The Crabby Cook - by Jessica Harper

I promised you a recipe for cherry salad and here it is. George Washington could not possibly have eaten this with those wooden teeth of his. Or were those dentures also a figment of the imagination of a parson named Weems? (See the section of this blog devoted to the first G.W.).

CHERRY SALAD

¾ pound cherries, pitted (I know it’s a pain. Live it up and buy a pitter.)
¼ c. dried cherries Read More

Now that Hillary and Barack have stopped accusing each other of cherry-picking, it’s time to switch topics from politics to the fruit in question. They’re only here for a few more weeks (the cherries, not the candidates), so get ’em while you can.

In the interest of preserving some cherries before their season ends, I listened to a radio chef talking about making cherry jam. I got very enthused for a good twenty seconds and then I came to my senses. Read More

When I’m desperate (5pm, no idea what’s for dinner), my default plan is to roast a chicken. Nobody doesn’t like roast chicken, which makes it a Miracle Food in a house like mine which is full of picky people. You throw it in the oven and then you’ve got an hour to figure out what you’re going to serve with it, or to address more compelling tasks, like making a martini.

I have to resist the temptation to serve this every day, it’s such comfort food. Just ask my fat dog Oliver, who made off with last week’s chicken when my back was turned, and had a smile on his face even after the verbal abuse. Read More