Author: Annelies

Feast of Sorrow Book Review

Thanks go out to Touchstone Publishers for sending a complimentary copy for a Feast of Sorrow book review. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ear! It may seem cheesy to start with this widely known adage, but the world in Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King so completely transports the reader to ancient Rome that… Continue reading Feast of Sorrow Book Review

Chocolate Chile Sorbet with Cherry Compote

Some flavors tell you everything you need to know before tasting the dish. I’ve often thought that the role of writing a menu requires a special swish of the pen to word the description of a dish well enough to entice anticipation and need. For months, before and after we moved, if I had trouble… Continue reading Chocolate Chile Sorbet with Cherry Compote

Roquefort by David Nutt

Roquefort Dark and damp with drafty corridors Hidden caves in limestone rock Allows the cheese to ripen lost in time This is the place were alchemy unfolds Like blocks of rounded marble they stand Proud and stately in silent pose Their crumbly dough streaked with veins of blue Palate and tongue tingle with delight Lactescent,… Continue reading Roquefort by David Nutt

Chocolate Brownies with Salted Tahini Frosting

We eat with our eyes first and so it shouldn’t be such a surprise to say that the way I found Jennifer Farley was through her photography. Her sense of minimalist style mirrored my own desire to let the food speak for itself without much adornment. Last Fall, her cookbook The Gourmet Kitchen came out… Continue reading Chocolate Brownies with Salted Tahini Frosting

Poets in the Kitchen: Ewa Chrusciel

The Food Poet: Food & poetry have certain commonalities. How do you describe the poetry of food? Ewa Chrusciel: We are Infinite and we are made of our small cravings. Poetry of food implies that kind of contradiction and longing in us; the desire to belong; the desire to carry with us our childhood flavors.… Continue reading Poets in the Kitchen: Ewa Chrusciel

Ewa Chrusciel’s Contraband of Hoopoe

It’s not a difficult thing to think that at a poetry festival, you might hear a poem that piques your interest. It’s an entirely different thing to hear something– a way of offering words to a subject of already well-tilled ground in a fresh voice that makes you beeline to the bookfair area and snatch… Continue reading Ewa Chrusciel’s Contraband of Hoopoe

Roasted Carrot Finger Sandwiches

I’m psyching myself into making this year the best! year! ever! And, yet. In the first week of the New Year, a dear friend of mine called late enough one evening that her name flashing on my phone was foreboding. We’ve been swapping texts, doctor diagnoses, and the emojis that speak into the places we… Continue reading Roasted Carrot Finger Sandwiches

Kale Celery Root Soup

In the Bay area, if it dips under 60 degrees, we pull out the scarves and beanies. I’ve been donning my fingerless gloves for weeks and am wearing out my hoodie (hood up, thank you). Our place doesn’t have a working heater or a working fireplace though we have one of each. To stay warm… Continue reading Kale Celery Root Soup

Borscht Toast (Beet Caramelized Onion Toasties)

Gone are the days when I diligently jotted a note here letting you know about writerly goings-on elsewhere. But! My fondness for cabbage took an interesting foray into a letter I penned to that cruciferous vegetable, printed in Volume V of the New Guard. And so, I recently began musing about how wonderful Borscht never… Continue reading Borscht Toast (Beet Caramelized Onion Toasties)