Blog

There are so many reasons that it's been as long as it has since I last sat down to write a post here. I won't bore you with details, aside from the more recent reason that I was out of town for most of December. It was a trip my husband and I had been looking forward to for many months, since springtime when he determined how he'd like to celebrate the noteworthy birthday milestone he'd be hitting this ...

I can't say how many times a food story I've written, or recipe I've developed, has come with a story of my mother. My favorite is this one, which ended up getting picked up by Saveur's online offerings and has, in the long run, become one of the most popular posts on my blog. Which I'm proud of not at all for the number of visitors it represents. But instead for the fact that each person who landed ...

After a particularly hectic, demanding, tiring summer, we were in need of a quick and relaxing get-away late last month. Though the Seattle-area has loads of regional escape plans that radiate out from the city--Whidbey Island, Walla Walla, the ocean coast, Port Townsend, Hood Canal--I wanted to be unwinding sooner than later, so minimum highway time was a plus. We opted for Bainbridge Island, a quick 30-minute ferry trip from downtown ...

  It had been a good 15 to 20 years or so since my last trip to Astoria. So I was especially happy when an invitation came through from the Oregon Albacore Commission and the Western Fishboat Owners Association to join on an albacore escapade to Astoria last week. Didn't hurt that I'd recently put my latest cookbook to bed. The prospect of a mini road trip to the ocean coast sounded like just what the doctor ordered after a particularly hectic few months ...

I love this snippet about "How to Forage for Mushrooms" from a not-too-long-ago issue of Esquire magazine. (My husband pulls random pages out for me -- this one doesn't happen to have the issue month on it.) Step 1 reads "Find a humid forest." followed by Step 2: "Leave that forest and go to a farmers market or a good grocery store." They then go on to talk about general tips for choosing mushrooms. At the store. I had to laugh ...

All work and no play has been making Cynthia somewhat dingbatty. Honestly. It's that kind of brain-frizz that makes me turn in circles in the kitchen 3 or 4 times before I remember that all I needed to do was grab a knife out of the drawer to spread peanut butter on this morning's English muffin. But it's a good kind of dingbatty -- because it's the result of being in ...

I know weather was pretty dismal this past spring in many parts of the U.S., not the least up here in the Northwest where we brokethe kinds of records you're never too excited to hear about: the coldest April; the next-to-wettest March. So now that the last week or so has actually been summery, with crystal clear skies and warm temps (we're due to break 80 degrees again today!), it ...

OK, so yes, it is just about 9:00 in the morning as I start writing this. And yes, it's true, I do have an icy, well-shaken martini on my mind. But not because I'm blurring the lines between "breakfast hour" and "cocktail hour." But because I'm thinking about that really outstanding, well-crafted martini (or two) I'll be sipping tomorrow evening at Oliver's in downtown Seattle at the Mayflower Park Hotel. Seattle, as you may well know, is no slacker in the quality cocktail ...

Last week was indulgent to say the least, me and plenty of my culinary colleagues who attended the same conference in Austin, Texas, indulged in a near- or at-capacity amount of barbecue, tacos, Dorie Greenspan cookies, margaritas, brisket sandwiches, you name it -- we ate up the city for days on end. And I don't think any of us regret a single bite. But there's been a common refrain now that we're ...

It's a rather odd phenomenon that occurs when involved in a conference as intensive and engaging as that of the  International Association of Culinary Professionals, which just wrapped up this weekend in Austin. The days are long, from that first sip of coffee each morning, chatting with tablemates before heading to the day's first session, to the inevitable last glass of wine/martini/beer before calling it a night after a full and ...