It is officially spring. But official spring never feels like the spring that exists in my imagination. The mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful spring with green shoots and sun peaking through rain and warm breezes and new beginnings. Official spring in Chicago is something altogether different. It is one day in a series of false starts. It is …
Soy sauce
Winter arrived here with a vengeance last week. The temperature dipped below zero, the winds blustered, the schools closed for a couple of days. Snow came a few days ago and covered the sidewalks and rooftops along with the cars parked on the street. As I look out my window now, the wind blows disintegrating …
It turned cold with a vengeance here last week. My heart went out to the hardy trick-or-treaters who braved the wind, rain, snow flurries, and hail last Friday night. It’s been getting dark earlier. In the subsequent days the temperatures have rebounded a bit but it’s been cloudy and overcast. Our new place has windows …
For much of my life, I was largely indifferent to cauliflower. It was something I might pick from a veggie tray if the carrots and cucumbers were gone. Raw, it was Bunnicula’s broccoli, sort of crunchy and faintly bitter. It was, I guess, okay. I felt similarly about steamed cauliflower. It was milder and softer. It was fine. …
I am an inveterate procrastinator. In school, I was one of the kids who stayed up into the wee hours of the night the day before the project or paper was due, frantically trying to get the thing done. From elementary school onward, it only got worse. In college, I felt pretty good if I …
This salad feels so clean. So fresh. It takes its inspiration from the Japanese. It’s a nice change of pace from the arugula and kale and chard and spinach I’ve been eating so much of over the last several months. I love fennel. I think some people are resistant to it because of a prejudice …