Dairy 
Gelati, Cherry & Chocolate
Gelati, gelato. Summer has to be just around the corner. Grilling and Folk Life are happenin’, it’s Memorial Day weekend and at my house the ice cream freezer’s humming. A bumper crop of Montmorency cherries in the front yard will ripen in the next few weeks while two or three quarts from last year loiter [...]
Perfectly Hard-Boiled
Until you’ve eaten a couple of hard-boiled eggs tough enough to bounce off the pavement and tinged with grayish green, you might think that boiling an egg is no big deal.
There seem to be a variety of approaches to the perfectly hard-boiled egg, one that isn’t overdone and has none of that greenish [...]
A Fool for Rhubarb, It’s Hot Pink & Heralds Spring
What can I say? She’s a babe. Eight weeks ago rhubarb lay dormant in her own leafy compost, today with hot pink stalks and abundant crinkly leaves ablaze, she struts her stuff. These first leafings are positively iridescent in their exuberance. (Don’t even think about eating them!) Enough for a small bowl [...]
Fondues Warm the Longest Nights
Fondues are the perfect foil for winter blues, something gooey and melted wrapped around almost anything that we can dip or stick a fork into. For Pacific Northwesterners today is the year’s shortest day, longest night. Winter Solstice. Although we don’t dance around maypoles in chiffon, we do we have seasonal food rituals and celebrations [...]
With Pumpkin & Eggnog, Still French
Pumpkin Eggnog French Toast has the seasonal twist worthy of breakfast on Christmas or any winter morning. The pumpkin, the eggs, a few spices and a splash of eggnog. Oh yes, eggnog. Grill it in more butter than usual, buy a special loaf of bread and celebrate something.
The French toast of my childhood was [...]
Shake It. Make It: Butter
After years of reading that we need to eat a low-fat diet in order to be healthy, it came as a huge relief to hear that many people believe high quality, saturated fats are essential to good health. At last, I no longer need to repress my love of butter. I’ve always loved the stuff [...]
Savory and Sweet: Salted Caramel Ice Cream
It’s already August and if you haven’t used your ice cream freezer yet, the time has definitely come. There are very few multi-generational activities that evoke as many summer childhood memories as making and eating ice cream. Those of us who are lucky enough to live in the Seattle area not only have access to [...]
There’s an egg in my soup
Some of you will not go for this. I get it. I might have been one of you had I not experienced this meal with friends a few weeks ago. Putting a poached egg in the middle of a bowl of tomato soup isn’t something I would have done on my own, but it was [...]
Kitchen Flotsam & Jetsam
Maybe you know what I’m talking about. Or am I the only one with end bits of whatever that have been pushed aside by kitchen tidal action and go unattended until it’s conveniently too late?
At my house it’s usually bread and cheese that have been marginalized for any number of reasons. Not so pretty and [...]
Sweet on Ricotta
Spring is a season of heightened sensory experience. Delicate fragrances, sounds that bring back memories, colors I forgot even existed and of course, fresh tastes found only at this time of year. You can make ricotta anytime but its light subtlety reminds me of a quintessential spring food. Ricotta is like my perfect pillow — [...]
