Fifteen years ago, my now-husband and I went out for our first Valentine’s Day date. We went to a nearly-empty pub, sat down for a beer, and within 10 minutes some drunk guy we’d never met had twisted his barstool around started describing the sordid details of his ongoing, bitter divorce. We were young, and West-coast raised…
Cooking
DIY Herbal Teas (The Giant Tutorial)
I’m a Seattle-girl to the core, so I’m not giving up my coffee any time soon. But I also have a big, soft place in my heart for a steaming mug of herbal tea, especially when I can grow and dry the herbs myself. The Basics Herbal tea isn’t technically tea, since it doesn’t contain…
The Jasmine Tea-tini
Oscar Wilde is credited with perhaps the world’s best quip about manners: “A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.” Yeah, just take a minute and let it sink in. I feel the same way about cocktails: “A good cocktail will never get you drunk unintentionally.” My preference is for drinks that leave no room…
The Rosemary Gin Gimlet
On New Year’s Eve I went to one of my favorite restaurants with my favorite people and drank a Gin Gimlet. (Okay, okay, three Gin Gimlets. You know me so well.) It was nice to get reacquainted with the Gimlet – it’s an old friend I haven’t quaffed in a long while. The Gimlet is…
Mache Salad with Pickled Beets and Goat Cheese
Pickings are mighty slim in the garden right now, but I do have mache. This freely self-sowing (not to say weedy) tender salad green is the most green thing I’ve picked in months. While I was looking the other way, it’s filled an entire bed with these little, nutty rosettes. I like mache, I really…
Grandpa's Cold Cure Cocktail
At this time of year, no one would blame you if you were a bit partied out. From Thanksgiving to New Years tends to be a glutton-fest of rich food, sweets and frequent libation. I’m eager to revive the ol’ Friday Cocktail Tradition around here, but sympathetic to folks who may be feeling like a…
Kitchen Tip: 9 By 9 Inch Pan Perfectly Sized For 1 Gallon Freezer Bag
I bake almost all my quick breads and cakes in square 9 by 9 pans. I’ll admit that this started out as a happy accident. Six years ago, in an effort to earn a little extra holiday cash, I took a seasonal job as the Holiday Food Demo Girl at my local mall’s Williams-Sonoma store….
Thai Red Curry Cabbage Salad
A few months ago I planted a half-bed of Caraflex cabbage, a new-to-me variety that has become my official favorite fresh eating cabbage. This pointy-headed cabbage has performed wonderfully for me on dense spacing, so I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I’ve made basically one thing with it. That’s not to say the cabbage has gone to…
The Basil Bliss
It’s been an unseasonably warm, late spring day and we’ve been digging a duck pond. It’s time for a drink. It’s not quite warm enough for the icy summer staples (gin and tonic, I’m looking at you) but the moody drinks of winter are just too emo for a day of high cirrus clouds against a clear…
The Rhubarb 75
It’s not quite strawberry season, cherries look like small, hard green marbles and peaches are just a fuzzy dream. But there is rhubarb. Rhubarb is a strange edible. Not really a fruit but typically used as one, poisonous except for the stalk, tart and astringent and stringy when raw. Who was the first brave gatherer that…
Chocolate Mint Mojito
Mint isn’t just mint. There’s peppermint, spearmint, ginger mint, apple mint, pineapple mint, chocolate mint, lime mint and on and on. (Anyone ever seen Best in Show? Yeah, varieties of mint are kinda like the “I can name all the nuts” scene.) Different mints have different levels of super potent compounds that give them their…
Bitters and Soda: A Refreshing Mocktail
I know this might come as a shock, but most evenings I don’t actually want a boozey drink. And there are plenty of afternoons when a true cocktail would be inappropriate anyway (I prefer to be sober when I pick my kid up at the bus stop.) But sometimes I want…something. That’s where this easy,…