Do you know how, once a little thing or two have disrupted your routine, it can be incredibly hard to get back into that routine again? It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted here, never mind blogged regularly. I haven’t been cooking much that’s interesting, so I’ve had a shortage of things to blog [...]
I think I have a cobbler problem. That’s the technical term for the condition I’m suffering from, which I just invented. I like how “cobbler problem” rolls off the tongue. Except, the name implies that having lots of cobbler might be a problem, for some reason, so it’s really a misnomer. Cobbler is a fruity, [...]
I’m more of a planner than a doer. When I see a recipe I like, or think of a food I’d like to try, or a restaurant I want to go to, I will usually think about it for a few days or weeks before acting on it (sometimes making elaborate plans in the process). [...]
It’s hot out. I was away for the weekend at my college reunion, which was delightful in every way, including the weather. Not so in DC. When I left last week, it was still spring. Now, with the temperature breaking 95 degrees this week, it’s officially summer. I am not excited about summer in DC. [...]
What’s a girl got to do to grow lettuce in the greater DC area? Spring is a fleeting season in DC. If you blink (or, because of pollen allergies, you sneeze), you’ll miss it. Case in point: I started experimentally sowing seeds for cool-weather plants, like radishes and peas, in February. The first ones that [...]
I try to read the news and stay informed. Sometimes it’s hard to do it, especially lately, when I’d rather press my hands over my ears and talk to myself to drown out the news from the outside world. There’s war in Libya, the Republicans are convincing the country that health care reform is evil, [...]
Mark Bittman must have read my post on oatmeal last week (he must have, right? Why else would he be thinking about oatmeal?), because he’s written a surprising post about oatmeal at McDonald’s. Granted, it’s really, really hard for McDonald’s to do anything that surprises me – but would you have guessed that their version [...]
We did it! We have our new kitchen! And when I say “we did it”, I mean “we survived with no kitchen for two weeks while builders did all the work.” But it feels like quite an accomplishment. Plus, the builders did a much, much nicer job than we would have. It looks gorgeous. (Secretly, [...]
Oatmeal is a quintessential winter food, but it sometimes gets a bad reputation. If you describe something as “the consistency of oatmeal”, it’s not usually a compliment. Oatmeal is mushy, often bland, and when it’s not bland, it’s because it’s over-sweetened. There’s one traditional way to prepare it, which is with raisins and brown sugar. [...]
It’s been busy around here, with one project in particular eating up lots of our time: we’re remodeling our kitchen. We’re replacing almost everything: cabinets, counters, floor, lights, some appliances. After a wild few weeks of decision-making – which we survived somehow, even though, under normal circumstances, we could have spent that long deciding about [...]