Passionfruit Butter

Hi, all. The two-or-so-week gap that’s filled the interim between my last few posts is inadvertent; each time I check the site, I’m amazed at how much time’s gone by. I can’t say my absence has been for a lack of good food and inspiration, since I’m home for winter break and eating better than I do all semester. For a while, I could blame my broken camera – food blogging with no pictures loses its charm fast – but now that it’s been repaired, I can’t use that, either.

So I guess the best I can say is that I’ve jam-packed my time away from my computer with lots of downtime, cook-time, restaurant-time, sleeptime, read-time, etc. I’ll be back in full force soon, so don’t tucker out on me just yet. I’ve got a couple recipes (and a great big appetite!) to share with y’all once my routine gets back to normal.

In the meantime, I’ve delved into Jeffrey Steingarten’s The Man Who Ate Everything, which I’m ashamed to say became something of a bible to me before I’d even read it cover to cover. Now I’m gleefully doing that task and loving it all the more. Steingarten has an impressive but meandering life in food: he was plucked from a legal career to become Vogue’s food correspondent, and has since been a judge on Iron Chef America, received myriad awards (including a bundle of James Beards… not bad), and experimented tirelessly in the kitchen. The Man Who Ate Everything is a collection of his essays over the years, but that barely even covers it; his witty reports are fueled by exhaustive research, endless curiosity, and a joie de vivre as insatiable as his appetite. He is humble but plucky, informative but genial, and just the man you’d want at a dinner party. (Or not. He admits himself that he can be kind of ballsy.)

Anyhow, I can’t feel completely bad that such men as Steingarten and Anthony Bourdain, who spoke at New Orleans’ Mahalia Jackson Theatre last week, are keeping me away from my writing. But I’ll be back soon, for better or worse, with real offerings to boot.