Heading to San Francisco this weekend with the Bake This Day team to enjoy the Winter Fancy Food Fest. Don’t worry, I’m bringing a king cake as my boarding pass. On the advent of this gargantuan Specialty Food Association extravaganza, I’ve been contemplating “What is fancy food?” Must it come from an exotic place? Must […]
Our sweet bulldog is now half-blind. In a Shakespearean twist, her eyeball had to come out last Tuesday. She is adjusting like a champ. We are resorting to pirate costumes to adjust ourselves, but she is in much less pain now without the tumor that had invaded the eye, and so we are grateful. She […]
The discovery of Ethiopian spiced butter is the first inkling of holiday warmth. Forget pumpkin spice latte, cook down ghee with every wintery spice on the shelf, simmered for an hour until it tastes like the Sun fell into the Indian Ocean. For the last week I’ve been finding ways to put niter kibbeh (the […]
Someone left the bougainvillea on all night. Michael Dickman has the most wonderfully strange end of summer poem “Lakes Rivers Streams” with lines jumbled together like berserk frayed edges of a beach blanket. I think the day knows exactly what’s its doing… The good news is ferns… Meanwhile inside a belly button… Meanwhile real sunlight […]
Delighted to enjoy some education at the IFBC conference this weekend in New Orleans. I was honored to host the IFBC Pub Crawl with Mark of Beyond Bourbon Street. We met so many wonderful food blogger colleagues, among the best–The Great Eight and Chef Julia— and enjoyed Compere Lapin, W.I.N.O., and Catahoula, among other favorites in […]
The Fourth of July dazzled. We barbequed, the pool came to us in the heat (30 minute thundershower, thank heavens for pop up tents), and the chickens entertained a gaggle of toddlers. Everyone, chickens included, were well-fed. Lobster Cakes with Chipotle Lime Remoulade Adapted from an Ina Garten recipe 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided […]
This tropical place. KP and I discovered the New Orleans Orchid Society this afternoon by accident. It was like walking into a garden of wildly colorful birds. There must be time in the life I have ahead to become a master gardener of orchids. What gorgeous plants. They are the Mardi Gras of nature. There […]
Standing in three feet of water on Saturday had me pondering apocalypse. Here in New Orleans, inexplicably, several pumps were out of order and then a cloud parked over the city and brought us 8 inches of rain in two hours. Maybe Randy Newman was right, “they try’n to wash us away, Louisiana.” Yeah, this […]