Dining out or eating in the homes of friends and family, teaches me new techniques or ingredient combinations. They are dishes that send me home to develop my own spin, simplifying the creation if it’s complex, changing it just enough to make it approachable for home cooks without sacrificing flavor. Here are three of my 2014 FAVORITES (whittled down from…
Cathy Thomas Cooks
Cookbooks
Bittman’s lentil salad is delicious! No deprivation, honest! Mark Bittman is a part-time vegan. A columnist for the New York Times and author of the best-selling How To Cook Everything cookbooks, Bittman abstains from eating meat, dairy or processed foods until six every evening. Nix before six on alcohol, too. After six he eats what he likes, usually (but not…
Feel great, yes, and have loads of energy. And eat luscious dishes! Sounds great to me! And that’s the goal of my new book, “50 Best Plants on the Planet.” Perhaps the sub-title says it best: “The most nutrient dense fruits and vegetables in 150 recipes.” These fifty beauties are the most nutrient-dense, meaning that they have the highest vitamin…
Some of my foodie friends say that cupcakes are passé. They say that French macarons, or even whoopee pies, have taken treat-trend’s center stage. There is a grain of truth in their proclamations, but I still see giddy cupcake customers lining up to buy these oodles-of-frosting topped little cakes. Seductive? Yes, but I see them as practical, a way for…
I had a one-on-one interview with Martha before she taught a cooking class at Macy’s Home Store at South Coast Plaza. People magazine had their fifteen minutes before I had mine. Martha was promoting her newest book, “Martha’s Entertaining: A Year of Celebrations” by Martha Stewart (Clarkson Potter, $75, hardcover, 432 pages). I started our interview with a question about…
It was worth a little bad blood. Judging the Retro Baking Contest at the Orange County Fair gave me the luscious task of shoveling down spoonfuls of glorious homemade pies, everything from Peach n’ Berry to Deep Dish Plum, Sugar-Free Pumpkin Pecan to Old- Fashioned Cherry. Who can resist pie? It’s such a happy dessert, innocent and nostalgic. But my…
Butterscotch Budino with Caramel Sauce and Maldon Sea Salt … I could hardly wait. My mid-morning arrival was greeted with the cacophony of cooking. Entering Pizzeria Mozza in Newport Beach through the rear kitchen door, the preopening clatter of pots and knife-work blended with well-chosen words from busy workers. Freshly ground pork sausage formed an aromatic rope as it erupted…
I am unapologetic in my love of France. No tattoos adorn my body, but I suspect that a royal-blue fleur de lys insignia is branded on the surface of my heart. My time spent in Paris has fostered treasured memories, and that includes the revelry of Bastille Day celebrations. France celebrates Bastille Day on July 14, a date that marks…