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.
There are Sundays when what I really want to do is make bread. This is typically an hours-long process that involves poring over my cookbooks to find an engaging new recipe, kneading the dough until I can feel that it's ready, letting the dough rise, shaping it into fancy braided loaves if I'm feeling particularly ambitious or plain ones if not, and letting the dough rise some more before finally baking it.
Based on a perusal of my recent posts, it appears that I've taken to subsisting on restaurant meals and pumpkin baked goods. But fortunately (or unfortunately, since the pumpkin oatmeal cookies were pretty darn tasty), I'm still cooking. I just haven't been making anything blog-worthy. There have been lots of recipe repeats from previous years: ravioli with apples and walnuts, spinach and leek bean soup, savory roasted sweet potatoes, mushroom barley risotto, and Thai butternut squash soup.
For the past several months, I have been fantasizing about transforming piles and piles of fresh apples into quarts and quarts of chunky, cinnamon-infused applesauce. My parents generously offered me...
Last week, I felt like a cross between Piglet being blown away in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day and the autumn version of the Grinch. It was relentlessly gray, with precipitation ranging from a light drizzle to a downpour and brutal wind gusts knocking down expectant leaves just as they started to show a hint of yellow.
As longtime readers may have noticed from past posts about our Baltic cruise and our trip to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, Mike and I travel at a hectic pace. Our philosophy is that since...
Pumpkin spice. What started with a latte has morphed into its own merchandise season, overlapping with the end of “back to school” and the beginning of “Halloween.” Since I don't spend all that much...
I recently 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...
Fall has definitively arrived. Three days last week had daily high temperatures in the 50s, Zestar and Sweet Sixteen apples have made their farmer's market debuts, and the pumpkin patch we drive by on...
A couple weeks ago, I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies for Mike to take up to his cabin over Labor Day. I ate one (okay, actually two) fresh from the oven, when the cookie was soft and pliable...
I've never had to cook for just myself: I spent my college years living at home, and after graduation I moved down the the Twin Cities with Mike. Based on the sorts of low effort, slightly pathetic...
Although I spent the evening eating corn-on-the-cob on my patio, it's the day after Labor Day. Summer is officially over. Since summer is the reason I keep hanging around Minnesota, winter after...
A couple weeks ago, a muffin of epic proportions appeared in the office break room. The appearance of random baked goods in and of itself isn’t noteworthy—my law firm is large enough that there is a steady stream of catered client meetings, and the remains of fruit trays, pastry assortments, and boxes of cookies regularly make their way downstairs. But the sheer size of this muffin made it notable: it was coconut-sized, equivalent to at least three regular muffins.
As another summer draws to a close, it's time for the twelve day celebration of agriculture, handicrafts, nostalgia, and gluttony that is the Minnesota State Fair. Since the State Fair is one of the...
I love heirloom tomatoes. Although this is a foodie stereotype on par with with rhapsodizing about kale and taking pictures of food in restaurants (of which I am also guilty), my feelings are...
Last summer, I flagged a recipe for beet risotto in my copy of The Farmer’s Kitchen. Beets were a recent culinary discovery thanks to our CSA: for whatever reason, I had never tried them before. I fell in love at first bite with the simple perfection of boiled beets, vivid purple-red or brilliant orange, subtly sweet and silky smooth.
