AntoniaJames

Piedmont, CA
Lawyer

I keep body and soul together by negotiating and drafting global agreements for internet service and media companies, and the companies that do business with them. It's fun work, made even better by the fact that I have my own law firm, so I have a lot more flexibility now than I did when a partner in a big firm. I love cooking, thinking about cooking, planning and shopping for meals (especially at the Farmers' Market, but also in the many "ethnic" shops nearby), discussing cooking and food in general, and experimenting and customizing recipes of all kinds. I make all of our bread (and have since I first started dating Mr. T), put up blueberries from the bushes we planted in our front yard, and make all kinds of preserves, chutneys, relishes, vinegars, and now, liqueurs. I'm always looking for new ideas -- and find many here, every day! (Thank you, everyone.) My time available for cooking and other food-related activities is very limited, so I try to make the most of it. We eat at home virtually every day. Life is very good.

• What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
  Ox tongue . . . not bad, really, to eat when prepared artfully, but when raw, it's a bit startling to those of us who don't slaughter and butcher our own meat
• What do you cook when home alone?
  Well, this isn't exactly cooking, but I really like brown rice cakes slathered with coarse mustard and topped with sardines or herring, or if we don't have sardines or herring, I spread my homemade pluot or nectarine jam over a thin layer of crunchy unsalted peanut butter; steamed or roasted veggies (leftovers, usually); and fruit with cheese
• Your most treasured kitchen possession:
  A medium-sized utility knife from my in-laws' small meatpacking company . . . . it has a heavy plastic handle that fits my hand perfectly. I estimate that its vintage is mid-to-late 1960s. But oh, can that little beauty hold an edge.
• Your ideal meal:
  Well, this varies from day to day . . . today, it would be anything prepared by either or both of my sons, served with a generous side of laughter.
• Something you'd like a chance to eat or cook:
  Eat: Wild boar that I've hunted with a bow and arrow, cooked on a spit all day. Cook: a chocolate filled pastry called "pain au chocolat," just like the ones I ate virtually every day while bicycling alone through France (2,400 km on back roads, staying overnight almost always in small towns), years ago. They were without exception delicious, as was just about everything else I ate on that trip.
• The number of bottles of wine you own:
  6-8
• The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
  It depends on what game or other activity is planned for after dinner. Sometimes the number is 4, sometimes it's six, sometimes it's 8. More than that and any games would most likely be outside, so that could be up to 20 or 24. It's all about the games.
• Kitchen pet peeve:
  None (Life is too short . . . . .)
• Your favorite cookbook:
  For what? For recipes and inspiration, this site. For perspective and a good read, Laurie Colwin's "Home Cooking" and "More Home Cooking." I check cookbooks out of the library (at least several every week) and read them the way one would read a novel. Start on the first page, read every word, read every page in order, to the end. Then go back to the really interesting parts and read them again. And take notes.