Thrilled to announce that my first-ever self-published e-book was released earlier this week. For this initial entrée into the new realm, with The Northwest: Crab, I have revived some content from projects dating back a decade or so. The Northwest Homegrown Cookbook Series was one of the most personal projects I had [...]
Back home in Seattle at Anthony's on Shilshole, the beginning line-up of wines to judge I've been in Paris nearly two weeks now and so far only indulged in oysters once. It was at a tiny, bright, delightful little spot in the Latin Quarter that I'd read about [...]
It's such a delightful problem to have. More crab than you can eat in one sitting. Friends who have a home on Whidbey Island had had pretty good luck with the crabbing last weekend, got through as much as their family could consume, then dropped a quick email to see [...]
I was heartbroken when I first heard Bruce Naftaly's voicemail message this morning, letting me know that he and his wife and business partner Sara had decided to close Le Gourmand and Sambar in early June. I've been a card-carrying fan of Le Gourmand for many years, and of Sambar [...]
The view from my balcony at Cannery Pier Hotel, the Hwy 101 bridge crossing the Columbia It had been a good 15 to 20 years or so since my last trip to Astoria. So I was especially happy when an invitation came through from the Oregon Albacore Commission and the [...]
I love this snippet about "How to Forage for Mushrooms" from a not-too-long-ago issue of Esquire magazine. (My husband pulls random pages out for me -- this one doesn't happen to have the issue month on it.) Step 1 reads "Find a humid forest." followed by Step 2: "Leave that [...]
I know weather was pretty dismal this past spring in many parts of the U.S., not the least up here in the Northwest where we brokethe kinds of records you're never too excited to hear about: the coldest April; the next-to-wettest March. So now that the last week or so [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]