Hobbies
Leisure activities and interests, including gardening, cooking and collecting
Five Ways to Eat Strawberries
I grew up in Southern California, partly in Orange County, which at the time still had nearly as many strawberry fields as shopping centers. I remember looking out at the rows of low plants and feeling bad for the migrant farm workers hunched over picking off the berries in the hot sun. All the sam...
June 09, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Return of the Apron
I am getting married next month, and one of my favorite gifts I've received so far is an apron. Not one of those canvas unisex jobs, either—this is a ruffled beauty that just happens to fit in perfectly in my Eisenhower-era aqua-and-yellow kitchen. It looks like it could have been lifted from June ...
May 27, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Good Night and Good Potluck
Over the weekend I went to a town-wide potluck dinner and barn bash at the antiques barn down the road from my house. It was just the sort of small-town gathering—replete with quirky characters and down-home entertainment—that television shows like Gilmore Girls and Northern Exposure have primed yo...
May 25, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Five Ways to Eat Asparagus
I'm crazy about asparagus. I've loved it since childhood, when a wise adult whispered to me that it was a powerful source of vitamin C—the secret stuff that makes adults smarter and stronger than kids, they explained conspiratorially. Being the sort of impatient kid who that appealed to (funny how ...
May 25, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Eight Appetizing Apps
I just read an interesting article in the Washington Post's travel section about traveling with no guidebooks, advance planning or reservations---just a wallet and an iPhone. The author used applications, or apps, to find everything from a parking spot to a hotel room, with only a few minor glitche...
May 20, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
The Best Foods for Backpacking
Today's guest post is by Smithsonian staff writer Abigail Tucker, who knows a thing or two about roughing it. She's camped in the Arctic to interview narwhal scientists, schlepped through a swamp in South Carolina in search of Venus flytraps, and ridden snowmobiles deep into the Western wilderness ...
May 19, 2010 |
By admin
Stinging Nettle Soup
There's a restaurant in northwest D.C. called Blue Ridge (the brainchild of chef Barton Seaver) that I enjoy because it focuses on local, seasonal, sustainably sourced ingredients without coming across as self-righteous. It's the kind of place where waiters wear jeans and serve popcorn in brown pap...
May 04, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Filoli: Garden of a Golden Age
Filoli—a lavish early 20th century estate that is the last of its kind—harks back to when San Francisco’s richest families built to dazzle
May 2010 |
By Andrew Purvis
Dandelions—From Lawn to Lunch
Depending on your perspective, the little dandelion flowers that dot green lawns with yellow this time of year can be a cheerful sign of warmer days, a pesky weed to be destroyed or, once they've transformed into downy orbs, wish-fulfillment predictors.To others, they represent free lunch. Dandelio...
April 22, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Snacks for Tax Day
It's crunch time, procrastinators—April 15, the deadline for finishing those pesky income tax returns, is upon us! Doesn't that make you hungry? (What? I'm a food blogger. Everything makes me hungry.)Here are foods that seem fitting, or at least fun, to eat on Tax Day:1. Silver Dollar Pancakes. I l...
April 15, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Heirloom Rice, Forbidden and Otherwise
The other day I tried forbidden rice, a black grain that turns a deep violet color when cooked. I picked it up at the natural foods store, enticed by the look of the shiny onyx particles and the provocative name.Other than licorice and blackberries (and the occasional forgotten slice of toast), the...
April 09, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Cherry Blossom Recipes
The spring Cherry Blossom Festival is happening right now in D.C., and the trees will be flowering in parts of Japan throughout the spring. Even if you can't travel to see them, you can still celebrate the season with these recipes:1. The Cherry Blossom cocktail sounds like a classier, grown-up cou...
April 05, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Cooking with Easter Candy
Did you buy too much Easter candy to fit in a basket? Not sure you can stomach eating it all straight? Well, in the foolish spirit of the day, here are some alternatives:1. Melt down a chocolate bunny and whaddaya know, you've got molten chocolate—perfect for fondue. You could also use bits of bunn...
April 01, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
Homesick for Passover
Six years ago I moved to the Northeast from Southern California, where I grew up and where my family still lives. There are only two times of year that make me homesick, and sometimes they overlap: the waning days of winter, when it seems like the sleet and snow and dreariness—and lack of good fres...
March 30, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Easter Eggs Dyed the Natural Way
How how-to guide to making Easter egg dyes from the leftovers in your refrigerator
March 29, 2010 |
By Abby Callard
How Food Shaped Humanity
A few months ago I wrote about the book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham, which claimed that eating cooked food was the central factor that allowed us to evolve into Homo sapiens. I recently finished another book, An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage, that essen...
March 26, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Five Ways to Eat Tahini
Recently, there was a discussion over at Epicurious about the essential ingredients home cooks always have on hand because they use them so frequently. For me, one of those items would be tahini, or sesame-seed paste. As I found during my "week without recipes" challenge a couple of weeks ago, it a...
March 24, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
The Assault on Salt
If a ban proposed by Brooklyn assemblyman Felix Ortiz passes, New York chefs will be banned from using salt in food preparation in all restaurants. The bill states: "No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by custo...
March 15, 2010 |
By Abby Callard
A Week Without Recipes: The Results
Last weekend, I challenged myself to cook without recipes for the rest of the week. I had been feeling bogged down by the amount of time I was spending researching recipes and planning menus and shopping lists. I wanted to test my creativity and ability, and push myself to be more spontaneous. I we...
March 12, 2010 |
By Lisa Bramen
Colonial Recipes: Sally Lunn Cake
On a visit to Colonial Williamsburg last weekend, I picked up a booklet of recipes sold by the reconstructed village's Raleigh Tavern Bakery. The cover promised A Collection of the Most tasteful and Approved Recipes in Virginia Cookery. Though the language was old-fashioned, the recipes for treats...
March 11, 2010 |
By Amanda Bensen
