April 2009 Archive

April 29, 2009

Tips for a Green Kitchen, Part II

As promised yesterday, when I announced the winners of the green kitchen tip contest, I have compiled a digest of the other submissions. I want to thank you all for taking the time to share your tips. It was an exciting feeling to have all 288 of them pour into my inbox throughout the day, proving yet again how much you care about these issues, an...

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April 28, 2009

Tips for a Green Kitchen, Part I

For my Earth Day post last week, I partnered with Eva from flip & tumble and asked you to help plant trees in Malawi, and to submit your best green tips for a chance to win a reusable shopping bag. Some 500 tree-planting comments were submitted. Eva and I had planned to have two trees planted per comment, but then we got excited and decided to dou...

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April 24, 2009

[Edible Idiom] Mettre de l'huile sur le feu

This is part of a series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food. Browse the list of idioms featured so far. This week's idiom is, "Mettre de l'huile sur le feu." Literally translated as, "putting oil on the fire," it means making a difficult situation even worse, exacerbating a conflict, often purposefully. It is equivalent to the ...

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April 22, 2009

Help Plant Trees + Enter to Win A Reusable Shopping Bag

Today is the 39th edition of Earth Day, an international event created to celebrate that blue planet of ours, and raise awareness about environmental issues. As I explained in this recent Q&A, I have grown more and more environmentally conscious over the past few years: without being completely obsessed with the topic, I do my best to educate myse...

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April 20, 2009

Swiss Chard Gratin with Vegan Bechamel

[Gratin de blettes] I generally steer clear of ready-made preparations and other "helpers" sold at the grocery store: not out of snobism, but I love to cook, I devote time and thought to selecting good ingredients, and I welcome the opportunity to practice and experiment, so I am reluctant to give up the driver's seat and let some industrial pro...

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April 17, 2009

[Edible Idiom] Tomber dans les pommes

This is part of a series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food. Browse the list of idioms featured so far. This week's idiom is, "Tomber dans les pommes." Literally translated as, "falling in the apples," it is a colloquial expression that means passing out, fainting, losing consciousness. Example: "Le métro était tellement bondé...

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April 14, 2009

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've always enjoyed the food sections of American newspapers, these pull-out pages that appear in the regular edition on a given day of the week (usually Wednesday) to cover local food and drink news, with recipes. Not all of them have the same standards or budget, and I am told the good ones are an endangered species, but between the Seattle Tim...

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April 10, 2009

[Edible Idiom] En faire tout un flan

This is part of a series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food. Browse the list of idioms featured so far. This week's idiom is, "En faire (tout) un flan." Literally translated as, "making a (whole) flan out of it," it is a colloquial expression that means making a big deal out of something insignificant, blowing something out of ...

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April 7, 2009

Lamb and Orange Khoresh

I know little about Persian cuisine. I do know it is a multifaceted one, that its flavors are refined and its roots run deep, but I have never been to an Iranian restaurant nor an Iranian home -- though now that I think about it, one of the Middle Eastern groceries we went to in California may have been Iranian -- so this Persian stew (that's wha...

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April 3, 2009

[Edible Idiom] Ne pas être dans son assiette

This is part of a series on French idiomatic expressions that relate to food. Browse the list of idioms featured so far. This week's idiom is, "Ne pas être dans son assiette." Literally translated as, "not being in one's plate," it is a colloquial expression that means feeling under the weather, being out of sorts, physically and/or morally. E...

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April 1, 2009

April 2009 Desktop Calendar

At the beginning of every month in 2009, I will be offering C&Z readers a new desktop calendar, i.e. a wallpaper to apply on the desktop of your computer, with a food-related picture and a calendar of the current month. Our desktop calendar for April is a picture of a cheese plate served at Le Pré Catelan, a restaurant whose cheese is aged by ch...

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