The teratoma is the funfetti of all tumors. Just so, the Piccia Calabrese is the teratoma, or funfetti, of all breads. Every Italian ingredient has found its way into this recipe. The bread is a random accumulation of things that don’t seem to quite go together. Molars, hair, nose cartilage, nerve ganglions; Mushrooms, pickles, tomatoes…and […]
A simple thought to accompany a simple bread—recently I have entertained the notion that aging—life—is all an unfolding. That is, as babies, we emerge into the world tucked and wrinkled like the pages of well-worn, well-loved books crumpled into paper balls. Then, if all goes well, instead of grow, we merely unfold. And if we’re […]
If one chooses to increase her atherosclerosis risk factors during the traditional Superbowl binge, let it not be with godawful Doritos and tired-old chip dips. Saturated fat, as a “sometimes food,” should be done right. For this year’s Game Day, I made a list of all of my favorite foods that contain shameful amounts of […]
Whatever specialty I decide to go into, let it be one in which the doctors are paid in cookies. Delivered some babies this week, and this is how I am repaid. What blessed business. Labor and delivery is, I’m convinced, one of the happiest places on Earth. Take that Disney. Are these not the most […]
Good morning. Stop Everything. Whatever you were up to in the kitchen, cereal, oatmeal, eggs, bacon, what have you—just stop. Find the almost-molding cauliflower head calling for help from the back of your fridge. She wants to be a breakfast fritter. Make her vegetable dream come true. Cauliflower and Cumin Fritters with Lime Sauce Adapted […]
Oh, the Polar Vortex. I feel like Scrat from Ice Age. I wish the ice would crack beneath me so that I may travel in a bug-eyed freefall to the other side of the earth, clutching an acorn, or in my case, maybe a loaf of bread. The equator would be a nice alternative to […]
The history of this recipe is lovely. The peoples of the Valtellina valley in Lombardy make these rustic rye rings in communal wood-burning ovens. Each family scores their rings with unique marks so that individuals can easily find their family’s baked rings among those belonging to the neighbors. They hang them on strings in their […]
Red, without question, my favorite color. Last week in the operating room I arrived at a robust hypothesis as to why I have always been irrevocably drawn to red. I think, evolutionarily, it has something to do with blood. In surgery, no matter how hard I try, I cannot fully repress my physical alarm to […]
New Year’s Resolution Case 1 of 12. Stranger 1. He is a charming boy, my adopted Peruvian son, Juan-David. For the first eleven days of January, by fluke of fate, the young suitor of my Peruvian neighbor’s daughter needed a place to stay that was decidedly not the same residence as his love, but as […]
Morcellation is one of my new favorite words from gynecologic surgery. Typically, you morcellate something large, that is, to turn it into morsels so it is easier to deal with. For example, a large fibroid in a uterus might need to be morcellated and put into a baggie to exit through the teensy holes surgeons […]