Hi. I’m Isabel, I cook and scribble. I make a lot of food and do a lot of writing, and Bread & Courage is what I have to show for it. It started as a simple food blog called TASTE but evolved into something more—a place where I express my love of food, community and the environment. Thanks for spending some time here—and be in touch!

 




Tomato Sauce, By Way of Italy and Vermont

If I were asked to name some of my favorite things, great tomato sauce would quickly come to mind. So would traveling and staying someplace just for the sake of staying: as my friends Caleb and Deidre did on their honeymoon. Caleb and Deidre also happen to be cooks—mostly of the Italian variety, though they [...]


BYO (Build Your Own) Yoga Cookies

Last week, I started a yoga program called “The Forty Days,” pretty self-explanatory, really.  Forty days of yoga, plus a fast and twice-daily meditation. Sometimes my body aches, but mostly I feel extraordinary. Open and calm and centered—qualities I usually admire from afar. When I’m unhappy, I can be a bit of an anxious recluse. [...]


Read the original on The Huffington Post.
Despite the potential that farmers’ markets and community gardens have for changing eating habits and consumer behavior, they need government support in order to succeed, especially in low-income communities and in neighborhoods where they have never existed. Unlike large-scale farms that receive massive government support, and whose output ends [...]


Butternut Squash and Sage Soup

You know those people who resolve piety in the New Year, embracing soups and fruit juice and brown rice baths? Well I’m not one of them. But I do love soup. It makes me feel warm and clean and hale. This year I was especially in need of some elixing.
It started, as with all great [...]


Read the original on The Huffington Post.
Resolutions are easy to make and even easier to abandon. Righteousness gives way to guilt as my commitments fall by the wayside: disappointment clouds every February and leads me to reject my resolutions entirely in favor of a better year eleven months hence. It’s a vicious cycle indeed. This [...]


A Few of My Favorite Things: Russian Tea Cakes

Christmas! And I’m staring at a half a plate of Russian Tea Cakes, lips white with powdered sugar. Like ginger snaps, these were not my first choice as a child, although they have moved high up the list of foods to appreciate. First of all, they are not super sweet—don’t be fooled by their coat [...]




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