I love fish cakes. There’s some casual thing about them, all getting sand in your shoes and an itchy sunburn on your shoulders, needing Noxzema and iced tea. Their beachiness could be as literal as the fact that cod comes from the ocean (our local chilly brine, the Mighty Pacific), but I love being swept up…
I hate talking about it, but I’ve been sort of counting my calories the past week or so. I should have started a few months ago, but we’ve only just started to have nice weather. Cloudy days were invented for chicken and dumplings, and we’ve had plenty of both around here. But now, alas, I…
I know I write a lot about breakfast. Can’t help it. It is, after all, the most important meal of the day, and Portland has such a cultish breakfast and brunch culture (and let’s face it; brunch is just breakfast with alcohol). It might just be that we are humble, foul-weather folk who will eat…
Nerds are not especially known for their good health. When thinking of the classic nerd archetypes, most of us easily picture an overweight, acne-ridden basement dweller or a gaunt, bespectacled rail in a black trench coat. And it’s no wonder—based on my research (and common convention), today’s nerd subsists primarily on a diet of highly…
This perfect cusp of the growing season and the harvest season is my favorite time of year: umami incarnate. Warm days are chased by chilly evenings, afternoons take on an amber effulgence through dappling leaf-flutter. This is cardigan-and-tights season; it’s the time of year I became a bride in art deco huntress’ garb. Fall is…
Some terrible things have positive outcomes. Take colonization, for example. You know what’s great about colonization? Bánh mì. It’s true. The French colonized Vietnam for the export of tobacco, indigo, tea and coffee, but when they taught the Vietnamese their baking secrets, a little magic happened. You know that saying, “the road to hell is…
Yes, I’ve taken another two-week break. It’s summer – the busiest time of year for us do-it-ourselves, radical homemakin’, types! I’ll show you later what’s been keeping me so busy (hint: jars and jars), but for now I really need to get this off my to-share list. It’s a real doozy. I bought a big…
Wondering what to do with the shitton of cauliflower your CSA box has so graciously bestowed upon you? It’s one of those things people always have kicking around their produce drawer at the end of spring, and although we would all rather be digging into our sexy new favas and morels, I’m actually a pretty…
I made this during a warm spell we had a week ago. It was the kind of weather we ought to be having right now, but Mother Nature is being a bit of a premenstrual dysphoric bitch right now, dumping buckets of rain and unseasonally cool weather our way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m from…
A nice couple weeks, it’s been. Lovely weather, lots of delicious cooking, but nothing really noteworthy that I can think of. I guess I could show you the nettle risotto I made, but I’ve already blogged that (though this time I made it with ham instead of lemony chicken or artichokes or somesuch). Besides, everyone…
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