I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me before, but ricotta's a great ingredient to have on hand. One small tub came to the rescue twice in this past week and it's got me thinking I should add ricotta to my grocery cart most every week. Friday night we were joining [...]
It must be a bumper-crop year for chanterelle mushrooms here in the Northwest. My local grocery store, the wonderful West Seattle Thriftway, has had a consistent supply of lovely chanterelles for $8.99 per pound, one of the lowest prices I recall seeing for the beauties in recent years. And I've [...]
I've been on a granola spree lately. And it kind of took me by surprise. Well, to be true, I do remember this moment: on a business trip a few months back, I was on deadline working in my hotel room through the breakfast hour. I usually find room service [...]
Okay, enough with the stone fruits! I've clearly been on a bent about that category of delicious summertime fruits. For a moment I'll move along from the peach and plum tones of those juicy treats and give some props to the jeweltone berries. A few occurrences conspired to put visions of summer [...]
If I had to hang my hat on one theme about which I've written the most in my (ahem) nearly 2 decades of food writing, it's Northwest ingredients. Celebration of foods that are grown in my backyard, that have been part of my life since I was a little kid, [...]
I can't tell you the last time I cooked French fries at home. Years ago, easily. If not a decade or more. Don't get me wrong. I love a good French fry, but I'm just pretty loath to glug out a pan full of oil and go through the work of [...]
I FINALLY bought my first microwave. Nah. Just kidding. April Fool's!! A day late. I've never had a microwave. And I plan to live the rest of a full and satisfying life without ever owning a microwave. This week's piece in the Wall Street Journal about microwave manufacturer's trying to [...]
I guess it was two different influences that conspired to establish our menu for dinner last night. First, the Sunday trip through our beloved neighborhood grocery store, West Seattle Thriftway, where my eyes caught a "buy one, get one free" special on beautiful, boneless rib-eye steaks from Misty Isle Beef. Couldn't [...]
Don't let that fancy name scare you away. Cooking "en papillote," or in a paper pouch, is one of the easiest and most delicious ways to cook fish. You're essentially creating simple little steam ovens made of paper: the moisture stays fully enclosed in the packet and all the flavor [...]
Anyone else out there love both food and playing games as much as I do? I sure hope so. Because today's the official release date of my new cookbook, Gourmet Game Night. It's the ideal book for that niche of humanity that lives in that overlap of the foodie crowd and the [...]