It's a rather odd phenomenon that occurs when involved in a conference as intensive and engaging as that of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, which just wrapped up this weekend in Austin. The days are long, from that first sip of coffee each morning, chatting with tablemates before heading to the day's [...]
Yes, I know. I just wrote about salmon in my last post. And I'm writing about it again today. Deliciously redundant because it is, in fact, officially salmon season now that the first gleaming specimen has made its way south from the Copper River up in Alaska. I'll admit to [...]
Asparagus, tulips and salmon, oh my. It must be spring in the Northwest. Though, granted, this year's very chilly and damp spring has meant delay in the produce and flower departments, it's unlikely that the piscatorial harbinger of spring will be off its typical mid-May schedule by much. The Alaska [...]
This past weekend, at dinner with friends, some random course of conversation brought up a crazy story that I told the group. It was something I hadn't thought about for a while, but they loved the story and urged me--repeatedly--to write more about stories like it. It'll have be another time that [...]
There was a time when I really did try to keep up. In years past I was not only covering the local wine scene a bit more directly when I was food editor of Seattle magazine. But I also traveled to Bordeaux, France, with the team from the Washington Wine Commission [...]
What a delicious surprise it was. I showed up at my sister's front door last weekend and followed her into the kitchen. "Do you want some cheese?" she asked. We were about to leave for lunch, so it seemed an odd offer, but then I understood. She and her husband [...]
It certainly isn't an obvious connection. But the recent notice I read about the Flying Karamazov Brothers coming to the Seattle area soon sent me on a trip down memory lane. The year was 1985 perhaps. Tacoma, on the campus of the University of Puget Sound where I was a [...]
I sit here at my desk, typing away while looking at the now-sunny Seattle sky, seagulls passing, Olympics peaks just beyond view in the distance. A few days ago, I was working on this same laptop from my desk in the 45th floor hotel room I was staying in, midtown Manhattan, a view of countless [...]
I don't have much of a sweet tooth at all. In fact I often joke that if there's such a thing as a salty tooth, that's what I've got. But on one sweet subject I can get rather giddy: caramel. Though only really amazing, buttery, rich caramel need apply. I cringe [...]
Yeah, I know. Though technically it was less than two months ago, Thanksgiving already feels like a faint memory from months gone by. So I won't dwell on details of that day's feast that we enjoyed here at my house. The ginger-and-orange brined turkey that I grilled over mesquite-enhanced charcoal out [...]