Gilding the Lily since 2006
I always fiddle with ingredients and dishes, but rarely (I hope) to the point that they are unrecognizable by their forebears. This breakfast is one of those rare failures at respectful fusion: a tender Uzbek obi non; an ancient flatbread baked in a clay tandir — …
Sorry for the dead air for the past…oh, my. It’s been a month. I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire right now (including some projects for print), and this just fell off my radar. But it’s summer! And the garden is full! This …
Dutch babies are a signature dish of one old Portland institution, the Original Pancake House. When you order one, they bring it out all puffed up on the plate, sprinkled with powdered sugar and with a little carousel of toppings: whipped butter, lemon wedges and …
Once upon a childless time, the ache in my back and shoulders was reserved for weekend chores, for accomplishment. It was earned by moving 10 cubic yards of compost and manure, shovelful by endless shovelful. This ache is now ever-present, and I gaze out my …
All this cold rain has the nettles taking their sweet time, but in my spot, they’re up a little. They’re up enough, anyway, about three nodes or so, and I snip off the top two and slip them in my bag. Zephyr whines from his …
Lemon curd. Oh, is this ever a Thing. How have I lived this long without making my own? Creamy-custardy, tart-sweet lemony, and my touch: vanilla-lavendery. To make a batch big enough for canning, I quadrupled this basic recipe: cream together 3 eggs and 1/3 cup …
The Great Northwest is famous for many foods, and while hazelnuts and salmon usually come to mind as the obvious meibutsu, we also grow spectacular berries. Among them, Vacciniums – huckleberries, cranberries and blueberries – are Queen. These Ericaceous lovelies, to which my namesake heather …
The other day I was having a fierce hanker for soft pretzels with spicy mustard. The ones you get in the freezer section of even nicer stores like New Seasons are just fucking abysmal – dry, salty cardboard carbohydrate, salvageable only with copious cheese sauce. …
I can’t really call this Irish soda bread, or even Irish-American soda bread, since my ingredient limitations forced my creative hand (as they tend to do). This is, though, a basic soda bread – a quick bread leavened with baking soda instead of yeast. Since …
I spent last week in Coos County, and haven’t been in my kitchen since last weekend. I usually come home from these forays hungry for my own cooking, but we had plans on Friday and Saturday and so I still haven’t really had any QT …