Nothing says fall for me like chestnuts do. On my way to school as a first grader I filled my pockets with them on crisp October mornings, a habit I continued as an adult. Those were the inedible chestnuts from the horse chestnut tree, Aesculus hippocastanum.
The best moment for me was always taking the chestnuts out of their thick, fleshy burrs and let the cool fruit with a surface like polished mahogany slowly warm in my cusped hand. Continue reading
Unlike me, my husband does not enjoy cooking. His repertoire nonetheless includes two dishes where I yield the kitchen to him without hesitation: grilled cheese sandwiches and American pancakes. The emphasis is here on American because German pancakes are quite different, in ingredients and size, and they are also eaten at a different time of the day. Continue reading
Last April, Annette Ogrodnik-Corona, author of The New Ukrainian Cookbook, and I met for a German-Ukrainian cookout. Not long afterwards, Rinku Bhattacharya, author of The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles, also published by Hippocrene Books, contacted me. She liked the idea and wondered whether we could do something similar together. This developed into Hippocrene Books & Cooks, where five cookbook authors review each other’s books and blog about it. Continue reading
Spoonfuls of Germany 