Vegetarian

When it comes to springtime foraged vegetables, ramps (also known as wild leeks), have gotten the bulk of the chef and food world attention. I like ramps as much as the next tedious food geek droning on about the pungent wonders of spring’s first local seasonal edible green thing, but there’s some concern that the …

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a cookbook great. Deb just wrote about what makes a recipe great, and, as usual, she articulates with aplomb thoughts that have rattled around aimlessly in my brain. But my favorite cookbooks are more than collections of great recipes. They give me entree into the mind …

For a number of years in my late twenties and early thirties, Dan and I and a group of friends took turns hosting fortnightly dinner parties where we cooked a meal and played board games and enjoyed each other’s company. (We also passed around an infamous set of poorly made, tangled chimes that had originally …

It’s been an exhausting couple of weeks around here. We’ve had a steep learning curve as new dog owners. Our crooked-tailed mischief-maker has loads of energy and even with hour-long romps in the park by the lake and numerous shorter walks around the neighborhood she still manages to race around our apartment at a frenetic …

When you hear the word “shrub,” unless you’re a cocktail geek or a drink historian, you likely think about a plant. And its other name, “drinking vinegar,” isn’t exactly the most enticing phrase either. You might wonder if someone is trying to rebrand spoiled wine or if we’re talking about really high-end balsamic with the …

Sometimes I forget that I like salad. I remember that I should eat salad, and then I react against the idea with the sulky resentment of a teenager. I go through phases when I dutifully buy bagged baby greens only to pull them out from the crisper drawer, strange and slimy, a few weeks later. In …