cynthiabertelsen

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Terrific Book for Ocean Lovers

I recently read Shelby van Pelt’s sensitive and informative book about octopuses, Remarkably Bright Creatures. Word on the street is that Netflix is making a film based on the book. Adobe Stock image Oh goodie! Ever since I watched “My Octopus Teacher,” I have been fascinated by octopuses. And I will no longer eat their flesh. This summer, why don’t you head to a library, a bookstore, or…

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Happy Thoughts During Dark Times

One good thing about living a relatively long life is all the memories that bubble up when I least expect them. And lately I’ve been dipping into my vast reservoir of memories like a man overboard in a violent storm. At times, I envy the man overboard: he sees what’s beneath the storm. Many years ago, I lived in La Lima, Honduras, the research headquarters of what used to be known as the United…

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Things that Create Happiness: 1

A large selection of different French and Italian cheeses on the counter of a small store at the market in the Bastille district. Paris, France (Adobe Stock image) Note: I am trying to maintain a sense of optimism even as I watch my beloved country descend into chaos. And so I am limiting my writing to my new book, A Kitchen Library: The Romance of Reading and Cooking, due in December 2025.

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From Ukrainian Kitchens: The Cuisine of a Beleaguered, Independent Nation

Serfdom, world wars, collectivism, famine, invasion, Sovietization — all these historically threatened Ukrainian kitchens with the loss of traditional dishes and culinary rituals. Once again, Ukraine faces extremely challenging days as Russia and the U.S. have formed an alliance. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is eager to swallow up Ukraine and force it to become subservient to the Russian…

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Deep Blue Seas and Ancient Olive Trees: Cooking Mediterranean

Books tend to take me to places where I might never, ever go in real life. Such as Soviet Russia at the height of the Cold War. Or even places I could never visit, as much as I might want to. Or even not want to! Think a banquest in Apicius‘s ancient Rome or the deck of the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés’s ship, the Caravel. Because of Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s 1568 tome, The True History…

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The Kitchen Library

In these days of unrest, I find myself turning to things that always sustain me when life becomes overwhelming: reading and cooking. And thus I also find myself writing a new book. The Kitchen Library: Why Reading and Cooking Feed So Many Hungers will not be available for some time, but here’s the nostalgic front cover, portraying my favorite place: a kitchen filled with books as well as pots…

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Joy of Cooking, or, Escaping the Deluge

Adobe Stock image With politics these days reminding me of demagoguery and dictatorship, I turned to my copies of Joy of Cooking for something very different: escapism. Cooking offers me a way to flee the outside world. So, I decided to bake Buttermilk Potato Rolls. Pure joy, pure delight. If I could own only one cookbook, it would be the 2019 version of Joy. It’s inclusive and chock full of…

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Spooning Up Mustard, Thick as Tewksbury

“The seede of Mustard pounded with vinegar is an excellent sauce, good to be eaten with any gross meates, either fish or flesh…“ – John Gerard, Herbal or General History of Plants, 1597 American ballpark mustard–that tart, yellow, unctuous friend of hamburgers and hot dogs–does not define prepared or “table” mustard. Oh no, indeed not. In fact, the diversity of possible mustards boggles the…

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BRONX VANILLA: A Celebration of Garlic

“And we, most dear actors, eat no onions or garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath.” -William Shakespeare- A Midsummer Night’s Dream Garlic (allium sativum), or the “truffle of Provence” as some wags have it, is a much maligned vegetable. I know, my mother refused to use more than a smidgen in any recipe. Much like Mrs. Beeton in her Book of Household Management, Mom just plain didn’t…

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Thrashing Time: Cooking Up a Storm for the Threshers

Farming is not a romantic occupation. In spite of pastoral memoirs like Tim Stark’s Heirloom and Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, the reality of farming means backbreaking work and early mornings, poor harvests and lots of worry as Mother Nature hurls hail at a field of ripe corn. But it’s not hard to feel a bit of nostalgia for the food, especially at…

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A Little Pocket of Norway

In the beginning, the trolls and the lutefisk kind of threw me for a loop, but the rest of it all enchanted me. A long time ago, while serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in a tiny Paraguayan village, I fell in love with a Norwegian-American farmboy from a small town in Wisconsin. And I fell for his hometown, Holmen, too. A place where the older people still spoke Norwegian and a Fargo-like…

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Monkey Bread, But It’s Not What You Think: Baobabs – Africa’s Upside-Down "Cream of Tartar" Trees

They carried me to a particular spot where I saw a herd of antelopes; but I laid aside all thoughts of sports, as soon as I I perceived a tree of prodigious thickness, which drew my attention. This was a calabash tree (baobab), which the Jaloffes call quol in their language. There was nothing extraordinary in its height; for it was only about fifty feet; but its trunk was of prodigious thickness.…

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BARBECUE = BARBARIC? A SHORT, SUCCINCT HISTORY

The All-American favorite cooking method, “barbecue,” sounds uncannily like “barbarism.” When warm nights and hotter days rev up cooks’ tempers as summer suddenly seems interminable, cooks turn to the trusty (and maybe rusty) BBQ grill and primal techniques of searing meat over an open flame. Age-old these methods are, indeed. And frankly barbaric, to the Western mind anyway. Even if there is no…

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The REAL Fish‑and‑Chips (and Lost Relatives, Too!)

Traditional fish and chips Britain’s national dish is no longer bloody roasted beef, but rather fish‑and‑chips: batter‑fried fish and French fries, that is. Without fish‑and‑chips, eaten by millions of Englishmen everyday, the British economy would probably plummet and the national health care service grapple with more heart patients, no doubt. But fish‑and‑chips must be done just so in order to…

[cynthiabertelsen]

The REAL Fish‑and‑Chips (and Lost Relatives, Too!)

Traditional fish and chips Britain’s national dish is no longer bloody roasted beef, but rather fish‑and‑chips: batter‑fried fish and French fries, that is. Without fish‑and‑chips, eaten by millions of Englishmen everyday, the British economy would probably plummet and the national health care service grapple with more heart patients, no doubt. But fish‑and‑chips must be done just so in order to…

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The Metamorphosis of Italian Cooking in America: The Myth and the Reality

Typical Italian-American dishes that one will not find on menus in Italy:   Stuffed ShellsPenne Alla Vodka Spaghetti w/Garlic and Oil Penne Ala Bolognese Baked Ziti Pasta and Broccoli Pasta Primavera Macaroni and Cheese Fettuccine Alfredo Vegetable Lasagna Chicken Cutlet Parmigiana Chicken Francese Chicken Cacciatore Cheesecake Italian Rum Cake     And the litany of differences…

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Soup Dreams

Leek Soup “Soo-oop of the e-e-evening,Beautiful, beautiful Soup!” –Mock Turtle– Alice in Wonderland I’m dreaming of soup, even though the weatherman says 80 degrees if we’re lucky. How a person want soup when she is sopping wet and sweating from the steamy pea-soup fog thickening the air? Bean Soup Soup is a comforting food, symbolizing love and security. An ill stomach heals with light…