Dave English's Outsider Cuisine

  A martini is a specific type of cocktail. Gin and dry vermouth, mixed 2:1, shaken, not stirred, and garnished with an olive. Replacing the olive with a pickled onion makes it a Gibson. Replacing any other ingredient makes it not a martini. A martini is not a drink for children or college students (who are really just big children). It's a cocktail for James Bond or my grandmother, rest her soul. I ordered a martini once, on my 40th birthday, served next to a wedge salad and a very large piece of meat. I was channeling my inner Don Draper. Honestly, I didn't care for the drink. But what bothers me more than the taste of a proper martini is the bastardization of the word "martini". I don't like that if I were to order a martini at Applebees, I'd be asked "what kind" and given a menu of 39 different boozed up sweet kiddie drinks, all calling themselves martinis. Ian Fleming must be rolling over in his grave.

  If you are under thirty, if arugula and microwave ovens have always been a fixture of your kitchen, then you may know Julia only as Meryl Streep's character in  Nora Ephron's final romantic comedy .  If you are of that younger generation, then you will not think of Julia Childs the way I do. I am old enough to remember my mom watching " The French Chef " while it was still in production, but I was too young at that age to appreciate Julia's cultural importance.  She popularized French cuisine in America during the 1960s.  She was the culinary educator who became a  ‘celebrity chef’ years before Food Network started grinding them out like little sausages.  While not my earliest memory of Julia, my most distinct impression of her is from touring her model kitchen in the basement of the  Smithsonian Museum of American History .  There, among other things, visitors can watch of a video of Julia Child making  mashed potatoes for six , with ...

Crepes or waffles have been a Saturday brunch tradition in our home for many years. The honey and black walnuts topping this plate are from our own yard. The eggs to make the crepe batter are also locally sourced.

 Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love the act of fellowship when family and friends gather around a table to share words of thanks for blessings of the past year. This year has given us a lot to be thankful for: we are hosting my parents for the first time in two years, all of us now vaccinated against Covid and safe to travel cross-country. As a public school teacher, I'm also thankful to have live students back in the classroom this year, returning from the hybrid/virtual model we've been teaching for more than a year. This Thanksgiving plate features roast turkey, glazed carrots, fresh cranberry/apple relish, mashed red bliss potatoes, creamed spinach with shallots, and gravy made from fresh pan drippings. This is just a small sampling of the bounty we prepared or was shared by others. One of the new recipes we included this year was a roast sweet potato puree with coconut milk and thai curry seasonings. The ceramic plate (in the photo above) is from a china set we ac...

  My wife and daughter are both vegetarians, who sometimes object to the smell of roasting meat from the oven. I eat less meat than most Americans, but I’m not a vegetarian, and I do enjoy the grilling process. Several years ago my wife bought me a charcoal fueled outdoor ceramic grill and I’ve hardly needed to cook meat indoors since. I’ve used this device to prepare traditional smoked meats like brisket, whole duck and prime rib, but I've also used it for more exotic applications like baking pizzas and boiling down maple sap into syrup. Here I’m smoking pork ribs from a local Amish farm. I use dry rub heavy in cumin and fennel, then baste in the last hour using house made BBQ sauce containing just a touch of horseradish. Later served for an Independence Day picnic.