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!
No matter what, I cook on a Sunday. Nothing makes me happier than being by the oven for most of the day, putting up food for the week ahead. There’s something really nurturing about taking care of myself this way: with a little foresight I can have satisfying, comforting food no matter what disasters might [...]
So not everybody is crazy about eggplant. That baffles me, but I understand it—especially coming from people who don’t often prepare their own, and are victims of slimy, spongy, bitter mush. Nobody wants to eat slippery vegetables with gritty seeds and acrid hides.
But eggplants can also be the best of what a vegetable can be—crispy [...]
Where I come from, the weather is pretty cool and the seasons are rarely vague. The transition from spring to summer to autumn to winter and back again is tidy, without a lot of fuzziness in between—except for those May days still plagued by freezing rain or the all-too fleeting Indian summer afternoons that sometimes [...]
About midway through my last post and this one, I grew up a little bit. I grew up a lot, actually, more than I ever have in a single day. Who would have thought that putting on a dress, taking a short walk, and eating a piece of cake could be so significant? It seems [...]
The time has come, the gardener said, to talk of many things… of shoes and ships and ceiling wax, of eggplants and kings. Ok, so, eggplant may not be the most poetic of vegetables, but really, they are fit for kings.
There’s nothing an eggplant couldn’t do, I think, spongy wonder that it is. You slice [...]
If you love the idea of savory summer vegetables steaming in a deep bowl, the scent of herbs and spices rising to your nostrils, you’ve likely tried your hand at ratatouille. But, for as many delicious summer stews you’ve enjoyed, you’ve probably also faced many a limp blob of hot, mushy mass inappropriately called ratatouille.
Perhaps [...]
If I were a 19th century poet, I would spend my summer afternoons on the outskirts of an orchard, watching the clouds pass, nibbling fruit, and limning the virtues of their juices. Alas, I am a modern eater, relegated to her blog—but at least there’s someplace to extol the sweetness of summer. After all, I [...]
There’s something about carrots in the summertime that brings out the bean lover in me. So while I’m on the subject of my favorite legume dishes, let me recall a classic for any season: Cannellini bean dip with garlic, rosemary and a hint of lemon. White beans—bum bum bumbumbum, you make my heart sing. You [...]
There' s a little nub, dug from the earth, covered in dirt, hard, humble and unremarkable. Or so it seems. The potato. Pot. Ate. Oh! Sometimes I like sounding words out. I' m not a big believer in onomatopœia, but in this case I think it does apply. Pot: a simple sound. Ate: what I [...]
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 [...]
