A few days ago I stopped in at The Albina Press to buy some coffee beans. I don’t normally spring for Stumptown brew, but I was eager to be home and The Press was the bean outlet nearest to my route. The thing I like so much about this coffee shop is that it’s a [...]
Read More»In the hours before our meal last week at Passionfish in Pacific Grove, California, my father was visibly anxious. I suppose he had reason to be. The last time we went there together I was disappointed by the experience. The dinner commemorated the long-overdue completion of my Bachelor’s degree and my expectations were high. They [...]
Read More»Tomorrow is the Thanksgiving holiday here in the good ol’ USA. It’s a harvest festival, a time for reflection as the days shorten and darken, an excuse to be with family and friends, an opportunity for gluttony and for giving back. The Thanksgiving of my childhood is blanched, salted almonds, smooth on the tongue and [...]
Read More»I have just had a colossally bad day in the kitchen, the sort that makes me wonder if I can cook at all, or if I have merely been really lucky up until now. I was going to make a cake. I was going to make a cake for my Squeeze’s birthday, the first of [...]
Read More»Weeks before it opened, signs were posted bearing Da Rib Shack’s name. I was skeptical. Though most mobile kitchens (which is what those trailers all over town are, regardless of their actual mobility) are little more than shacks, that aspect of their construction is not something I like to focus on when enjoying their fares. [...]
Read More»After he came home from work to an unexpectedly empty house, after I came home from my meeting, and after we both decided that what I’d planned for us to eat (salad rolls and the previous night’s Thai leftovers) didn’t sound so great after all, we stood in our tiny kitchen somewhat grumpily eliminating options [...]
Read More»Today the weather was dramatically overcast and breezy. The laundry that I hung on the line in the backyard at one p.m. had to go for a ride in the dryer at six, when I finally conceded victory to the rain, quickly gathering t-shirts and towels from under the misty sky. It was dark at [...]
Read More»It is good to know people with fruit trees. I, for example, am lovingly raising two fig trees and a dwarf pomegranate on my property. In a couple of years, I will be a very handy person to know. When an entire mature-tree’s worth of fruit comes ripe all at once, the owner of said [...]
Read More»As with so many of the precious perishables, my biggest concern in dealing with my massive berry booty was to avoid waste and spoilage. More than half of the haul went into the jam pot, and quite a few were eaten fresh with cereal or baked into a delicious cobbler. As for the rest – [...]
Read More»
Recent Comments