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!
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 [...]
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 [...]
I love a good confit, though I' m not always a fan of the wait. I was delighted when I came across a recipe for an eggplant confit that would take considerably less time to prepare than a bird and might be equally delicious—at least in my estimation. After trying this roast a few times, [...]
Last night I cooked chicken for the first time in my life. Indeed. I drove my bicycle to the Houston Farmer’s Market at Rice University, and then went whipping to Whole Foods for cruelty-free breasts, since the Jolie Vue farmer had run out of her own. Chicken breasts, I mean.
I bought them skinless, with bones [...]
