The Art of Culinary Recycling

Huevos Rancheros
I have been busy lately. I know everyone says that, but I have been busier than I have been in years. After years in graduate school, my reprieve on a real job is finally at an end. Although full time work comes with compensatory financial and psychological benefits (it’s depressing to be unemployed, broke [...]

Globalization Girl

I could never be a locavore.
In case you didn’t know, a locavore is a person who only eats food grown within a 100 radius of her home. The benefits are numerous. Locally grown food tastes better and is probably more nutritious. It’s better for the environment as your food doesn’t travel thousands of miles to [...]

Pickles, pickles, pickles

After spending an entire weekend in the kitchen, canning and pickling with my neighbor, Kassie, I am left with a renewed appreciation for the generations of women for whom canning was a survival skill, not, say a fun experiment. Peeling vegetables all day and sweating over a pot of acrid boiling vinegar is an [...]

Laab, the raw way

Like most Americans, I first tasted Laab,* the Thai beef salad laced with shallots, herbs, fish sauce and lime in Thai restaurants in this country. I have never been to Thailand, but the best laab I have ever had was at a Thai restaurant in a little town in France, where they made the laab [...]

Feels like Home (almost)

Shortly after I moved to Minneapolis at the beginning of the summer, I lost the ability to cook. Everything I made was off in some way. I overbaked my clafoutis, I burned a batch of banana bread, I undercooked caramelized onions for Mujadrah so that they remained crunchy and harsh tasting. My [...]