Pie fans want no substitutes on the big day

November 19, 2008

On Thanksgiving, the pies are plural, and that reason alone makes the day the best holiday of the year.

Recent columns

• Carving turkey can be electric experience

  November 12, 2008

  For most guys, Thanksgiving is the day we have a tango with a turkey, an exercise known as carving the bird. Every year as the big meal approaches, I get the urge to buy an electric knife. This would be a purchase fueled by nostalgia, not culinary motives.

• Polishing off last of tomatoes

  November 5, 2008

  Late-season tomatoes are a difficult sell. They are not gorgeous. Spotty, misshapen, with fissures on their skin, they would be described, if they were children, as having faces that only their mothers could love.

• Seasoned oysters wrapped in bacon: what a grand union

  October 29, 2008

  As soon as weather forecasters mention "frost on the pumpkin," I crave oysters.

• Marcella Hazan and her muses

  October 22, 2008

  She was an immigrant, uncertain of her English, marooned all day in a New York apartment while her husband was at work. So, by paging through an old Italian cookbook and by tapping an "intuitive understanding" of Italian food, she taught herself to cook. That is how Marcella Hazan, 84, describes the beginnings of her highly successful career as the cookbook author who became known as the queen of Italian cooking in America.

• Cassoulet has its day

  October 15, 2008

  I was surprised by the number of people, a little more than 100, who had gathered to eat cassoulet.

• For some, old apples outshine new

  October 8, 2008

  If you are trying to broaden your appreciation of apples, pick something old, not new.

• Pass the pretzels

  October 1, 2008

  With a slew of Oktoberfest beers chilling in my fridge, the notion of making my own pretzels seemed awfully appealing.

• Mighty good chicken

  September 24, 2008

  It may not be a Maryland fried chicken that can trace its lineage back to the arrival of the Ark and the Dove, to the beginnings of our state. But it sure tastes good.

• Pizza on the grill

  September 10, 2008

  There are two ways to grill a pizza - you can take the delectable path or the incinerated route. I've traveled both.

• Baltimore's farmers' markets become trendy, pricey

  September 3, 2008

  I want my market back.

• Ahh, September

  August 27, 2008

  What is the best month to chow down in Maryland?

• 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.

• 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?"