Remaking Christine

42, jobless, standing in the kitchen

Birthday cake and fish pie

| February 28, 2011

I spend a depressing amount of time and mental energy tracking what is going on out there in the food-o-sphere while I sit at my kitchen desk in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, repeat. That’s my mantra. I chastise myself for not blogging enough.  I lament my novice ability to self-promote via social media. I [...]

Dining with Delia: Day 6

| July 28, 2010

Delia has a relatively new advertising gig with Waitrose, Britain’s most upscale grocery store chain.  Under the multi-media scheme, she and fellow British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, creator of the three-Michelin starred Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, encourage people to cook at home mainly through TV ads, Internet streaming videos, and printed recipe cards that [...]

Dining with Delia Day 5

| July 24, 2010

One of the major drawbacks to finishing culinary school is a sharp drop in the number of dinner party invitations one receives.  Chef Hunt, the culinary dean in Le Cordon Bleu in Pittsburgh, warned us about this phenomenon, advising us not to take it personally.  Prowess in the kitchen is intimidating. But my English friends, [...]

Dining with Delia, Day 4

| July 21, 2010

This morning, I had the first English scone of this particular trip to the UK.  It wasn’t one of Delia’s, I am afraid.  It was pulled from a friend’s freezer, put in a recycled butter container with about six of its siblings, and brought to my place by said friend when she popped round for [...]

Dining with Delia: Day 3

| July 20, 2010

My husband is all about loyalty.  He truly believes (even sometimes as late as the last week in September) that the Red Sox will still be playing in October. He still avoids Florida because of the 2000 election results. And he’s not convinced the traditional English custard recipe I pulled from the voluminous Delia’s Complete [...]

Dining with Delia: Day 2

| July 19, 2010

Would you think I was a freak if I copped to, upon landing in any new place, making a beeline for the nearest grocery store? Well, I do. I find it fascinating to see what people take for granted as staples and what they deem luxuries, distinctions that are quite evident to me based on [...]