Muddle is just one of those perfect words. It’s almost onomatopoeic– like smooch, or mushy. In fact, I think that I abuse this little double syllable. Phrases like “muddle through it” seem to so aptly describe my life at times, when I’m just at a loss, when every little thing seems completely insurmountable. Yes, it […]

Well, it was time to do a little spring cleaning, or windy, snowy January cleaning as it may be. In its older iteration, this blog served me well, as a place to post what I have been cooking in the kitchen– and it still is. But I thought that it could use a bit of […]

I always buy all of the November food magazines. I like to see what menus the editors have planned for the gluttonous holiday, Thanksgiving. Sometimes I find a recipe for yams that looks tempting, or a new way to shred my brussels sprouts, but usually I stick to the tried and true standbys that I […]

Have you ever had one of those moments, maybe you were cleaning out your closet, and discovered that old blue sweater in the back recesses that you never really wore when you bought, but trying it on now, years later, it fits beautifully, and is warm and soft– precisely what you have been looking for. […]

Things are changing around here. Do you see that stack of papers above? That is my manuscript, fresh from the editor. I know I’ve been tardy and rather delinquent in posting lately, but this unedited manuscript means that I’m going to be even more tardy and more delinquent. I gotta turn this baby around in […]

Everybody has a story to tell. I suppose that is why blogs are so popular; it can be liberating to tell a tale. But what about food blogs? They might be about sharing recipes, from my table to yours, but they are also about the story behind the cook. In this month’s issue of Natural […]

There are times when going out to eat can inspire great cooking at home. I went out for tapas with some friends recently. We had plates of serrano ham, thick fried potatoes with a garlicky aioli, roasted baby brussels sprouts swimming in earthy olive oil, and chewy baguettes filled with spicy tuna, and hard-cooked egg. […]

Sometimes you just get a certain food stuck in your head, or maybe it is more apt to say, stuck in your stomach. Like a nagging craving, the flavor is gnawing at you like a dog gnaws on a prized bone. I have always been one to give into these cravings. I figure, if your […]

I moved from Berkeley to New York in August, that sticky month of the year, when the city smells like the armpit of a sweaty construction worker, and you really wish that it were permissible to just run around the crowded streets in your underwear. But when Brian and I arrived, in typical Northern California […]

In this modern day and age, one where we can buy everything online, including our groceries, and it’s possible to never have to actually speak to another person again (that’s what email and IMing is for!), I think it’s very easy to idealize an agrarian lifestyle. Or at least I do. I dream of waking […]