This summer, we had a backyard vegetable garden that started out as… not tidy areas, but semi-specific small plots of tomato, lettuce, cucumber, carrot, kale, and pepper plants. I say “we” but my role ended at the point that I cleaned out an old Ikea toy bin and turned it on its side so we … More Zucchini pancakes

I didn’t consider myself a person who had a lot of opinions about domestic stuff until this summer, when I had the good fortune to spend a week at two homes where the people in charge have dust ruffles on every bed. As I was about to leave each house, I was making a whole … More Blog of Fire and Ice

Traditionally, at a funeral, you will want to serve pasta dishes, casseroles, and other items that reheat well. You will also need kid-friendly food, like chicken nuggets or mac and cheese. Potatoes are “always a hit,” according to funeral home administrators, who also advise that including some of the deceased’s favorite dishes can be a … More Food for Summer Gatherings

Once upon a time, a person stood in a kitchen holding a tin bowl full of cauliflower florets. A beeswax-coated cloth, which such person can use instead of plastic wrap, sat stiffly on top of the pile of cauliflower like a mortarboard. The cauliflower was a bit aged, old enough to graduate from the refrigerator … More Tempura

Late one afternoon, shortly after taking a wander around my office and confronting a number of things that are either possible to eat or things that people seem to think other people might eat, if those other people are just desperate or human dumpsters, I had some thoughts.     I thought: I am going … More Scallions

Of the many surprisingly wonderful things that there are, one is a dough blender, one is a cherry pitter, and one is this group of tuba and euphonium players performing “Down in the River to Pray.” I thought tubas were mostly for deflating white supremacists or expressing defeat. But they are not! They are, apparently, … More Dramatic music plays

In times of uncertainty or likely impending crisis, I often decide to cook. This makes little sense, because usually the crisis is my cooking, so cooking in a crisis is just creating a set of interpenetrating disasters.   A little while ago, I was facing down a four-day period of solo parenting, the school-work-transportation-afterschool-food logistics … More The shovel option

Is it a Christmas miracle, a solstice miracle, a day-after-Hanukkah miracle or a five days before Kwanzaa begins miracle? No, this is just me passing along a granola recipe that was provided by Jinx Watson, who is herself a miracle. I have two notes on this recipe. ONE! I greatly dislike shredded coconut, as it … More An actual recipe

One night, I was sitting on my son’s bed, “reading” him a book about vehicles, which involved pointing at a skid steer loader and calling it a skid steer loader, and then pointing at an excavator with an orange peel grapple and announcing that it was an excavator with an orange peel grapple. My daughter … More Total Clarity and Unstinting Glamor