thecounterintuitivekitchen

Have you ever used a straight razor or a paring knife to chop up dog tranquilizer and then sprinkled the dust onto a slice of sharp cheddar? I have. I have! And then I have proceeded to put that in the microwave. And then I used a child’s play spatula to roll that mess into … More Never

When confronted with options for when, what kind, and how often you get the plague, even though it’s largely not up to you, there’s a lot to consider. Omicron This is a full-bodied variant, with a violent attack, notes of rotted wood and psychotic fermentation in the joints and a spicy jalapeño-like fire that rests … More Covid Tasting Notes

You may find yourself descending into a broken deck of clouds when unannounced traffic appears at 12 o’clock, climbing up into your descent path. Your captain is talking about scuba diving with someone in the jump seat, so you push the aircraft nose down and to the right and avoid a deadly collision. Babe, if … More Situational Awareness

In late spring, my kid went for a walk with some friends she hadn’t seen in a while, and they ended up hanging around outside our place as dinnertime rolled around. In normal times, or times when have I felt empowered to manage a global public health crisis with “an abundance of caution” and some … More Uneasy entertaining

Me: I’m not sure what to make for dinner. Rhoda (a puppy): I’m gonna eat your son’s shoe. Me, having placed slimy shoe on shelf of refrigerator while looking in vegetable drawer: The thing about scallion pancakes is, you start with flat dough, roll it into a log, and then roll the log in on … More Interspecies kitchen

Now that we are approaching the one-year anniversary of lockdown/quarantine/variable pandemic conditions, and multiple vaccines have miraculously been developed, and news reports now include vaccination rates alongside infection rates, hospitalizations, and deaths, it seems like a great time for a message of uplift. If anyone has one, please send it in. And in the spirit … More One Year In, Everything’s Looking Good

How are you doing? How is it going today? Are you getting enough sleep? What’s happening? Here are some things that I know are going on with some people: all across the country, people are fostering animals that were in shelters. Some shelters are getting 10 times as many requests to give a home to … More The Nearness of You