Italian sausage paprikash
Sometimes the food I cook has really great pedigrees, backed up with thorough research and/or rich cultural tradition and/or a well-known chef’s recommendation. But equally often I cook by feel, scrambling […]
Author Archives: Mike Bierschenk
Compromise hummus
Folks, I’m sorry it’s been so long: over a week, which is like seven weeks in blog years. In addition to a long weekend of performances and some recipe testing […]
Chicken-quinoa soup with lime and ginger
When I was first pondering how to write about this soup, before I even got to the actual writing part I spent a long, long time dithering about its name. […]
Banana-saltine pudding with pecan meringue
[When I went to take some additional plated photos, I realized a sad truth: I’d been using manual focus for some of the pumpkin-turkey taco images, and never set the camera […]
Pumpkin-turkey tacos
One of the reasons I started this blog was to track my own cooking. I have trouble keeping track of the things I cook, because my cooking is a mix […]
Chinese omelet over rice
During my senior year of college, there was a term when I had two classes in the same building, 45 minutes apart, right at midday. It wasn’t quite enough time […]
Smoky Lentil Soup with Spinach & Kalamata Olives
When I show up at a potluck, you can almost guarantee that I’m bringing something vegetarian, if not vegan. This is a little strange, since I have a deep and abiding […]
Optional Kitchen 