It’s seed-starting time, and I’ve gotten much more ambitious than I was last fall. I am attempting: spinach, two different kinds of arugula, sorrel, rosemary, thyme, lavender, dill, cat grass, chives, mugwort, feverfew and cornflowers! Oh my. The seeds I ordered either don’t come with instructions or the packaging is printed in Italian, so I’ve [...]
Margaret Wheeler Johnson at Double X asks who the hell has time to bake their own bread? The question that occurred to me reading every one of these pieces is how anyone trying to succeed in New York or a similarly pricey and competitive cosmopolis finds the time or reason to engage in elaborate culinary [...]
The Kitchn reminds you how. Note to self: BOOKMARK THIS. My boyfriend is a strident proper-skillet-treatment advocate, and I grew up where “soaking” pots for days on end when you didn’t want to clean them was acceptable behavior …
I suppose that I would be immediately outed as a witch during the Salem Witch trials of yore. I make secret brew in my house, write lusty plays about circus folk, and find myself enamored of both intentional communities & the magic of Apple computers. Mostly, I am just freakishly tall. Yet, after being stranded [...]
… and they’ve got a cooking show featuring raw nut pate and deserts here: [vimeo 5663331]
We’ve been watching a lot of westerns around the home lately, a side-effect of the winter, and also of secret plans. It lends itself to a need for snack food, and tonight I made the best western-watching snack food ever, so I’m going to share it with you. Rosemary White Bean Dip: 1 can white [...]
Via Phoebe Maltz, I came across this Freakanomics Blog post about Italian agriculture: Reports of recent unrest by African immigrants in southern Italy have underscored the dirty little secret that, lo and behold, there’s racism in Italy. Lost in the condemnation of Italian xenophobia, however, is a less obvious but equally important discovery: Italy’s bucolic [...]
Oh monday. Time to shower for the week and scrape off the weekend’s transgressions. It is a running joke [true fact!] in our household that I am adverse to bathing and often daydream my time traveling back to the Court of Versailles. Lazily rubbing my gloved hands with fleur d’oranger and peppering fires with newly [...]
After trips to tropical islands (Katie) and the suburbs of Cincy, OH (me), we are once against nestled in cozily in our over-heated, now-crowded-with-Christmas-presents Greenpoint home. And we intend to hibernate. I mean, we are, in fact, at this moment, hibernating. I don’t think Katie has left the house in 48 hours; I did go [...]
Julie Powell, of Julie and Julia fame, talks with Double X’s Hanna Rosin about what seems to be the hobby trend of the moment (and is also the focus of her new book, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession): butchery. The first proper butcher shop I ever came to know was Ottomanelli’s, on [...]
For all those of you who are spending the holiday with those you love, even though you may not technically be “home” … Enjoy: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cy3hMbl1W8] I am not spending the holiday at home, nor with the person I love like this (because he is, no lie, spending the day at Barbara Streisand’s house), but I [...]
Soaking the oats couldn’t be easier. You literally just put them in a jar (1 1/2 cups of dry oats makes about 3 servings), and fill the jar with water to a level just above the dry oats. Then you let it sit overnight.
Cobra Pates are vegan nut pates made by Justin Bland, a member of the Goddamn Cobras creative collective. Cobra Pate comes in two regular flavors— Almond-Tomato-Basil Maple-Walnut-Lavender —and one seasonal flavor: Cashew Chai. Ingredients All herbs that went into the pates are from Garden of Eve, a certified organic producer from Suffolk County, NY. All [...]
It’s Greenpoint Food Market day! The now-once-a-month festival takes place in the basement of the chuch at 129 Rusell, across from McGolrick Park, between Nassau and Driggs. This Saturday, Katie & I will be there, debuting “Cobra Pate,” vegan nut pates from our friends in the Goddamn Cobras. It comes in three seasonal flavors: almond [...]
The simplicity of using a food processor may be the best culinary discovery I have made this year. I hesitated for a long time out of some misguided notion that they were all super-expensive, but when I finally got around to looking, I discovered you can get a nice 3-cup processor for about $20-$30. Oh. [...]
When I was a freshman in college, my friend Kari asked me if I would like an orange. We were sitting in her dorm room with some friends. I accepted her offer, and watched, a few minutes later, as everyone in the room stared at me aghast. My faux pas? I had bitten into the [...]