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!
I love a late summer pepper. There are so many iterations: hot, not. Red, orange, yellow…. My favorites are multi-colored, those that haven’t graduated from one stage to the next. The fact that peppers change color as they age really excites me. Also, the older they get, the more I like them. I appreciate that. [...]
This summer, I’m all about peeling and eating… I hardly bother to cook my corn, it’s so heavenly all by itself. If there’s someone else around I keep my raw cob gnawing under wraps, surreptitiously leaving one ear behind as I boil the others. I can tell mine apart because it is a little paler, [...]
This blog post is an apology, and an attempt to explain that I really can cook a main dish. I am so sorry that I only ever post about salads, sides and baked goods. You must think I have a really, really strange diet. Although the assumption is not entirely untrue, I must tell you [...]
My melon vine went crazy this spring. Or maybe I’m mad, to project a state of mind on a plant. But there must be one. How else could plants send their tendrils and curlicues out into the firmament to find makeshift trellises? It took my melon vine a matter of days to reach and climb [...]
I recently saw a mendicant at the corner of US 59 and Chimney Rock Road, beneath the highly trafficked underpass where the homeless often rest and beg. He was begging. Fortunately, I was prepared, half a bag of unwanted tortilla chips waiting in my passenger’s seat, crisp yellow and ready for the jowls of the [...]
Christopher and I like to cook on Fridays: cozy up to the stove, cool ourselves down with a few glasses of wine, and then dance in the middle of the living room when all’s said and done. It’s a pretty great way to date—and it shaves a lot of time off primping, waiting for tables, [...]
Someone once asked if I’d seen Goop, that insidious ‘newsletter’ put out by Gwyneth Paltrow. I had not. Now, I get a little note in my inbox every Thursday telling me about all sorts of crazy things I can either: MAKE GO GET DO BE or SEE. All of which regularly return to the theme [...]
There are few things that make me full after a few tastes, but hummus is one of them. It’s so filling, I can only eat it at lunch, with most of a day’s digestion ahead. I’m no good at a bite or two, you should know: when I say “tastes,” I mean generous spoonfuls. Mystery [...]
It’s not tomato season yet, although they’re coming up soon… here in Houston at least. I eyeball my little, green fruits every time I come home, weighing them in my mind’s eye, wondering when I’ll have to put up chicken wire to keep the eager squirrels from running off with my loot, as they always [...]
I realize that many people will not give this post much attention and that makes me sad. I feel that cauliflower is much maligned—or at least wildly underappreciated. How is it that such a beautiful thing can be considered so unglamorous? Is it because they look a little bit wan? I’ve thought that myself, I [...]
