Could life get any better than this?

When I was young my father would sometimes bring me and my brother Ben with him to work. I don’t really remember why this was the case, as we were a massive pain in the ass (insisting on photocopying our hands and making the warehouse guys give us rides on the forklift…thank you Peggy and Mark for your unending patience), but he did.

As I got older and entered middle school the occasional trips into the office continued. Continue reading

Salmon Nicoise

My dear friend Madeline is a tremendous writer. Tremendous. She truly is one of the greats, and while the world perhaps hasn’t realized it yet, they will, and sooner rather than later I suspect. Mark my words.

(Madeline, when you became oh-so-rich and oh-so-famous you remember who gave you your first food blog shout out. That’s right.)

She lives in Brooklyn now (because where else do tremendous writers live) and is a total night owl which is dreamy for me when driving home from the barn because it means she’s one of the few East Coasters who will answer my calls. Continue reading

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixLV3acq_6s&feature=youtu.be]

She came crashing into our lives in the Summer of 2004. We were two fools in love, living in upstate NY, in a darling apartment that was much too nice for us. We drove 2 hours to get her, to the Starlight Diner off some highway I can’t remember the name of anymore. We were meeting up with a man who delivered dogs in a horse trailer all over the country. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Continue reading

Kind of Offensive Yet Utterly Delicious.

The stinking coolest thing happened the other day. “What?” you ask? Okay, okay I’ll tell you.

I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business, when this email came along to shutupandcook@gmail.com inviting me (ME!) to an “intimate dinner of about 12-15 Seattle food bloggers and local food media at Spur Gastropub“. I nearly fell out of my chair…and then, being the sarcastic, hardened woman that I am, assumed it was a scam. Continue reading

A seriously delicious pork sandwich that’s even better than it looks.

Recipe: Paseo Pork Sandwich with Garlic Mayo, Caramelized Onions, Cilantro, and Jalapeno

I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately. Perhaps it was the visit to Ipswich to my childhood home, sleeping in my old twin bed with my feet tucked just so to escape the cold winter air that clamors and claws to get in. Or maybe it was the most recent Seattle snowstorm that brought our little neighborhood six inches, and brought the city to its knees. Continue reading

When you grow up in a small New England town, simple pleasures become the events around which life exists. In the summer, the options are endless; building bonfires on the beach, skinny dipping, and watching the sun rise, meeting at the barn for midnight bareback races through the fields, and simple suppers out on the boat where even the most basic of meals taste delicious.

In the winter…the options are decidedly less endless…particularly when you’re young, broke, and your car only starts with a 50% probability rating. Continue reading

Cranberry Delight before popping into the oven…doesn’t this look cool?

Recipe: Cranberry Dessert

Every family has their own holiday traditions. Some festive and fun, others thoughtful and giving, and if we’re being honest probably the occasional temper tantrum and meltdown thrown in for good measure. Growing up our family covered all of these in the bustling weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years. There was the opening of the Fox Hunt on Thanksgiving Day complete will mulled cider and pinks (Festive), the careful crafting of Christmas Wish Lists (Fun), the sneaky questions and leading suggestions to figure out what my Mom wanted besides bird seed and socks (Thoughtful), and the UNICEF box at our dining room table we put change into each day to go to children in need (Giving). Continue reading

Seared Sea Scallops on a bed of Bacon Polenta Topped with Chanterelles

When and why did we ladies ever stop having sleepovers? They are a brilliant invention:

1. Feigning to be wearing PJs, you can show up in stretch pants and thereby begin the evening already with an elastic waistband.
2. You don’t need to pretend that you have any self control since no one has to drive so you can consume as much wine as you possibly can.
3. The next morning you all get to wake up, relive the funnier moments of the evening (“Remember when Liesel told her adorable little dog that was just sitting there to ‘Shut Your Face!'”),