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.
My blog has been a little short on recipes this summer. Partly it's because we eat out more during the warmer months, which gives me more material for restaurant reviews. When we have been eating at home, I've been focusing on favorite recipes that I've already posted: we've eaten lots of pasta with fresh sauce and linguine with zucchini and chickpeas
As I've mentioned before, I have a near obsessive urge to use up every last bit of a bunch of cilantro. I hate wasting food, in part because I relish the challenge of figuring out how to utilize a...
Today is the second anniversary of My Mixing Bowl, which started back on July 22, 2012 with a post about garlic scape pesto. Over the past year, I've added 87 posts with new recipes, restaurant...
When it comes to vegetables, my preparation methods feature a lackadaisical approach that I sometimes wish I could apply to other areas of my life. Miniature cucumbers get eaten straight from the...
Zucchini is my unsung vegetable hero of the farmer's market. Although it lacks the hipster cachet of kale or beauty of an heirloom tomato, zucchini is reliably abundant, reasonably priced, and versatile. Grated, it adds a rich moistness to muffins and quick breads; sauteed in olive oil with some salt, pepper, and garlic, it's an easy side dish; cut into spears and served raw, it pairs with just about any dip that strikes your fancy.
