What better mementos could you bring home from a trip than a handful of new recipes? They don’t take up space in your suitcase, and you’ll have them for years and years to come. From South Africa, I came home with more than a couple of recipes, but I’ve been very eager to share these [...]

In just a few hours, I’m going to be hopping on a plane to another season. There will be butt-numbing numbers of hours watching personal video, reading and listening to music. And then, I’m going to find myself in South Africa. Yes, South Africa. Where, if weatherbug has it correctly, the weather will be surprisingly [...]

Swirl ribbons of fresh, fat spears of asparagus, an unusually colored carrot and lightly pickled rhubarb together with a touch of minced shallot, a pinch of thyme leaves, a sprinkle of sea salt and a splash of fruity olive oil and sherry vinegar. Add a bit of fresh from the farmers’ market soft chevre, if [...]

Are you a cookbook person? I am. Actually, more specifically, I am a book person. I love books. I love bookstores. I love books on shelves. I love book covers. And cookbooks, especially those with beautiful photography, are really one of my biggest weaknesses. But I have to tell you that my cookbooks have been extremely under used, and I’m quite embarrassed by it. Because as much as I love books, finding one specific thing out of many, many books is too hard. It’s just so much easier to grab my laptop, fire up google or even better, food blog search, and find a recipe that is exactly what I’ve been looking for. So the books, sit there, on the shelf, untouched. It is too sad.

The summer we went to Italy, Cam & I came home with dreams of packing up and finding some little Italian cottage to call home. I’d meet local food artisans and do what I do… write and photograph about the food and culture. I’d write a cookbook on traditional Italian cookery that went much deeper into regional dishes than most Italian cookbooks do. Of course, that’s far easier to dream about than actually do, so here I still sit in Seattle, longingly flipping through The Italian Farmer’s Table cookbook, written by a a pair of chefs who turned their dream into a book of real Italian cooking.