Mushrooms. They’re another one of those divisive little devils that can turn a dinner party on its head if you’re not careful. You might love them, fill your pastas with them and think they’re the cat’s pajamas. Or maybe, instead, you think of them as an all-too-close cousin of some sort of inedible invertebrate. If…
Irish brown soda bread
My older brother has pretty mean (and by mean, I mean awesome) bread-making skills. I can’t remember when exactly he started refining his craft, but the bread-making has been a semi-annual summer and/or Christmastime event (basically every time he comes back to visit) since well before I graduated college. I’m also not quite sure what…
You’re welcome, houseguest: Butternut sage scones
I’ve decided after yesterday that risotto is to cooking as scones are to baking. Yes, they might seem intimidating at first. Yes, it takes a little work to prepare them properly. Yes, they seem much more complicated than they actually are. And yes, the extra effort you put into them will result in a delicious…
Mail-order salt: Food’s getting all new-agey
Yesterday I did something I never thought I’d do. I ordered groceries from the Internet. It wasn’t the once-every-few-weeks, fill-your-cart-to-the-brim kind of shop, but it’s a monumental occurrence nonetheless. Actually, it was only one item that I purchased: Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt. Please allow me to explain. I’ve been trying my best to pace…
Vegetable Week: It’s like Shark Week, but healthier
This week will go down in history as the week that Jared and I ate our weight in vegetables. OK, not really. But we made a mighty impressive effort, if I do say so myself. It all started with that veggie-filled garden minestrone soup earlier this week. Then there was Valentine’s Day dinner, which consisted…
Delicious distractions
Wednesday afternoon was a first for me. As I sat at my desk and typed away on work-related odds and ends, I clicked on my Twitter feed just as @food52 tweeted about this week’s wildcard winner on their site. Normally I don’t have any trouble clicking back and forth between Twitter updates and the task…
Winterizing summer favorites: Spanish roasted potato salad
My Grandpa Smith is a jack-of-all-trades sort of guy. A general contractor by profession, he’s been building houses for years and years and knows his way around pretty much any tool or project that Bob Vila could throw at him. When I was 10 years old, he built an amazing set of furniture for my…
A belated celebration: Chocolate chip pancakes
So yesterday was National Chocolate Cake Day, and somehow I missed the memo until mid-afternoon when it was too late and I was too busy to partake in the sugar-filled euphoria. Sad, I know. And I do so love a good holiday. Anyway, I spent the better half of yesterday thinking about cake (which is…