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According to social media it is National Eggnog Day (not a real thing), so...
Hopefully everyone is happy and with loved ones and friends during these holidays–and what better way to show love and fellowship than sharing a draught of delicious eggnog (alternately, the sad and...
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Roberto Bolaño’s Recipe for Brussels Sprouts with Lemon
In Roberto Bolaño’s sprawling opus 2666 (specifically, in “The Part About Fate”), founding member of the Black Panthers/cookbook author Barry Seaman offers the following recipe during a lecture at a...
View ArticleRoberto Bolaño’s Brussels Sprouts with Lemon
In Roberto Bolaño’s sprawling opus 2666 (specifically, in “The Part About Fate”), founding member of the Black Panthers/cookbook author Barry Seaman offers the following recipe during a lecture at a...
View ArticleGordon Lish’s Chicken Soup Recipe
Get lost for two hours. Go read Jacques Derrida or the like, something to break your brain on and convince you that mind is nothing in the comfort department compared to the things of the spirit, which...
View ArticleHerman Melville’s Whale Steaks
In Chapter LXIV of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, Stubb, second mate of the Pequod, demands whale steaks for dinner. He’s not happy with how the cook has prepared the steaks though, complaining they are...
View ArticleJames Joyce’s Burnt Kidney Breakfast
Another entry in our ongoing series of literary recipes to celebrate Thanksgiving. Leopold Bloom, hero of James Joyce’s Ulysses likes kidneys for breakfast. In fact– Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish...
View ArticleThomas Pynchon’s Banana Breakfast
At the beginning of Thomas Pynchon’s massive tome Gravity‘s Rainbow, Captain Geoffrey “Pirate” Prentice cooks up a bodacious banana breakfast for a bunch of hungover army officers— Routine: plug in...
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Zora Neale Hurston’s Mulatto Rice
At the beginning of Zora Neale Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, Janie returns from the Everglades to Eatonville in ragged overalls to a gossipy and unwelcoming town. The one exception is...
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Omelette à la Alma | Phantom Thread riff
Rambling Preamble Phantom Thread (2017) is the eighth feature film by writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson. I have been a fan of Anderson’s work since I saw Boogie Nights (1997) in my freshman year...
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Blog about my aunt’s recipe for oven rice
Ten or twelve years ago my aunt, who is the best home cook I can think of and who has made some of the best meals I have ever eaten, shared her recipe for oven rice for me. This is not a complex...
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Blog about making a sherry cobbler, a cocktail I read about in a Nathaniel...
In the final third of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1852 novel The Blithedale Romance, the narrator, having departed the titular would-be utopian farm, enjoys some city time in a hotel. He takes a voyeuristic...
View ArticleMother Lish’s Bologna Sandwich, a recipe from Gordon Lish
First check the refrigerator to make certain none of the following are in there: lettuce, butter, margarine, mustard, ketchup or mayo. Remove the jar of mint jelly from the cupboard. (Marmalade is an...
View ArticleA recipe for Charles Dickens’s hare soup
Skin a hare and put it on to roast. Whilst it is cooking, fry in the best English butter two carrots, a head of celery, two onions, two ounces of raw ham, two bay leaves, two cloves, a blade of mace,...
View Article“Sophocles”— Gordon Lish
“Sophocles” by Gordon Lish from Self-Imitation of Myself (1997) Take egg. Boil until hard-cooked. Crack shell. Hold under running water. Remove shell. Set shell aside. Peel away white. Set white...
View ArticleCouple of Ghost Dances, I begin to look up and take notice | A cocktail from...
Mrs. Vandermaster. Yes. Please be seated. Thank you. The red chair. You’re most kind. Can I get you something, some iced tea or a little hit of Sanka? A Ghost Dance is what I wouldn’t mind if you can...
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Sassafrass’ Rice Casserole #36, a recipe from Ntozake Shange’s novel...
Sassafrass’ Rice Casserole #36 1 1/2 cups medium grain brown rice 3 ounces pimentos 1 cup baby green peas 1/2 cup fresh walnuts 2/3 pound smoked cheddar cheese 1/2 cup condensed milk Diced garlic to...
View Article“Food”— Donald Barthelme
Food I was preparing a meal for Celeste-a meal of a certain elegance, as when arrivals or other rites of passage are to be celebrated. First off there were Saltines of the very best quality and of a...
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