cooks

Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks.

Writing is a lot like making soup. My subconscious cooks the idea, but I have to sit down at the computer to pour it out.

Many a death was precipitated by the food, the job, or the medication whose main function was to postpone it.

Cooking is not a science but an art, mistakes are okay, messes are fine__he pleasure is in the creating and the sharing of the result.

I still have my little red hardcover notebook__pine now held in place by packing tape, pages dotted with cooking stains__illed with her loving instructions for mandelbrot, nut cake, and strudel.

Nana__ oven-baked fried chicken cut off the bone (with plenty of ketchup) was a huge hit. So were Thanksgiving turkey bathed in gravy and Nana__ Passover brisket

No matter our age, everyone in our household knows that cooking and eating together is where the fun is

I would follow my mother around the kitchen watching and trying to find any way to help. One of the first dishes my mother taught me to make was hollandaise sauce. Though she always served it with broccoli, I soon realized it was equally delicious with asparagus, artichokes, or any other vegetable.

But my favorite remained the basic roast chicken. What a deceptively simple dish. I had come to believe that one can judge the quality of a cook by his or her roast chicken. Above all, it should taste like chicken: it should be so good that even a perfectly simple, buttery roast should be a delight.