Tag: food

• Continental Breakfast for Two, si’l vous plait…

  If you could have dinner with any fictional character, who would it be? “Only in England is the coffee so atrocious. On the Continent they understand how important it is for the digestion that it should be properly made.”  The Big Four, Hercule Poirot on English coffee Before I retired from teaching middle school English,…

  michardillo

  July 24, 2026

  Essay

  Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None, books, British, continental breakfast, cozy mystery, croissant, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2832, David Suchet, England, English, fiction, food, Hercule Poirot, literature, Miss Marple, Murder on the Orient Express, mystery, novel, reading, Sunday roast, tea, teacher, teaching, writing

• Book Review-Polska: New Polish Cooking by Zuza Zak

  As I’ve noted in other book reviews and essays you may have read, I am very active in my church community. We have a new pastor, a priest from Poland, and I wanted to prepare a few dishes from his homeland. I checked out this cookbook, Polska: New Polish Cooking by Zuza Zak, from my…

  michardillo

  July 22, 2026

  Essay

  beets, book-review, books, butter beans, Catholic, cookbook, cooking, cucumber, dill, escalope, food, halibut, library, Louisiana, marjoram, nonfiction, Poland, Polish food, Polska: New Polish Cooking, Quadrille, reading, writing, Zuza Zak

• Book Review: The Three Graces of Pearl Street by Elizabeth Wellington Rollins

  I just finished this book last night and I am truly impressed that this is a debut novel. The Three Graces of Pearl Street by Elizabeth Wellington Rollins is soon to be published by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, which is one of the “Big Five” of publishing. The Big Five is…

  michardillo

  July 8, 2026

  books

  ARC, Atria Books, author, book-review, book-reviews, books, Catholic, Catholic Church, chicken cutlet, Columbia University, contemporary-fiction, cooking, debut novel, Elizabeth Wellington Rollins, family, fiction, food, food pantry, italian-american, Italy, lasagna, literature, Long Island Sound, Manhattan, NetGalley, novel, NYC, pizza slice, reading, teaching, The Three Graces of Pearl Street, type 1 diabetes, writer, writing

• My May Reads 2026

  May was a busy reading month but not a month of all star, blockbuster reads. These were good reads, solid 3-stars. Happy Reading, everyone!!!

  michardillo

  June 6, 2026

  books

  book-review, books, Brian Platzer, C.L. Miller, fiction, food, Goodreads, Kindle, literature, MJ Soni, mystery, Nadiya Hussain, Nadiya’s Everyday Baking, NetGalley, novel, reading, Shiamin Kwa, The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder, The Masala Chai Mystery Club, The Optimists, The Secret Menu: Chinese Food in America and How I Made It, writer, writing

• Book Review: The Masala Chai Mystery Club by MJ Soni

  This cozy mystery should get an award for inclusivity! It ticks off all the boxes: gender, ethnicity, age, disabled/abled, economic status, it’s all in there. Was it too much? Maybe. At the beginning it was a whole lot being thrown at the reader. I’ve seen reviews that say the first 20% or so was slow…

  michardillo

  June 2, 2026

  books

  book-review, books, cozy mystery, Crooked Lane Books, debut novel, fiction, food, Goodreads, HOA, India, Indian food, literature, MJ Soni, murder mystery, mystery, NetGalley, novel, reading, recipes, Richard Osman, tea, The Masala Chai Mystery Club, The Thursday Murder Club, writing

• Book Review: The Secret Menu by Shiamin Kwa

  The Secret Menu: Chinese Food in America and How I Made It by Shiamin Kwa is more than a memoir. It is more of an anthropological study of the Chinese culture in America, where the author wasn’t Chinese enough for home and too Chinese for her new country. In fact, the subtitle itself is somewhat…

  michardillo

  May 24, 2026

  books

  appropriation, ARC, book-review, books, Bryn Mawr, Ebook, Farrah Straus and Giroux, food, Kindle, literature, Malaysia, memoir, NetGalley, nonfiction, reading, recipes, Shiamin Kwa, teacher, teaching, The Secret Menu: Chinese Food in America and How I Made It, writer, writing

• Book Review: Nadiya’s Everyday Baking by Nadiya Hussain

  Do you have a Buy Nothing group in your neighborhood? If you don’t know the answer to this question, head over to Facebook and search for it! Warning: participation in the Buy Nothing world can be quite addicting! About The Buy Nothing Project: The Buy Nothing Project, the world’s largest free-goods platform, is transforming how…

  michardillo

  May 21, 2026

  books, food

  BBC, BN Group, book-review, book-reviews, books, British, Buy Nothing Project, Clarkson Potter, collection, cookbook, cooking, cornbread dog, England, facebook, family, food, Nadiya Hussain, Nadiya’s Everyday Baking, paprika egg filo bake, reading, social media, soda bread, Spotted Dick, The Great British Bake Off, Time to Eat, writing

• Book Review: Food Person by Adam D. Roberts

  I picked this up from the Librarian’s Choice shelves at my local public library (shout out to Aspen Hill Library in Montgomery County, Maryland). Two things caught my attention. First of all, that cover is an eye catcher for sure. The second thing was the starburst blurb on the front cover, “A savory meal of…

  michardillo

  April 9, 2026

  books

  Adam Roberts, author, book-review, book-reviews, books, bookstore, contemporary-fiction, cookbook, cookbooks, cooking, debut novel, Essay, essays, fiction, food, Food Person, Goodreads, Gourmet magazine, Home Cooking, Julia Child, Knopf, Laurie Colwin, library, literature, More Home Cooking, New Yorker magazine, non-fiction, nonfiction, novel, NYC, reading, recipes, Ruth Reichl, short stories, Steven Rowley, writer, writing

• My March 2026 Reads!

  Only four books but they were ALL 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 EACH!!!

  michardillo

  April 4, 2026

  books

  Alexander McCall Smith, book-review, books, Change the Recipe, cookbook, cozy mystery, essays, fiction, food, Goodreads, José Andrés, Kindle, literature, marcelle bienvenue, march reads, memoir, NetGalley, nonfiction, novel, reading, Richard Wolffe, Robert Thorogood, The Lost Language of Oysters, The Marlow Murder Club, The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts, writer, writing

• Book Review-Change the Recipe: Because You Can’t Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs by José Andrés with Richard Wolffe

  “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission” is a saying that could be the theme of José Andrés’s latest book, Change the Recipe: Because You Can’t Build a Better World Without Breaking Some Eggs (Ecco Hardcover, April 22, 2025, 195 pages), written with Richard Wolffe. That saying is often attributed to the late Rear…

  michardillo

  April 2, 2026

  books

  author, Bethesda, book-review, book-reviews, books, Breaking Some Eggs, Change the Recipe, COBOL, cookbook, cooking, death, Ecco Publishing, Essay, essays, family, first career, food, Gaza, Grace Hopper, grease traps, Haiti, internet, Israel, Jaleo, John Steinbeck, José Andrés, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Luis Miranda, Maryland, memoir, microwave omelet, non-fiction, nonfiction, online viral sensation, paralegal, reading, recipes, rice and beans, Richard Wolffe, Russia, The Grapes of Wrath, Ukraine, World Central Kitchen, writer, writing