Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen

Our daughter, Hannah, served these up to accompany cocktails when we were at her place for dinner one weekend recently. It is from Hors D'oeuvres by Eric Treuille and Victoria Blashford-Snell. She's a fan of that book, by the way, having given several appetizer and cocktail parties for her friends where they raved about the food, which was all from those recipes. Hannah made these with naan bread and I liked them so well I made them the next weekend. The only caveat I have about using naan is that around the edges it is very thick. The resultant crisps, which must be baked much longer, can be hazardous to the teeth. I had some Boyajian Garlic Oil in the cupboard which I substituted for the garlic and olive oil. It lent a faint garlic flavor quite nicely. Herbed Pita Crisps 2 cloves garlic, crushed 6 tablespoons olive oil 4 pita breads 2 tablespoons fresh or 2 teaspoons dried thyme 1-1/2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon pepper Stir garlic into oil. Cut each pita bread i

Here comes Fall weather and the first thing that springs to my mind is chili. Talking to my mother about a planned October visit for a horror-movie fest (this is my mother's passion, not mine) she brought up making a pot of chili. "There's just something about cooler weather," she said. To be fair, her weather is not going to be very cool since she lives in Florida, but we will crank the air-conditioning and pretend it is a chilly Midwest fall day. The only question I have is whether she's thinking of Texas-style chili or the sort I remember from school lunches, which I really loved also. Since she grew up in Cincinnati I have a feeling I know which she'll pick. It was when looking through the archives to send her the links for choosing that I found I never shared this delicious recipe. It is from Gourmet magazine and the only gussying up that I can detect is using black beans instead of the traditional kidney beans. I'm good either way. Love beans in

I discovered that I posted this elsewhere but never here, where food counts! So, a blast from our past which may be more worth watching than some of the new movies out now. When "Fin" came up on the screen, I suppressed an impulse to applaud. No need. The audience around me, without my reservations, burst into applause anyway. We watched Ratatouille under unusual circumstances. It was a 4:00 movie but the theater was full. Perhaps the rest of the audience, like us, had tried in vain to get into an earlier showing only to find it sold out. More unusually, in a movie marketed to children, this audience was three-fourths adults, adults of all ages. In fact, we ourselves were part of that demographic. Hannah, 18, had rearranged a date in order to make the movie with us. We were at the 4:00 movie specifically because Rose, 17, would not be able to make it over the weekend due to work schedules. Such is the power Pixar can induce in those who have learned that they have tha