Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

This is the time of year when our fruit and vegetable markets and our Farmers? Markets have a plentitude of ripe Fuyu persimmons. If you don?t know what I?m referring to, the Fuyu is the firm, apple-like persimmon that has great flavor when you bite into it. Years ago, when I moved to Vallejo, I [...]

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A Couple of Bean Dips: For a lot of people, beans have a bad rep. In their minds, they fear that the beans would create stinky gasses that would embarrass them. In fact, for some of us, this might occur, but the other positive aspect of eating beans is that they are a wonderful, healthy [...]

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[tag]Shepherd?s Pie[/tag] is an old English way of putting together a meal without too much fuss, or spending too much time getting dinner together. I learned about it many years ago when I was living with my friend Philip Sansome in London. Philip was a good cook in addition to being a great artist and [...]

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At the time I began cooking, couscous was included in my diet. When I was living in Berkeley, I found it easily available in markets. I have a great memory engraved in my head of a time when I and my companion, Marilyn, decided to take a wandering trip through Italy. We took along my [...]

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Last night I finished off the last of my cookies, so this column is preceding my going down to the kitchen to bake myself another batch. I tend not to pig out on sweets, but from time to time I get the urge to have a glass of Chianti accompanied by either my biscotti or [...]

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I don?t think that I had ever eaten leeks until the early 1970?s when I was staying in London with a close friend of mine, Phillip Sansom. I n addition to his being a talented artist and writer, Phillip was also a good cook. I remember coming back to the house one evening when Phillip [...]

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A couple of weeks ago I was visited by some old friends. After a long day of communicating, I asked them if they would like me to make them a bit of supper for us all. They said, ?Sure.? So I dove into my refrigerator to see what I could come up with. I my [...]

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A lot of people I know won?t eat okra. They have difficulty dealing with the internal liquid of the okra. I?ve never had this problem and when okra is in season, it becomes one of the staples of my diet. I?ve experimented with a number of different ways of preparing it. One of my favorites [...]

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Autumn is here and with its arrival, I begin to think of [tag]soup[/tag]. For me, I don?t think I get much more pleasure at dinner time than having a tasty hearty bowl of soup with a chunk of my home baked bread. Much of the time, that and a good salad will suffice for me. [...]

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Instead of giving you another of my recipes this week, I decided to talk about one of the most extraordinary groups of restaurants that I have ever patronized. There are five [tag]Il Fornaio restaurants[/tag] in the [tag]Bay Area[/tag]. They?re in Burlingame, Corte Madera, Palo Alto San Francisco, and Walnut Creek. Alas, I wish there were [...]

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Sole Munierre? Maybe I think perhaps last week?s column on Ris de Veau pulled my head back to the times I spent in France. The other day, I decided to make myself one of my favorite dinners, one that I hadn?t made for a long time now; sole munierre. But alas, I found that I [...]

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I may be throwing a curve at you with this recipe, for it came to me many years ago when I was living in Paris and hadn?t yet become vegequarian. I was most fortunate at that time for the wonderful, talented, French friends that I had. My dear friend Collette taught me how to make [...]

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This old [tag]recipe[/tag] of mine came into my mind this last week because in my kitchen garden, the green beans have begun to come in. This is a simple but tasty dish and easy to prepare. 1 lb. green beans 1 medium onion, chopped 4 or 5 cloves garlic, minced 3 to 5 green jalape?os, [...]

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Unlike the sea scallops, the large meaty ones, the small bay scallops are usually relatively inexpensive. Yet they have good flavor and lend themselves to preparation in any way you wish. My favorite way of preparing them is to use them as a basis for a pasta sauce, thus covering my basic food needs. So [...]

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You may remember the recipes I gave some time ago for Portuguese soups. So here is a [tag]Portuguese bread recipe[/tag] that will go well with them. It?s relatively easy and simple to make. 1 Tbsp. active dry yeast 1 tsp sugar 1/4 cup warm water 1 1/2 cups corn meal 1 tsp salt 1/4 cup [...]

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