Two days ago, I called my grandmother to ask her about her meatloaf. She has this way of making it that I've never been able to duplicate.But she didn't answer. She usually answers, or if she can't get to the phone fast enough, she always calls back.But she didn't call back this time. Maybe she…
I stumbled upon a new beer bar in Mill Valley a few weeks ago, with sawn lumber for tables and a sea of beer and nothing to eat but German pretzels, rolled out, and twisted, and baked to order. I tried a pretzel and what struck me most was not the pretzel (though it was…
I made a friend! It's a big deal because since I moved to CA for a bit, I don't have many in this neck of the woods.YOU are my friend. No, don't look behind you, I'm talking to YOU.I have a very active cyber life. It's how I cope.But the good news is that a…
A few weeks ago I went on a strawberry binge. I was intent on making a strawberry rhubarb pie and my strawberry estimating skills turned out to be terrible, and thus I was left with more strawberries than one pie could hold. So I proceeded to make approximately 1.6 trillion recipes from strawberries. There was…
I like soft foods. It will serve me well if I have no teeth one day. I like to make my own soft foods whenever possible, the skills will be useful if I'm living off the grid somewhere and I'm toothless.Or if I'm just living off the grid.Or just living toothless.I made homemade cheese the…
I like all things pickled. Pickled peppers, pickled ramps, pickled... things.Sorry. I'm not feeling very eloquent today. I just read a lot of legal jargon and it fried my brain and my eyes are blurry. I can barely see this screen. I'm waiting for things to return to normal... which isn't necessarily eloquent either, but…
Last night I dreamt about rhubarb. What does that mean?I took it as a sign that I should show you how to make my favorite pie. Any dream interpreters out there can speak now or forever hold your peace.Anyone?Great! Pie it is.Once upon a time there was someone named "The Pie Lady" in my hometown.…
A few weeks ago I rendered some duck fat.And then I rendered some pig fat.And it was good.Whenever you render fat, you're left over with something we call "cracklin'." It's an automatically southern word. Don't bother putting a proper -ing on the end of it, you're wasting your time. It's cracklin'.The first time I heard…
I’m 34,000 feet in the sky again. I seem to be up here a lot. I’m hoping to have a lull again this summer before I embark on a whole new book that I’m about to write, which will require travel which means many more posts from up here. Did I tell you about the…