I'm only a year late in sharing this news here.... I've joined the great many writers who are now producing newsletters (and other content, though for now I'm just focused on the newsletters) on Substack. Given how much growth there has been on that platform in recent years, I have [...]
Though I'd been deep in a couple specific seafood themes with my two previous books--Oysters and Crab--not to mention covering seafood in a number of other books and article projects over the years, something about writing Shellfish was different. It re-energized my seafood focus that began ages ago at Simply [...]
We have no shortage of gut-wrenching news right now, it's incredibly hard to take it all in. This morning my attention was keenly focused on a cover story in the Seattle Times about increase in demand at area food banks (a story playing out widely, not just here). The reality [...]
I'm pretty sure the first time the concept of cooked radishes crossed my radar was in a soup at Le Gourmand restaurant some unknown number of years ago. (The restaurant sadly closed a decade ago, so probably 15 years ago or more?) In that context, puréed with other ingredients, the [...]
It was a natural assumption to make, one I heard from a number of people after my last cookbook was released. Crab came out late in 2016, following the release of Oysters in January of that year. So what was the third title in the series going to be? There [...]
There are more nuances to the choice of a recipe’s title than might be clear at first. Seems it should be pretty straight-forward, right? And often, it is. Salmon fillet, baked, served with a lime butter sauce….can be Baked Salmon with Lime Butter Sauce. Muffins made with cornmeal, embellished with [...]
I’ve got a document I simply titled “The Mission” where I’ve been capturing—in succinct bullet-list form—high-level perspectives on the value of well-written recipes for the last few years. Among recipe-related themes I plan to address later are the vast array of sources home cooks have for recipes these days; why [...]
My intent with this (more or less) weekly series is to remain pretty laser-focused on the craft of writing recipes: thoughts on, and suggestions for, ways to express all the valuable recipe details in a way that ensures success for the home cook. Or at least makes a valiant attempt [...]
If you’re writing recipes more than occasionally (heck, maybe even if just occasionally), it’s great to build up a collection of resources to have at hand: places to turn when you’re unsure about how to reference a specific ingredient, how to approach organizing the technique steps, how to spell panzanella [...]
Okay, I went all in on the very basic-basic starting point of all recipes—at least one ingredient and something to do with it—in this earlier post. Beyond the ingredient list and cooking method, there are three other key things most recipes will have. You could leave readers guessing as to [...]