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!
All of my original TASTE blog entries with the new look.
There' s something about summer days: long, lazy and ripe. Today I feel like a juicy peach, though not of the courtesan variety. I' m just that happy, rosy and full. Let me tell you why: I woke up to no dog begging for breakfast. That is to say, I woke up when my body […]
Most of the year I feel blessed to live in Houston. Though I am a Yankee by birth, those long stretches of winter really do take the feather out of my cap—and threaten to take the green off my plate. Year-round farmer' s markets that profit from harvests December-March are a true Texas luxury. In […]
Though it factors prominently into Michael Pollan' s account of “The Omnivore' s Dilemma,”corn is fast becoming one of my absolute favorite summertime staples—that is, when I avoid it as a super-manipulated, non-perishable additive to my cottage cheese or crackers. I' m reading Pollan' s exquisitely wrought (and terrifying) account of America' s love affair […]
This spring, I worked as an organic gardening teacher at a Houston public school. It was at once inspirational and terrifying, as most new experiences are. My sister, who has been assisting at a summer camp, recently theorized that children grow up by sucking the life out of everything around them. A haunting way to […]
Buckets of rain / Buckets of tears / Got all them buckets comin’ out of my ears. / Buckets of moonbeams in my hand, / I got all the love, honey baby, / You can stand. I been meek / And hard like an oak / I seen pretty people disappear like smoke. / Friends […]
Once upon a time in 2006, I attended a summer financial program in Hanover, New Hampshire. In three weeks—nearly the most miserable twenty-one days of my twenty-one years—I learned little more than that I had no business at business camp. I had enrolled right after college graduation, hoping to postpone the inevitable job-market—or at least […]
Home, home, home I go, in time for the fourth of July. Checkered tablecloths on wooden picnic benches! Golden, sweet, salty corn, sputtering and exploding in kernels betwixt my teeth! Blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream! Fireworks over the dock! My dog jumps into the patterned water! Oh, high-stepping I shall be when I waltz […]
Sometimes it' s fun to get stuck in a rut—especially when the rut involves lots of butter and nuts. A few weeks ago I made the bold claim that I' d found THE PERFECT SCONE RECIPE. This is a load of malarkey, not because the scones were anything less than perfect, but because it implies […]
I recently came upon a truly decadent dessert, eaten in small spoonfuls and with good conscience. I am living proof (and so are my friends and neighbors) that even a rapacious craving can be quelled with a vegan dessert.
Yes, believe that.
Oh, melancholy mealtime. Inevitably, one moment of every eating experience makes me sad, and it' s called THE END. I never want to stop. I spend the hours from sleep to waking dreaming about getting my teeth into breakfast. I prepare it with glee—even if it' s just a slice of toast and a cup […]
