First couple weeks of the new year of course means that it's time to pull out those crystal balls and have a gaze at anticipated trends for the year. I tend to put about as much credence into food trend prognostication as I do my daily horoscope. That is to say: read, ponder, consider how much overlap with what I've noticed going on and wait to observe what actually happens. Both examples enjoyable and interesting in their own ...
Long gone are the days when--in an average week--we went out to dinner 4 or 5 times. As food editor of Seattle magazine and editor the Seattle Zagat guide, I had to keep up on every new opening, restaurant trends, what all the hot chefs were up to. Now I relish being in another phase, cooking at home most nights and appreciating the meals out a bit more. Dinners at home are ...
It took me far too long to get to Marmite for dinner. I, like much of Seattle, was thrilled when news of Bruce Naftaly's rebound from retirement was announced a couple of years ago, having closed his beloved Le Gourmand in 2012. Okay, maybe I was a little more thrilled than most, being such a longtime fan of Bruce and his distinct, understated approach to showcasing amazing products. I had ...
There are so, so many delicious things to toss on the grill this time of year. Burgers, salmon, corn, steak, ribs, hot dogs, pizza, shrimp, chicken, sausages and countless types of vegetables....as just a starting point. It's understandable that oysters aren't top of mind when summer prompts us to make the most of cooking outside. But it's a shame, because cooking oysters on the grill is one of my top three favorite ways to enjoy them (the other two being ...
My first stab at making tarte tatin came back in high school and was a terrible flop. I'd never had tarte tatin before, and even without an existing point of reference I knew something wasn't right. Having just pulled that recipe out of my decades-old collection of recipe cards, clippings and other early recipe notes (a collection more nostalgic than anything), I now see it was doomed on so many points. A ...
I've had this rice pudding recipe on my brain since a September trip to France, during which dinner one night in Paris included a dessert of riz au lait with a salted caramel sauce. Egad, it was amazingly delicious and reminded me of a recipe from many cookbooks ago: Jim Drohman's Gâteau de Riz from his beloved French bistro Le Pichet, which was included in the Best Places Seattle Cookbook I worked on. Seriously, every few days I was ...
I looked down at the memo app on my phone, where I was jotting notes while reading Brunch is Hell on a flight recently. Right along side it was another note titled 'brunch,' essentially menu planning for the one day a year on which I fully embrace that mash-up meal: Christmas Day. The two camps, summed up: Brunch, woo-hoo!! and Brunch, go away!! While I wouldn't go so far as to refer to brunch as 'hell,' the rest of the ...
Lemon Verbena Inspirations
My lemon verbena is blooming like mad right now, so I clipped some yesterday to bring inside to accentuate the kitchen. As usual, I stripped spare leaves from lower part of the stems before popping them into the vase. So I stared at that pile of gorgeously aromatic herb leaves...hard to just toss in the compost when it offers so many possibilities. A syrup to use in cocktail? (One of ...
Like my close-up shot here giving you detail of this salad down to every grain of farro? It's not me trying to be arty or stylish. It was the simple matter of the fact that I'd gotten down to the last few bites left in the bowl before I realized I might want to capture it before all was gone. After my first bite a bit earlier I'd thought to myself, hmmmm, this is pretty good. (Particularly since it was leftovers ...
A couple weeks ago I had one of those better-than-average work days, which had me hanging out with other food writers at Tom Douglas' cool cooking school Hot Stove Society. Our host was the Washington Beef Commission, and our task to get some hands-on time with various preparation techniques for beef: trussing larger roasts, trimming tenderloin, marinating and grinding. My time at that latter station brought to mind the last time ...
