Go on, grill watermelon

July 1, 2009

To get ready for July 4, I thumped watermelons. Standing in the produce aisle of a Hampden grocery store, I tried to determine the ripeness of watermelons by picking them up and thumping their bellies. This is one of those skills, like eyeballing a crab's leg and determining that it is about to shed its shell, that comes with practice. I'm not there yet.

Recent columns

• For Father's Day, dish out the beer — tastefully

  June 17, 2009

  This Father's Day, think about serving Dad a beer at breakfast, or as a lunch entree, or maybe during dessert.

• Tall ship's cook faces a boatload of challenges in the kitchen

  May 27, 2009

  Robert Lampe bakes a wicked chocolate bread. He also helps load cannons.

• For a meat-grilling guy, vegetables call for a whole new way of thinking

  May 20, 2009

  This weekend, an Indianapolis 500 announcer will tell assembled race car drivers, "Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines." Meanwhile the nation's backyard cooks will respond to another seasonal directive. We, the ladies and gentlemen of backyard barbecue, will fire up our grills.

• Students take a taco tour

  April 22, 2009

  Megan Ryan knows the tacos in her part of town. Over the past four months she has eaten an estimated 80 of them from about 20 different Baltimore eateries, most near her Fells Point home.

• Clear difference in wineglasses

  April 15, 2009

  Halfway through a recent wine tasting at the Gramercy Carriage House on Greenspring Valley Road, the crowd of 80 well-dressed sippers was getting loud and silly. Georg J. Riedel quickly restored order.

• Chef concocts crackerjack ballpark fare

  April 8, 2009

  When Chad Vandegrift was a teenager living in Anne Arundel County, he used to make hurried trips to Orioles games. He would show up minutes before game time, buy bleacher seats at Memorial Stadium and eat hot dogs.

• Ahh, September

  August 27, 2008

  What is the best month to chow down in Maryland?

• Thankful for those leftovers

  November 21, 2007

  Tomorrow, as I dig into the roast turkey, the corn-bread stuffing, the hominy casserole, the mashed potatoes and gravy, I also will be thinking about how good these dishes will taste at the many eating opportunities stretched over the weekend.

• Beyond wine for holiday dinner

  November 14, 2007

  Once you have answered the sticky Thanksgiving questions - what type of turkey stuffing and what set of relatives you are going to spend the day with - the next issue to solve is, what are you going to be sipping?

• Crunch time: Crisp critters prove hard to swallow

  May 19, 2004

  THE KEY TO enjoying cooked cicadas -- if that is possible -- is to eat them with your eyes closed.

• These events leave a cloud over our city

  July 21, 2001

  IHAVE NOT had much luck thinking up a new slogan for Baltimore. But after the events of this week, I do have a new candidate for the city's mascot. That would be Joe Bfstplk the Li'l Abner comic strip character who walked around with a rain cloud over his head. Joe Bfstplk was a human jinx, wherever he went, calamity followed.

• Toning down thoughts on phone repair

  February 17, 2001

  TRYING TO FIX a telephone these days is frustrating.

• 'A piece of the action' makes things a bit nutty

  February 7, 2001

  THE SIEGE OF the pine nuts began a few weeks ago, shortly after we got a late-night phone call from James "Buzzy" Cusack, a friend and neighbor. Buzzy said something like " Psssst, wanna buy some pine nuts?"