“Pan bagnat” roughly translates as “bathed (or soaked, or wet) bread.” It essentially is a salade nicoise in a loaf of bread.

The cool thing about chilled soups is their consequential refreshment.

A compound butter is simple, but its flavor combinations are endless.

“Frittata” must be Italian for “kitchen sink.”

The Indian vegetable dish Subji uses as few as one or two different vegetables (or, usually, several) but always many spices and flavorings. Photo from Jacopo Maia on unsplash.

Cooking while camping comes in two flavors: You take your kitchen with you—in an RV, say, or with piles of pans in the back of the van—or you just hoof it and really rough it, everything in a backpack, food included.

BSJ’s Yellow Chicken Salad, an adaptation of Queen Elizabeth II’s “Coronation Chicken” and Whole Foods’ very popular “Sonoma Chicken Salad.”

My father made the best mashed potatoes. He bequeathed some tricks, however, that make all the difference.

Baked Vidalia onions look like giant Hershey’s Kisses—and they’re nearly as sweet.

Legend has it that this much-favored Sicilian vegetarian pasta preparation is named after Vincenzo Bellini’s opera “Norma.”

A platter of assorted cooked vegetables on a bed of wilted greens, served cool, in the Italian way of summer cooking.

What a serving of Sweet and Sour Parsnips and Pears (“Compost of Pasternak and of Peeres”) might have looked like in the summer of 1400 A.D.

Nearly every culture or country cooks its take on what we call pancakes. These are Korean Panjeon.

A recipe for Salt & Pepper Grilled Vegetables, plus hints on grilling vegetables in general.

Tarte Tatin began life in the 1880s as a mistake. Wonderful.

It ought to be called the “Oooh, Aaah Soup” because, besides the slurps, that is what you’ll hear as it goes down.

I put these recipes together in honor of Mother’s Day, for the three came from my mother, Madeleine M. St. John.

Chicon-Jambon au Gratin (Endive and Ham Roulades au Gratin)

Recipe for skillet asparagus from beloved Southern chef Edna Lewis.

Asparagus—always a harbinger of spring.