided into two types of people – those who taste their grapes at the grocery store before they buy them, and those who glare at the grape-tasters as if they have caught a robbery in progress. I am an unapologetic member of the first group and believe me, it’s…

In general, I’m not a meat eater. I am not really a strict vegetarian either, but I don’t care for most meat and I adore vegetables, so that’s what I eat, and mostly, that’s what I cook. Still, given that I won’t eat them, I’m really having trouble accounting for my current obsession with braising…