I’ve never been a plant person. I’m a terrible gardener, as we know, and the only house plants that survive at my house are orchids and succulents—ones that can handle abuse and neglect. But I realized as I was hiking with my friend Steph to check one of my favorite stands of elderberry bushes, explainingContinue reading “Elderberry”
Category Archives: blackbird
ESC #53
We were doing so well with photos. Alas! Everyone loved the cocktail and appetizer, and I think they loved the caramel chicken more than I did—I found it really salty and would back off on the fish sauce next time, which would also help the sauce reduce and become more caramelly. The salad was niceContinue reading “ESC #53”
Refilling Marrow Bones for Dog Treats
As usual, I thought I was a smart cookie for thinking up this idea and then found that the entire Internet had already thought of it. Hey, great: they gave me lots of great ideas for how to refill those expensive marrow bones you buy for dogs at the pet food store only to beContinue reading “Refilling Marrow Bones for Dog Treats”
ESC #52
I’d been saving the Flank Steak with Peaches and Dandelion Greens for a while because it required ingredients that are only good in summer. I adapted it for the grill, and it turned out great! The grilled shellfish with romesco was OK (recipe 404’d but there are tons out there)—I grilled the shellfish perfectly, butContinue reading “ESC #52”
Bonus ESC: DessArt Day (Inkblot creatures)
This time Nicole found a cool project where you make colored ink blots, let them dry, and then turn them into creatures by drawing over them. Here’s my Deer Princess! The desserts were really great this time around with maybe the rice pudding being the weak spot, but I think that was because I couldn’tContinue reading “Bonus ESC: DessArt Day (Inkblot creatures)”
ESC #51: Taco Night!
It was the first actual summer evening where I live with deck temperatures and no wind—and what better way to celebrate than tacos! We made Kenji’s Tacos Al Pastor recipe and a Crème Brûlée recipe from Jessica Sullivan at Boulevard SFO that looks like it has exited the Internet, but there wasn’t anything weird aboutContinue reading “ESC #51: Taco Night!”
Bonus ESC: Korean Night (Ramen/Ramyeon Edition)
I think Polly and I came up with this idea back when I visited her family in Edinburgh last fall—to do a ramen tasting. Polly loves her some ramyeon (the Korean pronunciation of ramen, which is the Japanese pronunciation of la mien, Chinese soup noodles). Since it’s ESC, though, we had to try to makeContinue reading “Bonus ESC: Korean Night (Ramen/Ramyeon Edition)”
ESC #50: Golden Jubilee
I can’t believe we’ve done 50 of these dinners! We started ESC in early fall 2023, so that means it’s been 2.5 years with an average of a dinner every 3 weeks. Pretty cool. To celebrate we decided to rent a house in the Russian River valley for the weekend, near Guerneville, and enjoy hangingContinue reading “ESC #50: Golden Jubilee”
ESC #49 and Truffle Hunting!
So one of the very first recipes in my To Try file (the OG version, in an actual filing cabinet on actual paper), was a French fish dish. Not terribly chef-y EXCEPT for the fact it called for fresh white summer truffles. Yeah…. So, it sat in the old To Try file, and then migratedContinue reading “ESC #49 and Truffle Hunting!”
Strawberry Matcha Latte
I’m not a matcha latte kinda girl. I don’t like bitter matcha at all (I’m a super-taster, so bitter tastes are really cranked up to 11 for me), so I tend to buy really expensive matcha when I do buy it—which means I’m not going to turn around and dump it into a latte…. ButContinue reading “Strawberry Matcha Latte”
