Food & Drink

I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of this cookbook like a grandparent anticipating the arrival of a grandchild. Two years ago we loaded up our belongings into our bus and headed out of Oklahoma City. We were supposed to be relocating to Michigan to start new jobs at Milkweed Inn, but the pandemic had shut […]

Soufflé is one of those miraculous dishes that transforms seemingly humble ingredients into a marvelous main course or decadent dessert. Julia Child writes about them extensively in The Art of French Cooking, with several pages dedicated to detailing every nuance of the process. She wrote that, “Many people consider the dessert soufflé to be the […]

I love browsing through seed catalogs. They arrive just in time to nudge me out of my winter doldrums. By now I’ve grown bored with my off-season romaine salads and I’m longing for farmers market salads made with local spinach or leaf lettuce, spring onions, green garlic and tiny radishes. But springtime starts, and then […]

Shepherd’s pie is classic stick-to-your ribs pub fare. Its origins can be traced back to the pastry-topped Scottish meat pies, with the Irish supposedly swapping creamy mashed potatoes for the dough. One important, if slightly nerdy clarification, is that it’s not really a shepherd’s pie unless it is made with lamb. When made with beef […]

It was one of those times in February when the night was frigid but the afternoon was warm, when the sky changed from grey to blue and the sun had melted the morning frost. I was walking my dog through the woods behind my old house when I felt what I thought were tiny droplets […]

King Cake is a decadent, buttery confection prepared to mark Epiphany, or Twelfth Night – the day when the wise men returned from Bethlehem with the news that Christ had been born. Whether as a galette des rois in France or a dreikönigskuchen in Germany, these celebratory cakes all consist of a rich, yeasted dough, […]

In Japan, kare raisu, or curry rice, is the equivalent of our beloved mac and cheese in the blue box. Kare raisu is a rich, velvety roux-based stew and is considered to be Japan’s national home-cooking dish. It’s consumed two to three times a month on average in Japanese households. Kare raisu is the number […]

Oysters are a natural choice for intimate entertaining. They’ve been touted as an aphrodisiac since Roman times and were reputedly consumed as a virility booster by Casanova himself. Questionable libido-boosting claims aside, oysters are indeed perfect to serve on a date night at home or indeed any occasion. Not only are they a delicious and refreshing […]

I doubt that I’ll ever become a true-blue vegetarian. I just love bacon, a simple roasted chicken and a nicely seared steak way too much to totally eliminate animal protein from my diet. But I am convinced that a predominantly plant-based diet is what I should be working towards. To that end, I’m always looking […]

If 2022 has you wanting to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over your head, let me invite you instead to whip up one or all of these sunny citrus desserts. Citrus is in peak season right now, so it’s a perfect time to take make some lemonade out of whatever lemons life […]

Seaweed is regarded by many as the future of food. It’s one of the world’s most sustainable and nutritious foods. Seaweed is zero-input, meaning that it does not require fresh water, fertilizer, feed or arable land to thrive. Seaweed has the ability to absorb excess nitrogen and phosphorus deposited in the water by agricultural runoff […]