If there’s any food in my life that really embodies that old cliché, “You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone,” it’s boiled peanuts. These things are everywhere in the Deep South. You can buy them at gas stations, roadside produce markets, the concession stand at the ballpark, or if you’re really in a pinch, at the grocery store, in a can. I always loved boiled peanuts and would gladly eat them whenever they were available, but I never really bothered to seek them out on my own while I was living in Alabama. It wasn’t until I was…

Hello from Minneapolis, where I am wrapping up my fourth month of this whole thing. I’m still happy to be working from my kitchen table instead of my office (and let’s be honest, it’s good to be working at all), but… I don’t even know, y’all. Some days it just feels like everything is terrible, and those days are getting more and more frequent. Since I can’t go wander the library stacks, or sit quietly in an art museum gallery, or any of the other non-food-related things I like to do when I’m feeling bad, stress baking it is! And…

One of the weirdest things about leaving the food industry, for me, was getting used to working at a desk again. I remember being shown to my desk at my first job after quitting the cheese biz and feeling like it was too good to be true—all that desk space, just for me, with a chair to sit in, ample room to move around, and drawers to fill with my own stuff. I’d had office/administrative responsibilities in my previous jobs, but no dedicated place to do them, so having my own space was a game changer. There are drawbacks to…