Since St. Patrick's Day was filled with work deadlines and my weekly yoga class, our annual corned beef and cabbage dinner was a week late this year (we instead had baked potatoes on St. Patrick's Day...
As a child growing up in northern Minnesota, I figured that the "first day of spring" note that appeared on my calendar at the end of March was some sort of mistake on the part of the printer. The end of March in Minnesota typically featured snowbanks, and the only flowers in sight were the tissue-paper versions that we made in art class.
Once in awhile, I get the "Don't you miss eating meat?" question from acquaintances when they find out about my mostly vegetarian diet. Well, not really--I still ocassionally cook with chicken broth...
As promised, I have been coping with the (hopefully) waning days of winter by gleefully watching the snow melt and eating lots of soup. In fact, the last three recipes I've posted were for soups: Black Bean Soup with Cilantro and Lime, Lablabi, and Hot-Sweet-Sour Soup with Tofu and Pineapple. We actually made soup yet again for dinner last night, but since I've already given you my recipe Slow Cooker Minestrone, I'm writing about the cauliflower we had as a side dish.
If a market researcher was to come up to me in the street and ask me why I cook dinner from scratch every night, I would tell her "No thank you" and keep walking. This is my standard response to anyone who approaches me in the street, from panhandlers to proselytizers. But if I were to stop for the hypothetical market researcher, I could give her half a dozen reason reasons.
I've spent the past week poring over Mollie Katzen's The Heart of the Plate. Although technically a vegetarian cookbook, labeling it as such seems unnecessarily limiting--since many of the recipes are for small plates and side dishes, they could also serve as healthy, fruit and vegetable-packed complements to a meat entree.
As Minnesota has been buffeted with snowstorm after snowstorm, subzero temperatures, and polar vortexes, I have been making an effort not to complain too much. Mostly this is due to the fact that wallowing in negativity doesn't change the situation, but it's also because I made a conscious choice to live in Minnesota, winter, mosquitoes, road construction and all.
A few years ago, Mike and I made a trip out to Boston and Maine. Although it wasn't a fiscally irresponsible thing to do, it was our second vacation of the year, on top of the facts that lodging in...
The Winter Olympics are one of my two must-see sporting events (the other is the Summer Olympics). Obviously, figure skating is a highlight. But I also love watching more obscure sports like ski...
This past Christmas, Mike gave me quite possibly the best present ever: a grow-your-own-mushrooms kit. I love the taste of mushrooms--in recipes like Mushroom Barley Risotto or on their own--but I am also weirdly fascinated by spotting them in the wild. I get a little thrill when I see a clump of mushrooms growing in a shady spot or when they pop up all over our lawn after a few days of rain.
Last September, Mike and I had a lovely date night dinner at Basil's Restaurant. The view of the Crystal Court from the Mary Tyler Moore table was amazing, the fresh bread with basil butter was...
This Sunday, I had to provide treats for 120 people. It would have been easier (and after looking at the grocery receipt, possibly cheaper) to buy something pre-made from the grocery store bakery. By...
What gets me down most about Minnesota winters, surprisingly, isn't the cold or snow. The worst part for me is the lack of sunlight, as the daylight hours become depressingly short from November...
As far as my culinary organizational skills go, I consider myself to be an eight on a scale of one to ten. I make a meal plan every week and use that to compile a comprehensive grocery list for our...
For someone with an incorrigible sweet tooth (see: Marshmallow Mateys and Sebastian Joe's ice cream) my food cravings unaccountably tend towards the savory. By sheer volume of food consumed, my biggest craving is for popcorn from the Target Cafe (I stop by the Nicollet Mall location so frequently that the friendly people behind the counter get a bag of popcorn ready for me when they see me walk in the door).
This Sunday, I volunteered to provide some after-service treats at church. I needed something portable, easy to eat, and most of all, a lot of it. A giant batch of bars fit the bill, so in search of...
In the early days of my relationship with Mike, I was an unadventurous (he would say bland) eater. Half the time, my lunches on campus consisted of chicken strips with honey mustard (although in my...
We spent this past Christmas in Boulder, Colorado with Mike's family. It was my first brown Christmas, and not only was there no snow, it was in the mid-40s on Christmas Day and I got a sunburn while...
I minored in German, which means that I can fluently ask foreign attorneys if they speak English when I call them with legal questions, and I also have a general understanding of what the Nazis are...
About this time each year, I encounter the Cookie Yield Paradox: no matter how many cookies a recipe claims to produce, I will always end up with less. If the recipe is supposed to yield 36 cookies, it will actually yield 27, with the cookie dough I ate raw accounting for only two of the missing cookies.
