Chicken and Cheese Torta

The late Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Rest in Peace, sage lady. But I don’t think anyone will soon forget all that you have said and done. Little known fact about […]

Poutine-Style Twice Baked Potatoes

Because I am on a pediatrics rotation, I felt permission to disregard the age-old adage to not play with your food. I carved canoes out of baking potatoes while singing “Just Around the River Bend” from Disney’s Pocahontas. Two hours and several skinned knuckles later, I realized that the recipe implied (which is something a […]

Taco Soup for Cinco de Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo! Be sure to put on a flat-brimmed hat festooned with dingle balls and bust out your maracas as you fasten your apron. Hominy is an ingredient I had never used before this dish, and probably in a trivia game would have confused with something liturgical, or musical. It is a Mexican […]

Love in the Time of Salsa

Be calm. God awaits you at the door. Rest in peace, author of those words, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The zest in your flattest literary character is a thousand times more potent than my hottest chile dish. Thank you for making my heart ache, page after page, for showing me “that human beings are not born […]

Sauteed Shrimp with Gremolata and Spiced Butter and Tacos

Let us remember…that in the end we go to poetry for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live them, and that if we more fully inhabit these things, we might be less apt to destroy both.                                                                                             Christian Wiman. Happy Poetry Month, y’all. Examined […]

Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup

My palate is still stuck in the fall. Autumn flavors and hearty soups are all that I crave since our temperature here in Minnesota has remained in the 20s, with a stolid crust of ice and dirty old snow piles lining the boulevards. Because I’m cramming for my shelf exam in family medicine this week, […]

Red Quinoa and Lentil Pilaf with Cumin and Cauliflower

Spring is here! The ice is off the roads, so the moped returns! Thanks for the new carny crash helmet, Mom. It works. Though maybe this video is reason enough to get KP a matching brain bucket–or a side car. Minnesota T-shirt weather today—read, 40s. This is a recipe I adapted from the vegan chef […]

Brazilian Seafood Stew

It’s happening. Spring. KP and I contributed to the destruction of winter this morning by lacing our feet with YakTraks (like tire chains, but for shoes) and stomping onto every edge of ice we encountered on Bear Creek Trail. Then we came home and took bats to the icicles dripping from our gutters. This week […]

Happy Mardi Gras Red Beans and Rice

Happy Mardi Gras! Maybe next year I can convince Rochester to hold a second line parade on this important New Orleans feast day. Otherwise I gotta get me back to my Mondo Kayo. A wonderful friend sent me a post card with a quotation from Chris Rose on what Mardi Gras means… …”It is annual […]