For Kids 
Whip Up Blueberry Hotcakes (& Nix the Mix)
Indigenous to North America, blueberries are ripe and their compatibility with hotcakes is much appreciated. It’s time to flip a blueberry hotcake or two. Or twenty.
Pancakes, hotcakes, flapjacks, a short stack . . whichever terminology you prefer, from scratch with fresh local blueberries they require little more effort than a boxed mix and are [...]
Embrace Your Inner Farmer
A nudge of encouragement to cultivate a little something, to grow food for the family plate, to harvest those beauteous fruits, and then, oh yes, to relish the bragging rights. The glory, there’s no end to that – at the dinner table you can make an acceptance speech and thank everyone who helped you.
But seriously, [...]
A Good Egg
Nothing quite speaks of spring in the same way as an egg. A creation waiting to emerge, life resting dormant until the perfect moment. Easter eggs, golden eggs, a nest of tiny bird eggs — they’re all miraculous, especially from a child’s point of view. Fix me an egg for breakfast and I’m immediately transported [...]
Going Crackers
In the past I might have said you’d have to be crazy to spend time making crackers, and, as usual, whenever I make such proclamations I end up eating my words – in this case the crackers. Maybe I’ve gone crackers, but I have a hankering to make some. (The munchkins in your life will [...]
A Plate of Cookies for You-Know-Who
Christmas Eve is almost here. It’s a great excuse to get the kids into the kitchen to bake a batch of cookies . Not a bad way to spend a snow day and a sweet cure for cabin fever. Luckily, Adrian & Lily are nearly always willing participants for any baking project. But the photo-taking [...]
Pumpkin Pie from Scratch
Every fall my husband, who’s a decent cook and an excellent bread baker, launches into his one dessert specialty, pumpkin pie from scratch. 
Pies made from a can of Libby’s are so good it’s hard to imagine the effort being worth it. … For years he made the pies using the recipe on the back of the Libby’s can, but with his own freshly roasted pumpkin; he tried Macrina Bakery’s recipe for Maple Pecan Pumpkin Pie which is a winner.
PC Fast Food @ Burgerville
The concepts of political correctness and a cheeseboiga don’t seem compatible. Oxymoronish maybe. But then there’s Burgerville, a fast food joint with sustainability at its heart. Go figure. If you’re traveling the I-5 corridor between Centralia, Washington and Albany, Oregon (also east on I-84) you can treat yourself to fast food that’s appropriately [...]
Will a Farmer in Chief Plant Veggies in the Rose Garden?
I wish. While apples are baking in the oven read Michael Pollan’s article from Sunday’s New York Times. I’ll say right up front that it’s long, nine pages, but it’s a doozy, an open letter to the next president, the next Farmer in Chief. Maybe you’ll just read part of it, or skim quickly [...]
Sweeten the Deal: Chocolate Zucchini Bread
In a recent article in the NY Times, Six Food Mistakes Parents Make , the first mistake listed was not involving kids in food preparation. Researchers at Teachers College at Columbia University found that the more kids are allowed to participate in cooking, the more likely they are to try new foods. Add harvesting [...]
Have a Pizza Party
All of Adrian’s juggling practice came in handy when it was time to make pizza. I mixed up a batch of dough ahead of time, then cut it into quarters so each person could make their own.
The Farmers Market provided the toppings — italian sausage from Skagit River Ranch, caramelized red torpedo onions and sauteed [...]
