While I grew up in a family that started each dinner with a formal grace, Mike comes from a non-religious background. When we first moved in together I would recite a traditional grace while Mike looked on, but that always felt kind of awkward--food and ritual should be something that's shared, not something one person does while the other spectates.
As you may have gathered from many previous posts, I am a big fan of Molli Katzen's The Heart of the Plate. The vegetable-focused recipes are interesting and vibrant, with careful combinations of flavor and texture.
As I've mentioned before, my attempts to cook for solely for myself border on the ludicrously pathetic. It's a good thing that I live with Mike, otherwise my diet would most likely consist of oatmeal...
I've been doing the whole mostly-vegetarian whole foods thing for about four years now. Although I bake my own bread, make kale chips, and subscribe to a CSA, until now I've always felt like a bit of...
I have been struggling with this blog post for the past two weeks. At one point, it evolved into a manifesto about self-confidence that referenced bad haircuts, my upcoming ten-year high school reunion, and my ex-boyfriend (this illustrates why insomnia-fueled 3 a.m. blogging is usually a bad idea). However, despite my tortured literary efforts, this recipe doesn't require an elaborate introduction.
I am one of those fortunate people who doesn't get sick very often. Most likely it's partly because I don't have or work with small children, so I'm not exposed to many germs. I like to think that my...
Yesterday officially marked the end of our holiday season. Since my family is in Minnesota and Wisconsin, while Mike originally hails from Colorado, geography prevents us from doing the Christmas-Eve...
Although I've been griping about the cold temperatures and lack of local produce, there is a benefit to this time of year in Minnesota: it's bread season. I love to bake bread, but it's a winter sport for me.
There are several reasons why Chez Panisse, the restaurant credited with being one of the drivers of the "eat fresh and local" movement, is located in Berkeley, California instead of the upper Midwest: November through May. Right now it's -2 degrees Fahrenheit, on the way to a daily high of 1 degree Fahrenheit, and the ground is covered in snow.
Another year, another Christmas in Boulder, Colorado (you can read about last year here). Our trip was filled with as many ups and downs as the Colorado weather: our plane to Denver was late, but our...
It's stocking stuffer season. While candy canes are a solid traditional choice, and you can never go wrong with chocolate, Just Born has an array of "everyday" and Christmas-themed Peeps for your...
This weekend, I found myself in need of a Christmas-themed costume and a potluck contribution for the annual German Christmas party. Since the last time I dressed up was Halloween 2001, I was quite...
This year, Minneapolis has replaced the underwhelming Holidazzle Parade with the German-inspired Minneapolis Holiday Market. Located along Nicollet Avenue at Peavey Plaza, the market features vendors...
Over the past few months, baked squash has become my default weekend lunch. In past years, I've used up our weekly CSA allotment of squash in stuffed acorn squash, coconut squash rice, and baked...
I attended the International Food Blogger Conference (IFBC), held September 19-21, 2014 in Seattle. In exchange for registering for the conference at the discounted blogger rate, I agreed to write...
In the time-honored but not terribly effective tradition of ignoring things in the hopes that they will just disappear, I have consciously not mentioned the weather lately. We were hit with a snow...
As I've mentioned before, I briefly studied in Berlin during college. Since then, I've been more diligent at keeping up with German cooking than maintaining my language skills--while spätzle is a weeknight dinner staple and there are usually Ritter Sport chocolate bars in the pantry, my verb conjugations are pretty rusty.
As a somewhat anxious child, what I looked forward to most about becoming a grown up was feeling capable. I viewed adulthood as a gleaming bastion of competence and efficiency, and I looked forward to...
I attended the International Food Blogger Conference (IFBC), held September 19-21, 2014 in Seattle. In exchange for registering for the conference at the discounted blogger rate, I agreed to write...
My pet peeve this time of year is Christmas creep. It was bad enough in prior years when Christmas displays started showing up in the few weeks before Thanksgiving, but this year Target was stocking holiday lights in September (they were next to the school supplies), and Macy's was putting up festive sweater displays in early October.
