Greetings from the frozen wasteland that is the city of Boston! We are currently digging out from under our fourth blizzard in as many weeks. My positive-thinking initiative is still going, but this winter is really trying my patience. I’d complain about the terrible (i.e. non-existent) public transit conditions and the subzero temperatures, but frankly, I’m just tired of it. It’s all anyone’s talking about, and I’d just rather talk about cookies. I made these on a Sunday afternoon, the day before Alex left town for a week. I was stuck inside, I felt like baking, and I figured that a big batch of cookies would be ideal for…
Confession time: I do not like beans. I feel that, as someone who loves food, nutrition, and frugality, this is one of the worst, most shocking things I could possibly say, but it’s true. I have never cared for beans (except for beans that are green, and beans that turn into coffee). This has closed off to me a world of foods that other people seem to find delicious: chili, bean dip, certain burritos, countless soups. Being a food person who doesn’t like beans is like being a Christian who doesn’t like contemporary Christian music: you’re entitled to your opinion, of…
Sometime around September of last year, I realized that winter was coming– just like last year, and the year before that, and pretty much every year, come to think of it. Knowing that there was no way to stop it, and knowing that we had no plans to migrate South (at least not long-term), I turned to the only thing I thought might help me cope: positive thinking. Or, as I like to call it, lying to myself. Every time I felt a chill in the air or thought about snow piles and wool socks, I forced myself to say, either…
I don’t think I can tell you how difficult it’s been to sit in this apartment all day long with these biscuits. Combine their enticing scent, their visual appeal, and my unstoppable appetite for carbs, and it’s a wonder I’ve managed to eat anything else in the last seven hours. One of my coworkers first mentioned this recipe to me the week before Thanksgiving, and it’s been dancing around in my brain ever since. Squash and sage are two of my favorite ingredients, and biscuits are always satisfying and fun to make; it seemed like an ideal project for me, but I…
First off: I know. It’s a fairly weird move to start off a brand new year of blogging with a recipe for tuna salad, a dish with as many detractors as it has fans. But you know what? I love tuna salad. It almost feels like an insult to my parents’ wonderful cooking to say this, but one of my favorite childhood dinner memories is sitting around a communal bowl of tuna salad with Ritz crackers on summer nights– usually church nights, or evenings when my Dad had to make it to the racquetball courts in just an hour after getting home from…
Well, hello there. As I mentioned last week, my good camera is out of commission. For the last little while, I’ve been relying on the camera I’ve had since college, a pocket-sized Sony Cybershot that has definitely seen better days, thanks in part to the fact that it lived in my purse for the better part of five years. As I was clearing out space on the tiny camera’s memory card to make room for an onslaught of new blog photos, I ran across the shot above. I don’t remember when or where it was taken, but I’m glad I saw fit to save it. …
I’ve been watching a lot of Top Chef lately. Not the most recent season, mind you (so no spoilers, please!)– I basically quit watching after season 6 and am just now going back to watch the rest on Hulu. On one hand, watching Top Chef reminds me of all the reasons I don’t want to cook professionally (insane hours, crazy pressure, the fact that I don’t know what “brunoise” means). On the other, Top Chef is always inspiring; it makes me especially proud of the very few chef-y things I can do, and it makes me want to jump in…
I’ve noticed a trend in social media over the last few weeks: a total backlash against fall in general and pumpkin-flavored foodstuffs in particular. I love pumpkin, but I can understand this. I remember that during my freshman year of college (2005, holy cow), the Starbucks pumpkin spice latte was basically the only pumpkin-flavored product on the market, and I wolfed those lattes down with reckless abandon. However, over the course of a decade or so, other food producers have taken note of the success of the PSL (as Starbucks now abbreviates the pumpkin spice latte, annoyingly enough) and churned…
Last week Alex was in Atlanta, singing with Skylark. I’ve gotten used to these nearly-monthly trips, and I’ve even found ways to enjoy the extended periods of alone time. Basically, I use Alex’s absences as opportunities to do things that don’t appeal to him at all; last week, I binge-watched season 6 of Top Chef (you know, the one that aired in 2009, the one that featured Kevin Gillespie, aka the best season ever); I made one dinner that consisted solely of soup and salad, and another that featured the insanely spicy chicken wings from Bon Chon; I finally finished watching…
In general, I think the word “amazing” is applied a bit too liberally in discussions about food. I’m guilty of it, too, of course; I typed “amazing” into the search bar over there to the right, just to see how many of my posts contain the word, and, uh… it’s a lot. So I know you’ll take it with a grain of salt when I tell you that, in the last few days, I’ve come across a couple of foods that were truly, dare I say literally, amazing. The first was fresh mozzarella from Wolf Meadow Farm. I really wasn’t expecting…
First, before we get started here, I just want to say: I know. I know. If you’re familiar with carrot raisin salad, you probably picture it as a gloppy mess bound together by mayonnaise, possibly with the horrifying addition of chunks of canned pineapple. I swear to you, that’s not what this is. This is my best attempt at replicating the carrot raisin salad at Sweet Cheeks Q, the closest thing to Southern barbecue available in Boston. At Sweet Cheeks, in addition to your barbecued meat of choice, you have the option to order a “hot scoop” (collards, mac and…
Is it too soon to come back to the blog bearing yet another recipe for ice cream? I’ve had my ice cream maker for a little less than three months, and I’ve been using it on a near-weekly basis. There’s something so satisfying about combining a few simple ingredients, putting them in a machine, and coming back later to find a rich, silky frozen treat. I can totally understand why there are so many small-scale ice cream producers cropping up all over the country; every time I pull a fresh batch out of the freezer, I have visions of starting…
I am a bit of a magazine junkie (read: hoarder). Although I strongly prefer to keep my living areas neat and tidy, I am somehow not bothered by stacks and stacks of magazines. In my living room, there are two file boxes stuffed full of back issues of culture and Cooking Light (mostly from my college days) and at least two stacks of magazines that I’m “currently reading” (Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and Cook’s Illustrated ranging back for at least two months), not to mention several file folders full of magazine clippings. It comes pretty close to being a…
For the last couple weeks in Boston, we’ve been having unseasonably cool weather. This is how I know that I’ve become a more-or-less “real” Bostonian: I am not happy about this. Yes, it makes my bicycle commute a bit more pleasant, and yes, it makes it slightly easier to sleep comfortably in a non-air conditioned bedroom. But these days, the first hints of fall in the air remind me less of leaf peeping, pumpkin pie, and Sam Octoberfest, and more of 4:30pm sunsets and the retirement of my sundresses and sandals. But hey, it’s still August. I’m sure we have…
Sometimes when I’m faced with a chore I don’t want to do, or a task I’d rather avoid, I can convince myself to do it by looking at it as a gift to my future self. For instance, Thursday night me definitely does not want to do the dishes, but I know that Friday morning me will hate it if she wakes up to a messy kitchen. So, as an act of kindness to Friday me, I clean up the mess, and if I’m in a really benevolent mood, I’ll go ahead and set up the coffee pot, too, so the following…