Desserts 
The Real Strawberry Shortcake
If you grew up in the late 70’s, early 80’s, the cartoon character, Strawberry Shortcake with all her scratch-and-sniff paraphernalia may be the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear her name. She and her cat, Custard are still around but hopefully some of us remember her namesake as the early summer [...]
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 [...]
Boozy Mint Muddling
Okay you muddlers, May is the beginning of mint season here in the Pacific Northwest. Kentucky Derby Day, the first Saturday in May, can be a little early especially if it’s been cool but we can usually scrounge up enough for a couple of juleps. In case you’re wondering, a muddler is the tool a [...]
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 [...]
Chocolate Pudding, Not Kidding
Valentine’s Day next week, and a few days ago we toasted our Mixed Greens’ two-year anniversary (thankyou dear readers). In celebration – okay, Super Bowl too – chocolate pudding. Like retro sleek-winged sofas and my mom’s Russell Wright dishes of the fifties, chocolate pudding deserves a comeback and some respect. Plus, it was among our [...]
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 [...]
Fruitcake Good Enough to Eat
I admit that I might have had a little problem with the traditional candied fruit and cake product. Winter’s culinary ritual perhaps, but show me one who loves fruitcake and I’ll give you ten who don’t. (Or am I way off about this?) Poetic justice happens and when I got married fruitcake was part of [...]
Bring Pears to the Party
Put a pear in a red dress and she’ll dance all night long. And she’s got moves.
We love her decisively pear-shaped bod and the way she fans the culinary flame at the swivel of her ample hip. Party animal. Local pears are in town for the holidays offering feastworthy fare from salads to chutney to [...]
A Beloved Brownie Lives On
Follow me and I’ll take you to Bert’s Brownies – it might be a circuitous route.
Roberta’s hugs were never obligatory or cavalier. She would take hold of you, look you in the eye with a smile and go in for the real deal, a long lasting embrace including whispered words of affection. For [...]
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 [...]
