Some nights you just want soup, while everyone else wants meat or pasta. Well, this spicy lamb and risoni soup caters to everyone. When serving, fussy diners can get as much, or as little, of each of those ingredients as…
So You Think I’ve Stopped Writing Recipes?
This website started as a way to record my favourite recipes for my daughter. Lately, all I’ve been uploading is poem after poem after poem. Google thinks my website is only about food, and, technically, it still is. My poetry…
Nightcap – A Poem
There’s something cheeky about this trompe l’oeil painting, that seems to suggest someone’s raided the pantry for a little nightcap. From the Art Institute Chicago description: “In Just Dessert, the exotic clashes with the quotidian—Maraschino liqueur, half a coconut, and Smyrna figs…
Madame Tallien as a Compote Bowl – A Poem
The 19th Century loved a good compote. These serving dishes on pedestals were used for fruit, sweets, candy, or other foods, and were often the centrepiece on a table. I was struck by the design of Roesen’s compote, particularly the…
Nini in the Garden – A Poem
This painting is of Nini Lopez in the garden next to Renoir’s Montmatre studio in Paris at 12 rue Cortot. Nini was one of Renoir’s favourite models, appearing in several of Renoir’s rue Cortot garden paintings, as well as other…
Masquerade Ball at the Ritz – A Poem
If you click on the source link in the caption below, you’ll get a chance to see this incredibly detailed painting up close. Madrazo painted many scenes of Parisian nightlife in the late 19th and early 20th century, always with…
Kluski with Onions and Bacon- A Poem
Kluski (pronounced klooh-ski, with a short “oo” as in book) are a dumpling, and were one of my favourite dishes. My mother mixed the dough; then would scoop the mixture with a tablespoon and simply slip it, from the spoon,…
A Cosey Corner – A Poem
What’s interesting about this painting is that it’s a blend of the English, and the American. The Met tells us that American Frank Millet (1846-1912) lived in the Cotswolds for a time, and his home was a transatlantic centre for…
The Lithograph Artist and Van Gogh – A Poem
This poem began as a very simple response only to Marsden Hartley’s fruit bowl, and then, somehow, grew into a sparring match with Vincent van Gogh. Who won? The Lithograph Artist and Van Gogh (i)I draw my images directly on…
The Kitchen Servants – A Poem
There’s more going on in this painting than at first appears. From The Met description: “Sorgh inflects a domestic scene with the art of still life. Two maids clean fish and peel vegetables in the foreground, surrounded by gleaming brass…
