Gilding the Lily since 2006
I have, yet again, amassed quite a collection of on-the-verge goodies in my refrigerator: enoki, maitake, shiitake and chanterelle (aka anzutake) mushrooms; hunks of cheese (not the least of which is a French triple cream brie), sprigs of thyme, the remnants of a bottle of …
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 …
You know what I hate? Not knowing how to use my camera properly, even after all these years. If I use the auto macro settings, I can’t adjust the white balance. If I use the manual settings, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong that …
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 …
Now that summer is winding toward its long-lit end, our minds shift toward the harvest. Anyone with a patch of dirt is likely up to their ears in a plenitude of homegrown produce, and this overabundance can daunt the timid. What do you do with …
This is not your mother’s tuna-noodle casserole. Not mine, anyway. This is, though, a basic, easy thing: spaghetti with tuna and lemon. Perfect for a lazy weeknight dinner, easily accomplished between bouts of checking my Twitter feed, playing Words with Friends and other impatient, hungry …
Summer’s been a long time coming in Portland this year. We didn’t even break 80 degrees until after the 4th of July, I think. I really haven’t been complaining, I actually like it lukewarm and cloudy. But now, friends, now we have something to really …
S’been awhile, no? Last weekend was the pig roast. I didn’t take pictures this year, had my hands full with Zephyr and other things, but I turned out a rather gorgeous som tam-inspired chayote slaw that, served with spicy shredded pork belly, lime and cilantro …
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 …