SpiceLines

A baker's dozen: The 13 delectable books in SpiceLines annual giveaway span the globe, from Paris to India, Morocco to New Mexico. And for the first time, there are Moleskines and notebooks for recipe storage.

At last!

This is my favorite day of the entire year: SpiceLines annual book giveaway. For 2012 there are some particularly tasty offerings. Most but not all are cookbooks. There’s also a stellar foodie biography, a Paris guide, and a charmingly illustrated style book by a well-known fashion designer.

Not to mention a couple of Moleskines, which, most grievously, are too organized for me to use. But they might be exactly what you’ve been longing for.

My gift? Shelf space for all those cookbooks I got for Christmas, and the chance to hear from you.

Here’s how it works: Send your first and second choices, along with your mailing address, to spicelinesatgmaildotcom. If you’re first to request a particular book, I’ll let you know by return email and send it to you by media mail. Practically effortless. But don’t delay: Most books are snapped up right away.

I’m unplugging for a week, so you won’t hear from me till next weekend. In the meantime, enjoy!

Continue reading "SpiceLines 4th Annual Cookbook Giveaway: Julia Child, Julie Sahni and A Tiger in the Kitchen; Moleskine Journals" »

Another way to make the most of winter: Taking a pause with a cup of violet tea, a few raspberries and a good book. The Annual Cookbook Giveaway is just around the corner.

It’s the golden hour.

Four o’clock and the afternoon winter sun streams through the library windows. As its pale light glances off the walls, it turns warm and luminous, gilding the room with a dazzling hue.

It’s time for la pause. Time to curl up on the sofa with a good book and, today, a cup of violet-scented tea. Its old-fashioned perfume evokes the memory of a palace hotel in Lisbon, where the scent of the flower hung faintly in air, as if a marquesa had just turned the corner, trailing violets in her wake.

This is the kind of sensory escape I adore when taking a break from all things digital, including, I must confess, a foray into the odiously addictive Twitter.

And since this is la pause gourmande, there are raspberries to eat. Why? A ripe raspberry tastes, quite simply, of the flower. This “violet-like note,” says Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking, comes “from caretenoid fragments called ionones.” More than you want to know, I imagine. The flavor echoes are heavenly, though.

If the raspberries aren’t sweet enough, a sprinkle of powdered sugar will balance the acidity.

In a few days, SpiceLines will launch the 4th Annual Cookbook Giveaway. (Here's a look at last year's contest.) There are some delicious books coming your way. Another treat for making the most of winter.

Keep watching. It’s coming soon!

Winter pleasures: A crackling fire, a green and white azalea, and daydreams of nothing much at all. When you're hungry, there's a savory vegetable tagine simmering in the kitchen.

How do you make the most of winter?

Oh, I know: It’s tempting to defy it. To head south where turquoise water laps white sand beaches. To fill grey rooms with pots of riotous tulips and hyacinths. To wear bright colors as a talisman against the darkness.

But, we could make the most of winter.

This is the season for stillness. For silence after the delirious cacophony of the holidays. For stepping deliberately off the merry go round. For slowing down so we can see more clearly. For unplugging so we can dream our own dreams. No chattering, no glowing screens, no distractions.

Philippe Starck, the prolific cutting edge designer, told Pico Iyer how he stays ahead of the curve. “’I never read any magazines or watch TV,’ he said....‘Nor do I go to cocktail parties, dinners or anything like that.’ He lived outside conventional ideas," Iyer wrote, "because ‘I live alone mostly, in the middle of nowhere.’” (See “The Joy of Quiet,” The New York Tiimes, January 1, 2012)

So let’s take a moment to embrace the stillness of this cold, goose-pimpled season. Right now I'm nestling…

Continue reading "Making the Most of Winter: Fireside Dreams, and a Squash Tagine with Fire-Roasted Peppers and Black Olives" »

Pears poached in red wine with black pepper, cinnamon, star anise and other spices can satisfy dessert cravings when you're on the austerity diet. Sort of....

OK, I admit it. The austerity diet of 2012 is fully operational—and I hate it.

Farewell to the creamy pots au chocolat, crisp and buttery gingersnaps, rich lemon tarts, and the late, lamented New Orleans pecan cakes saturated with 5,000 calories worth of sugar-shock-inducing toffee sauce.

