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The Dark History of the Holy City: What Lies Behind the Pineapples of...
Placard in slave cabin exhibit at Boone Hill Plantation (Photo credit: C. Bertelsen) The sound of horses’ hooves clattered on the cobblestone streets and the golden light of the setting sun cast...
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Les Rêves de Julia (Julia’s Dreams): Meditations and Memories
Food and cooking serve as metaphors for life and love. Each plays a huge role in the way I see and photograph the world. I seek to nourish both eye and soul with my photography, in much the same way I...
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The Gift of French Cuisine
Winter, a time to indulge in French cuisine! (Photo credit: C. Bertelsen) The French peasant cuisine is at the basis of the culinary art. By this I mean it is composed of honest elements that la grande...
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Four Chicken Legs and Two Eggs: Rationing, Cooking, and Eating During Wartime
Blackberries could be made into pies; turned into jam, jelly, or vinegar; and their leaves could be dried, crushed and put into the tea caddy to eke out the tea ration. (The Wartime Kitchen and Garden,...
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Cutting Boards and French Comfort Food
Worn and well-used cutting boards like mine, made from one piece of blonde oak, tell stories of past meals. This gouge here, that’s from the day I sliced the boule with the extra thick crust, for the...
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Eating Dessert at the White House + A Word about Dallas, November 22, 1963*
Photo credit: C. Bertelsen Bill Yosses, the current White House pastry chef says pie is the all-time favorite in the Obama White House, but adds that “The dessert that was the biggest hit last year was...
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December 12: The Virgin of Guadalupe
Virgin of Guadalupe Patron Saint of Mexico and the Americas Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes once said that “…one may no longer consider himself a Christian, but you cannot truly be considered a Mexican...
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Vivre en l’Outre-Mer, or, The Trials of Living in French Congo ca. 1923: Part I
When the French government appointed Dr. Joseph Vassal, Englishwoman’s Gabrielle Vassal’s French husband, Head of Health Services for Equatorial French Africa (A.E.F.), he exclaimed happily to her,...
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Prometheus Unbound: New Evidence on Humans’ Early Use of Fire
Grottes de Gargas 1910 (Félix Régnault) I woke up this morning fully intending to end my two weeks of silence on this blog – due to familial obligations – with a preliminary examination of the role of...
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Parsleyed Ham and Kitchen Breezes: The Letters of M. F. K. Fisher and Julia...
Today is the 20th anniversary of M.F.K. Fisher’s death, so in tribute and at the request of her friend Leo Racicot, I am reposting this, something I wrote last year after attending Barbara Wheaton’s...
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Food, the Dog Days of Summer, and a Few Other Shocking Facts
The dog days of summer arrive, as they always do, abruptly and relentless with a seemingly never-ending swelter. Visions of panting tongues and listless tails crowd my thoughts. But what does that...
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Paris, Mon Amour
Paris will always be my first love, at least as far as cities go. I’ve spent many, many days and nights loving Paris, and France, in the company of people I deeply love, as well as on my own. Yet...
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France and America: Why Paris Haunts Us So
It’s been several days now, the media stream moves onward, darting here and there to other news, other disasters. And yet I remain static, stuck, still mulling over the attacks on Paris, mourning the...
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SLIVERS OF BACON, SWEET ONIONS, AND FRESH CHEESE: TARTE FLAMBÉE,...
I just cooked this for dinner tonight, in anticipation of the storm-of-the-decade. Strasbourg in the Cold (Photo Credit: Cyril Bele) One cold, rainy day in October, I sat in front of a fireplace in a...
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The Mysteries of Mustard, with Thanks to the English
Mustard Seeds (Used by permission.) “The seede of Mustard pounded with vinegar is an excellent sauce, good to be eaten with any gross meates, either fish or flesh…“ – John Gerard, Herbal or General...
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The Power and the Glories of Eating Alone
King Louis XIV did it. M. F. K. Fisher did it. The faceless man in Edward Hopper’s painting, “Nighthawks,” did it. Mr. Bean did it, too. And so did I. Daring to eat a proper meal alone in public...
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Greens and Roots in Season, or, Martha’s Local Foods (18th century) Cookbook
Martha Bradley’s The British Housewife (1756) has long fascinated me, for all her detail and precise instructions. And, most of all, for her emphasis on local foods, long before Alice Waters or...
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The Scent of Cinnamon and Chasing Down Humoral Theory
Purple bougainvillea flowers hung thick and rope-like over the sand-colored walls, their little white hearts nearly pulsating in the blazing noon heat of Rabat, Morocco. The door of The English...
View Article9 Years of Writing about History … A Celebration!
Nine years ago, I decided to poke a toe into the world of food blogging. I settled on the name, "Gherkins & Tomatoes," based on a painting by Luis Meléndez, a tribute to the period of history known...
View ArticleHow Julia Child Rescued Me from the Darkness
Several months ago, thanks to a series of bleeds in my right eye due to ROP*, I underwent a vitrectomy to clear up all the blood still pooling throughout my eye. When my surgeon finished, I learned...
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