by Rick Bailey
They’re up there, in the top of the pantry. Loved only a little, and then only occasionally; otherwise, forgotten. I mean prunes. The ones I found this morning were probably a year old. Dried up, withered and hard, they looked like minor asteroids. I had an idea. Not an original idea, it should be said. Tizi and I have found a new restaurant in Rimini, thanks to our friends Adele and Luigi. They go to Montecavallo for the pizza. The […]
by Rick Bailey
What a satisfying and haunting reading experience Katey Schultz provides in her new novel. Still Come Home is set in Afghanistan and takes the reader into the experience of four main characters, each of whom negotiates the terror and loss of that endless conflict. Summing up the harsh landscape and the muddle of that war, one character observes, “The only way to win is to survive.” This character, Second Lieutenant Nathan Miller, is in his fourth tour of duty. Haunted […]
Categories: review
by Rick Bailey
“Are you bringing the nuts?” my wife asks. I hear the bowl ring as she pours out her granola. She’s sitting at the kitchen table. It’s a mix we buy, part of our new health regimen, along with intermittent fasting. Our holistic doc has said, repeatedly, you can break the rules, you can abuse your body, until you’re sixty. After that, to be in it for the long haul, you have to think about nutrition. So, some supplements. So, the […]
Categories: Eating, Essay • Tags: Beaujolais, Kale, Nutribullet, Organic, Smoothie
by Rick Bailey
Tizi suggests a new menu item for New Year’s Eve. A local tradition in Romagna, her region of Italy. I’m sure I’ve heard the word “lentils” before in Italian and decide to try it out. Use or lose it, right? “But why lentiggini?” I ask. “For good luck,” she says. “And it’s lenticchie. Lentiggini are freckles.” Lentils, not freckles. I don’t think I saw or ate a lentil until I moved to the Detroit area. The Saginaw Valley, where I […]
Categories: Eating, Recipe • Tags: romagna, San Marino
by Rick Bailey
Come on out to Hannan House in Detroit on Saturday, January 18, 2-4 p.m. I’ll be reading from The Enjoy Agenda, about gratuitous music and about tagliatelle with peas. There will be a short open mic invitation at the outset of the event. Music is also likely. For your Satnav: 4750 Woodward Avenue Detroit.
Categories: American English, Italian Chocolate, The Enjoy Agenda
by Rick Bailey
Two words, a friend of mine’ll get a little crazy. “Bone broth.” We have a box of it in the fridge. (Yes, a box.) It came in handy this morning. I’ve got some rabbit quarters on the stove, cooking long and low and slow. Olive oil and garlic (the more of the latter the better), salt and pepper, fresh rosemary. They brown gently, front and back, getting a tan in the pan. Some white wine extends the cook, quarter […]
Categories: Eating, Recipe • Tags: Good food, home cooking, italian food, Rabbit
by Rick Bailey
This is how I would want to be cooked. Lay me down in olive oil and onion. I woke up today thinking about olives. It was 4:00 a.m., my usual time to wake up thinking about something. This morning it was olives, and lunch. Confession: I often wake up thinking about lunch. A fond reminiscence in our family is how food-oriented my father-in-law was; well, a better word is obsessed. He too often awoke with food on his mind and […]
Categories: Eating, Recipe • Tags: black olives, cacciatore, chicken, comfort food, Good food, Italian cooking, italian food
by Rick Bailey
Certain things, you think: I shouldn’t eat that. We had people over for dinner a couple nights ago. During the cheese phase of the evening, we unwrapped a chunk of Tuma, a very mild #pecorino. Much later, during the good-night and clean-up phase of the evening, the Tuma was left on the counter, exposed to the air. What happens if you leave cheese out for 3-4 days? Tuma yellows. Think butter. Yesterday morning at 5:00 a.m. the chunk was still […]
Categories: Eating
by Rick Bailey
While we’re in Italy, Tizi accumulates treasures. Mainly chocolate. Over time we’ve put providers on our maps, in Rome, Florence, Siena, Venice. When we’re hanging out in San Marino and Pesaro, which is usually the case, her go-to place is Cioccolatteria & Confetteria Talmone. Now we have a new place, in nearby Fano. But…, but… We time our visits so we can be in Santarcangelo di Romagna for the feast of Saint Martin, aka festa di San Martino. It’s a […]
Categories: Eating, travel • Tags: chocolate, cioccolata, Dessert, panforte, Pesaro, San Marino, santarcangelo di romagna, toscana, tuscany
by Rick Bailey
I listened. The first time I tasted artichoke, I was already in college. As far as I know it was not an item they stocked at Pat’s Food Center in Freeland, the one-stoplight farm town where I grew up. If I had seen one at all, it was probably the likeness of an artichoke on someone’s apron.
Categories: Eating, Recipe, Uncategorized • Tags: artichokes, Carciofi
by Rick Bailey
This morning at 5:00 a.m., when I sit down next to her on the couch and hand her a cappuccino, my wife detects something foul on my breath. She takes the coffee, turns her head, and gently pushes me away. “What did you eat?” We stayed with the kids last night at our daughter’s house, while she and her husband went out. Later today I’m driving up to visit the county clerk for marriage and birth certificates. She’s making a […]
Categories: Eating, Essay, Uncategorized • Tags: che schifo, fano, hot dogs, Italian language, leftovers, pagnotta, romagna, San Marino, slang
by Rick Bailey
When I read poetry I want to be surprised and delighted. The poems in Alexander Payne Morgan’s Loneliness Among Primates deliver. If there is a common theme, it is grief; grief that is the other side of love, tender and resonant and questioning.
Categories: review
