Sailing in and out of Stockholm was the best scenery of our cruise. Both sides of the narrow shipping channel are lined with islands (24,000 total in the Stockholm archipelago), some barren bits of...
As a proud Finnish-American (among the many European nationalities I can claim), Helsinki was the port I was most looking forward to seeing. Unfortunately, the day started with a heavy drizzle that...
Mike and I had very different motivations for taking our Baltic cruise. I was all about the “Baltic” angle, spending months beforehand researching the best bakeries in Copenhagen and the sights in...
I'm taking a break from my cruise blogging to write about one of my absolutely favorite things about summer in Minnesota: fresh strawberries. For a few weeks in late June and early July, I feast upon...
In St. Petersburg, we were the farthest from home, geographically and culturally. We were used to not being able to read signs by this point in our trip, but in Russia we didn't even know the alphabet...
Although many of the cities we visited on our cruise have medieval roots, Tallinn is the best preserved. The medieval city wall (which now encompasses a very small section of the city) is still intact...
Geographically astute readers may be wondering how Berlin is included on a Baltic cruise itinerary, since it is, in fact, rather landlocked. The answer is that after departing from Copenhagen, our...
Mike and I spent the beginning of June on a whirlwind Baltic cruise through six countries in nine days. We saw medieval city walls in Tallinn and a remnant of a much more modern wall in Berlin, ate...
I decided to make some tabbouleh for a potluck last month because I was in the mood for something fresh and herbal. It was a hit--one woman went back for thirds--and I found myself eating the...
Although I would never admit it in a job interview, I chose my career mostly because I really wanted to work in downtown Minneapolis. I fell in love with the hustle and bustle the first time I got off...
Over the years, I've had my fair share of dinner recipe failures. Sometimes it's just a matter of taste: the fancy pasta dish that led to the realization that Mike and I share a vehement dislike of Brie; the anchovy flatbread that ended up in the garbage (it was part of the Brooks Bakes Bread project); and a truly bizarre pasta salad that involved bow tie pasta, corn, salsa, and Italian dressing.
In general, I'm not much of a cupcake person. It's not that I dislike them; they just fail to entice me in the same way that say, ice cream does. (Although I do love frosting. My ideal cupcake would probably have about an inch of cake topped with two inches of frosting.) However, last month my mom made a batch of incredible key lime cupcakes for my grandma's birthday.
I spend most of my time on this blog writing about topics like the wholesome tastiness of obscure whole grains, the joy of opening a CSA box and finding the first strawberries of the season, and...
Lately, it seems like everyone and her second cousin is on the paleo diet. One of my coworkers seems to be subsisting on kale smoothies and hamburger patties, while another has brought in dairy-and...
Another year, another annual appetizer and dessert potluck. Since the avocado and tomato crostini that I made for last year's event were a hit, I wanted to make something in a similar vein. I was...
Even though I've had this recipe set up for blogging for a couple weeks now, I've hesitated to post it. Slow cooker chili seems like more of a winter recipe, something hearty for a January day, something to warm your stomach while your feet are tucked into shearling slippers and you watch snow gently fall on your patio.
When it comes to the technical aspects of how things work, I am not by nature an inquisitive person. I am perfectly happy to accept the electrical grid and internal combustion engines on blind faith. This particular aspect of my personality is immensely aggravating to Mike, who builds servers from scratch and knows what a torque wrench is.
The first cookbook I ever bought was the Betty Crocker Cookbook (I have the tenth edition; the fact that there's a newer one out is making me feel kind of old). It's still the cookbook I turn to most often, for the hummus that I bring to potlucks, the deviled eggs Mike makes whenever we have a party, and comfort foods like au gratin potatoes and macaroni and cheese.
Looking back, there are certain periods of my life that are inextricably linked with certain foods. One of my most vivid memories of high school is dipping bite-sized chunks of bagel into single...
With great reluctance, I finally returned The Heart of the Plate to the library. As you may have guessed from my enthusiastic posts about some of the recipes I tried--Lablabi, Hot-Sweet-Sour Soup with Tofu and Pineapple, Cheese Crusted Roasted Cauliflower, and Spring Farro--it's a lovely cookbook, with a wide variety of interesting recipes that would appeal to both vegetarians and omnivores