Now it’s about oatmeal cooked in water, quinoa and swiss chard for lunch, longing glances at the banks of Scharffenberger chocolate at the grocery store. And no dessert to reward the virtuous eater.

That’s where fruit comes in. Not, sadly, spiced apples oozing butter, brown sugar and chopped walnuts, but fresh apples, clementines and pears.

Especially pears.

Winter is the season for pears. I love slicing a ripe Comice and spreading its sweet, silken flesh with tangy goat cheese. And the Concorde, a British cross between the Comice and Conference pears, has the Comice’s succulence and the Conference’s elongated neck. Excellent with a handful of toasted walnuts.

But when I can’t stand the austerity any longer and visions of chocolate bars bombard my crumbling willpower, I divert and make poached pears for dessert.

Continue reading "Something Sweet: Pears Poached in Red and White Wine with Black Peppercorns, Cinnamon and Rosemary" »

How real are nutmeg's hallucinogenic properties? Here nutmeg fruit, freshly plucked from the tree, opens to reveal scarlet mace covering the nut's shiny brown shell. When dried, mace becomes pale orange.

“Stock up on nutmeg,” said Kathryn as she handed me a neatly folded clipping. “The price is about to go up.”

In “My Nutmeg Bender” (The Atlantic Monthly, January-February, 2012, p. 31), writer Wayne Curtis says that nutmeg is “enjoying something of a revival in the craft cocktail world.” But the spice’s affinity for punches and eggnogs may not be the only reason that savvy bartenders have added nutmeg graters to their arsenal of cocktail tools.

Curtis’s research into nutmeg revealed that it has a “psychoactive element called myristicin, whose chemical structure shares similarities with mescalin, amphetamine and ecstasy.” In other words, ingesting the spice is another way to get high.

This is not exactly a new discovery. As far back in the 12th century, a Benedictine abbess named Hildegard of Bingen wrote about nutmeg’s "mind-altering effects." (In Physica, she gave a recipe for spice cookies containing nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves and said that eating them often "will make your spirit happy.")

But really, how potent is nutmeg? To find out, Curtis ate 1-1/2 tablespoons of the grated spice....

Continue reading "Spice News: Is Nutmeg a Hallucinogen? Pepper and Cinnamon Prices Shoot Upwards" »

New Year's resolutions are easier over a cup of detox tea from Morocco. Made of nine mostly familiar herbs like lemon verbena and mint, it's a delicious way to soothe the ravages of the holiday season--and it's simple to make at home.

No more laundry lists. You know: Twenty-seven (or more) resolutions that you absolutely must keep in 2012. A giant, overarching to-do list with impossible ambition written into every word.

I blush when I look back at some of my old lists. All well-intentioned, but forgotten by, oh, February. And how about the sense of disbelief when you run across them in the fall? Did I really intend to do that? Seriously?

So this year I’m keeping it simple. Yes, I must get back to yoga class, cut down on the bourbon, and lose enough weight to zip that one-size-too-small Chloe chiffon skirt (just had to have it) all the way up.

But my real resolutions are different. Here are the five that I absolutely positively will keep in 2012.

Continue reading "A Cup of Moroccan Detox Tea and 5 Simple Resolutions for 2012" »

In Asia mandarin oranges symbolizing good fortune and abundance are often presented as New Year’s gifts to family and friends. The sweet juice is delicious with champagne.

In China and much of Asia, the mandarin orange is a popular New Year’s symbol of good fortune and abundance. Like the golden orb of the sun, this radiant fruit, often bestowed on loved ones, evokes the dawning of a new day. Old ills and travails are left behind as bright hopes are launched for the future.

In the ancient Teochew dialect, the fruit is called gik, which resembles the word for “luck” or “fortune”. It’s said that in Malaysia and Singapore, unmarried women write their phone numbers on the skin of the oranges and toss them into a river or lake. Single men pluck the fruit from the water and eat it—but bad fortune awaits the man who bites into a sour mandarin.

Chinese New Year celebrations won’t begin for a couple of weeks, but around here, as the battered old year limps to a close, we’ll be greeting 2012 with a glass of bubbly poured over the luscious juice of mandarin oranges. May the coming days be filled with sweetness and joy, and may your dearest wishes come true.