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!
We’ve taken to roasting a chicken on Sundays. It may not seem like the most practical thing to heat up a tiny kitchen when external temperatures exceed 100 degrees on most days, but there’s nothing like the taste of freshly roasted chicken—especially when it gets an encore as tarragon chicken salad or as the base [...]
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 [...]
I like to push my desserts to the edge of imperfection, cookies especially. A dough that has been taken to its richest point is typically on the verge of crumbling, fragile and delicious with the weight of so much butter and sugar. These latticed cookies are a mighty fine example of what can happen when [...]
I am well aware that most people don’t make ginger snaps in 90 degree weather. But then, most people don’t have my recipe. And until recently, I didn’t know a darn thing about ginger snaps. I whole heartedly admit. Those I’ve made before have been paltry precursors to what I have since discovered: the ne [...]
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 [...]
One of my favorite things about visiting home is my mother’s zest for cocktail hour. When she’s not working, she’s waiting for five o’clock. Until recently, my father, sister and I joined her, dutiful but sometimes disinterested, sipping wine and waiting for the sun to set over the water. Don’t get me wrong…I love to [...]
Enough with the vegetables. As excited as the smell of roasting cauliflower makes me, there’s nothing quite as nice as the scent of dough rising—especially when I know each bite will yield a few hunks of chocolate. I had been mulling over some ideas on how to make a more interesting brownie, when last Friday [...]
