Cookbook open (if using one), ingredients lined up in pretty dishes, food cooling on the counter, a requisite glass of some sort of white wine (other cocktails are best suited for Saturday dispatches from the test kitchen), and a golden stream of sunlight through the window.
Hovering in the wings is a sneaky, black dog who is poised for quick counter theft if and when the humans leave the room.
Never! Her attempts are thwarted as she is always forced to leave the room with us and we close the door to the kitchen. I learned that lesson long ago.
I am currently smitten with Mad Hungry: Recipes and Strategies for Feeding Men and Boys by Lucinda Scala Quinn. The book is pictured in this photo. I was making my chicken broth and her recipe for cream cheese pie crusts, chicken pot pie, and apple crisp. Another dispatch, another day.
I am interviewing Lucinda next week in San Francisco and may have to hug her out of sheer joy because her book is so spot on when it comes to being a mom to and cooking for boys. And the stories about her sons made me tear up.
