Food Friday: Tailgating
This is an updated version of a column from last year. Mr. Sanders and I took a little time away last week, and enjoyed a short trip to New England – just in time for the gloriously wet and windy Nor’easter. We had to bundle up in sweaters and slickers as we walked and explored. […]
Food Friday: Fall Cabbage
Welcome to fall! After this past week of unseasonable warm fall weather it might actually be time to put away the shorts and flip flops, close the windows, find the favorite sweaters, and think about a few fresh meal plans before we get caught up in the confusion and mayhem of planning Thanksgiving travel and […]
Food Friday: Hints of Fall
Schools are back in session. The nests have emptied. I have seen a hint of bronze edging along the green in the dogwood leaves. The autumn clematis has swept over the mailbox in a wave of white blossoms. It is still summer, technically, until Tuesday, at 8:05 PM, EDT, but I think we can embrace […]
Food Friday: Apple Cider Doughnuts
The Spy Test Kitchens have been enjoying a breath of fresh fall air. We have flown the coop for a few days, so this is a column from our own Way Back Machine. The days have been beautiful with bright azure skies, brisk zephyr breezes, and I can see a change in the light when […]
Food Friday: Bring on the Pumpkin Spices
I had an epiphany standing in the grocery store the other day. I had just added the weekly allotment of cheap white wine to the cart, and was pausing for all the tennis mommies zipping past me by the dairy case. I gazed slack-jawed at an enormous display of Halloween candy. Apparently people here take […]
Food Friday: The Party’s Over
That’s it — summer is over. School has started. There are no more happy, gritty trips to the beach. No more precious vacation days left. There is a school bus leaving our neighborhood these mornings as I stand in the yard, watering the crispy hydrangeas. The sun is setting earlier, and rising later, though it’s […]
Food Friday: Back to School!
I loved anticipating the first day of school: new shoes, new notebooks, new pencils, and a pristine box of 64 still-pointy, and memorably aromatic crayons. I never remembered my crippling anxiety about remembering my locker combination. Or tearing down flights of stairs to the gym, and back up again for algebra. I never thought about […]
Food Friday: Zucchini Time 2026
Welcome to the longest, hottest, stinkiest summer on record! Mr. Sanders and I drove to Boone, North Carolina for a few days of cooler weather earlier this week. It was delightful to suddenly realize that wearing a sweater could improve our summer-sour-puss outlook on life. We enjoyed a couple of 65° mornings, light sweaters, fabulous […]
Food Friday: Seize the Summer
Judging by the articles and photos that the algorithm is serving up to me, the hottest summer on record is over. It’s time to chuck all the pretty cotton block-printed textiles, and go shopping for cozy dark velvets and comfortable corduroys. It’s almost fall, and shouldn’t I start thinking about Halloween decorations? It is […]
Food Friday: Peak Peaches
Tomorrow is the start of National Peach Month, but if you look at the New York Times, July has also been a busy time for peach recipes. July 27th brought us Halloumi, Peach and Cucumber Spoon Salad, July 17th Broiled Peaches With Feta and Pistachios was published, July 15th encouraged us to produce Salad Is […]