by Christina Waters | Nov 30, 2011 | Food, Holidays, Home |
This was how the Magdalene must have felt, anointing the body with precious spices and elixirs, carefully wrapping it in clean linens before placing it in the cool dark place where it would wait—preserved and guarded—until its ultimate appointment with destiny.
As I watched my fruitcakes slowly cooling on their racks, the mythic significance suddenly hit me. Since the dawn of time, women’s hands had carefully wrapped such precious bodies—in some cases a dead loved one, in others a symbolic cake—the bearer of costly ingredients, memories and hopes for the future.
All such creations were intended to undergo a transformation. To wait until the moment when they would grace the center of the ceremonial table. I considered how many hearths, through how many centuries, had witnessed this preparation.
Mixing the ingredients of two bowls (there was just too much to manage in a single bowl) laden with chopped figs, (more…)
by Christina Waters | Nov 28, 2011 | Food, Home |
David Kinch – guru-in-charge of Manresa.
Read the GQ piece here.
Kudos David!
by Christina Waters | Nov 23, 2011 | Food, Holidays, Home |
When my sister and I were little, we would make the annual trek to Aunt Mariana and Uncle Doodle’s house for a holiday visit. Aunt Mariana would reach up high into her pantry and take down the fruitcake we were forced to eat each Christmas.
My sister and I would politely taste a forkful of this brown crumbly creation studded with eerily bright red and green fruits. We would take one bite and then cover the remaining bits with our napkins. Reading each other’s minds we would both think, “yes, but where’s the frosting?”
Children hate fruitcake. But many decades later, those early negative impressions were replaced by a romantic afternoon’s experience, on a rainy October day looking out over Lake Como, consuming the local fig and nut cake washed down by grappa. What a difference time (and grappa and a romantic companion) can make.
This season —after years of building a fan base on two coasts for my labor-intensive Christmas cookies—I’ve decided to wade into deeper, more mythic culinary territory. Yes, I’m making fruitcake this year. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Nov 23, 2011 | Food, Home |
Little did I know that I would grow up to consume a breakfast liquid that closely resembles industrial effluent, or rain forest mud mixed with compost.
But I do. And I love this stuff. It’s loaded with carrot, celery, cucumber, collard greens, kale and parsley. It’s organic. It’s delicious in a strange manner that quickly becomes addictive. Bursting with anti-oxidants, magnesium, lutein and other de rigueur minerals, this fabulous morning cocktail will positively eradicate all memories of mere orange juice.
Plus it helps balance your pH, which if I’m not mistaken is probably much more acidic than it should be. It runs somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 and it will change your attitude about waking up.
by Christina Waters | Oct 18, 2011 | Food, Home |
Actually, it could be about any packaged product on the market today. The incredible shrinking product.
It started with the size of the cardboard roll inside toilet paper rolls. The cardboard cylinder is noticeably (i.e. MUCH) wider in diameter than it used to be. This means the manufacturer can put less actual product (toilet paper) on the cardboard roll. BUT it will look the same size from the outside. It isn’t. It’s less toilet paper. More air, less product.
But I really went ballistic when (more…)
by Christina Waters | Oct 5, 2011 | Food, Home, Wine |
A recent vertical tasting of Le Cigare Volant—the Bonny Doon Vineyard flagship creation—showed off the evolving style, and substance, of vintage 1993 through 2009 of Randall Grahm’s main squeeze.
Incidentally the odd-numbered years showed especially well. Doubtless something astrological.
Also showing well was the handiwork of The Cellar Door‘s creative culinary team, especially in a gorgeous array of halibut cheeks, scallops and prawns with aioli, sumptuous cheese and fig platters and killer fig and Stilton pizzettas.
The loquacious winemaker, who walked us through the wine cellar interior for a sneak sip of 2010 and even infant 2011 vintages, was in top form. Those who haven’t been to the tasting room lately will want to pick up some of the gorgeous biodynamic produce (more…)
