I have a thing for tiny homes, and I think it started way back when I was a kid and persuaded my dad to build my sister and me a “cottage” in our backyard: it wasn’t just insulated, it was 2 stories with a pigeon loft in the back and a porch on the front.Continue reading “Tiny Homes: One in a Greenhouse and One on a Tokyo Train Line”
Category Archives: blackbird
How to Whisk Matcha and Pronounce Scottish Whisky Names Correctly!
A couple of useful tutorials for drink connoisseurs:
ESC #48: Valentine’s Day
Gotta do Italian for Valentine’s Day, of course. Sausage and Spinach Soup: A surprising hit with the ESC crowd given that it was one of those old 90s Cooking Light recipes that start like “Gingerly spray the pay with cooking oil just enough so that you see a mist but not enough so that puddlesContinue reading “ESC #48: Valentine’s Day”
ESC #47: Crawfish!
This one had a roughly Southern theme. Highlights were the Japanese fried chicken wings and the toasted pecan cake! Teba no karaage Clementine & Mezcal Punch Crawfish & Corn over Smoked Gouda Mashed Potatoes Brussels Sprouts Hash Toasted Pecan Cake
ESC #46: Birthday Edition
Featuring not one but two birthday cakes because that’s how your girl likes to roll. My sister popped into town over the weekend for a surprise visit, so naturally we had to bake something. That was cake #1, the Apple Rose Cake. On paper and in photos it looked great: pistachios, grated apples, olive oil,Continue reading “ESC #46: Birthday Edition”
ESC #45: Cabin Weekend Edition
My friends Tim & Gina graciously loaned me their cabin for a weekend again, and my friends Steph and Megan joined me for paddling, hiking, birdwatching, etc. We spotted some sandhill cranes, and I found some Alpine Waxy Cap mushrooms, which we didn’t eat because the squirrels had gotten to them first. No problem: IContinue reading “ESC #45: Cabin Weekend Edition”
ESC #43 and #44
Who doesn’t take a picture of their first-ever squid-ink paella cooked on the grill? Your girl, that’s who. I’m going to stop apologizing for not taking photos of these beautiful dinners and just start doing it! One of these days…. Until then, you’ll just have to be content with a picture I took in theContinue reading “ESC #43 and #44”
Fall Fruit Harvest is Starting!
Got about a month or so until the Gravensteins are ripe.
Alternative Careers and A Day in the Life of Chef David Yoshimura at Nisei
“So, you ready to run away and join the circus?” David Yoshimura asked me as we stood side-by-side in chef’s whites in the kitchen of his Michelin-starred restaurant, Nisei, watching our hard work that day come to fruition as the first plates went out to dinner guests. I just chuckled because the answer to thatContinue reading “Alternative Careers and A Day in the Life of Chef David Yoshimura at Nisei”
Grits v. Polenta v. Cornmeal v. Atole v. Chaquewe v. Masa: What’s the Difference?
TL;DR: not a whole heckuva lot—it’s mostly about the fineness of the grind and whether the corn has been nixtamalized or not. But for the fine print, read on…. If you try to cook even a little bit outside the box, you’ve run into this issue before. You’ve found yourself staring at a recipe thatContinue reading “Grits v. Polenta v. Cornmeal v. Atole v. Chaquewe v. Masa: What’s the Difference?”
