Drops in a bucket

June 28, 2008

If you're looking to be more green this summer, or if at least you'd like your garden to be, a rain barrel could be the solution.

Recent columns

• Berries work their magic

  June 25, 2008

  The raw lime tasted like candied fruit. The slice of naked grapefruit was, I would have sworn, drenched in brown sugar. The dill pickle tasted sweet initially, but it packed a surprisingly hot finish. The Guinness tasted like chocolate malt.

• New way to enjoy young radishes

  June 18, 2008

  On a recent sweltering Sunday morning, I prowled the farmers' market in downtown Baltimore looking for something interesting to take home and fix for lunch. There were a lot of flowers and radishes for sale. While I know you can eat flowers - I once had a terrific salad flecked with nasturtiums at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif. - I leaned toward the radishes.

• Learning new tricks for old grills

  June 11, 2008

  As Father's Day approached, I looked for new grilling tricks that a smoky old dad, a fan of live fires, might employ. Leafing through a slew of new grilling books and testing recipes, I found several.

• Matchups worth savoring: fine food with craft beers

  June 4, 2008

  Matching fine food with craft beer is, I have been told, the next big thing. This is one trend I do not want to miss.

• From an accidental nick in garden, you can get a salad dressing

  May 28, 2008

  It was a salad that got started by mistake.

• Eating rhubarb to support locally grown food campaign

  May 14, 2008

  Any day that starts off with a bowl of rhubarb is, in my opinion, one headed in the right direction.

• Green facts are hazy for grillers

  May 7, 2008

  As someone who enjoys cooking in the great outdoors, albeit a rowhouse backyard, I wondered about the environmental impact of firing up my barbecue cooker.

• Green reigns at others' gardens

  April 30, 2008

  Inspired by Earth Day, I biked to my community garden plot and searched for something leafy to put on the dinner table.

• Turning to chef for grill ideas

  April 23, 2008

  During the dark winter months, I visited my backyard kettle grill about once a week, usually clad in a thick coat and armed with a flashlight.

• Ballpark food in D.C. tops fare here

  April 16, 2008

  This hurts to admit, but their ballpark food is better than ours.

• Getting ready to roll

  April 12, 2008

  On sunny spring days, I feel the urge to wheel my bicycle out of winter storage and go riding. Recently I wondered, however, if my old bike was in shape for a new season.

• Leeks suggest flavors of spring

  April 9, 2008

  Every once in a while, you cook a dish that captures the essence of the season. That happened to me recently when I made tarragon chicken breasts with leeks.

• Trans-fat ban has bakery worried

  April 2, 2008

  Flour and worry were in the air one recent morning at Hoehn's Bakery in East Baltimore as Louis Sahlender and Sharon Hoehn Hooper prepared sheets of raspberry tarts for the oven.

• Holiday sips: The joy flows

  December 5, 2007

  Giving the gift of alcohol can be tricky. You have to be reasonably certain that the recipients enjoy imbibing. You should have a rough idea of their tastes, and know that they are over 21 years old. Then there is the matter of money. How much do you want to spend on these people?

• Thankful for those leftovers

  November 21, 2007

  Tomorrow, as I dig into the roast turkey, the corn-bread stuffing, the hominy casserole, the mashed potatoes and gravy, I also will be thinking about how good these dishes will taste at the many eating opportunities stretched over the weekend.

• Beyond wine for holiday dinner

  November 14, 2007

  Once you have answered the sticky Thanksgiving questions - what type of turkey stuffing and what set of relatives you are going to spend the day with - the next issue to solve is, what are you going to be sipping?

• Crunch time: Crisp critters prove hard to swallow

  May 19, 2004

  THE KEY TO enjoying cooked cicadas -- if that is possible -- is to eat them with your eyes closed.

• These events leave a cloud over our city

  July 21, 2001

  IHAVE NOT had much luck thinking up a new slogan for Baltimore. But after the events of this week, I do have a new candidate for the city's mascot. That would be Joe Bfstplk the Li'l Abner comic strip character who walked around with a rain cloud over his head. Joe Bfstplk was a human jinx, wherever he went, calamity followed.

• Toning down thoughts on phone repair

  February 17, 2001

  TRYING TO FIX a telephone these days is frustrating.

• 'A piece of the action' makes things a bit nutty

  February 7, 2001

  THE SIEGE OF the pine nuts began a few weeks ago, shortly after we got a late-night phone call from James "Buzzy" Cusack, a friend and neighbor. Buzzy said something like " Psssst, wanna buy some pine nuts?"