food essay
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Making room for a new season of venison… and football
We know it’s hunting season when friends show up with gifts–a heart and a liver that they just harvested from a doe in our woods. While they might normally toss them, they know that John will use them to make an amazing venison liverwurst. The new heart and liver will join what John has in the freezer and will soon appear as John’s redneck Continue reading
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A Tale of Haggis
Strolling through the Notting Hill market during my recent trip to London, I did not see Hugh Grant or Julia Roberts. I did, however, see a sign in a butcher’s stall for haggis. I had to take a picture of the sign. Then I peered around to the front of the stall to see if there Continue reading
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In Search of London: Gin &Tonic Sorbet and Pasties
The last time I had high tea in London I was with a group of mothers and daughters. We went to Harrod’s and had a grand time. We ate a bazillion cute little pastries and drank so much tea that it led to Kristin’s famous bed-time utterance “My little heart is beating very fast.” This Continue reading
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Meditations on a Grilled Cheese Sandwich (with a recipe for Winter White Martinis)
Sometimes you just need a grilled cheese sandwich. You have a hunger in the pit of your stomach and you’re stressed out. A grilled cheese sandwich is comfortably warm and creamy while also offering a most satisfying crunch. (Crunch is important for releasing stress and anger.) So you get it into your head that your hunger Continue reading
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Cleaning the Chocolate Fountain
A chocolate fountain really adds “wow” factor to a party. We’ve included a chocolate fountain in our holiday parties for several years now. If you acknowledge up front that the massive amounts of chocolate are mostly going to be tossed out and that you ought to have an empty dishwasher when you put chocolate-coated parts Continue reading
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Heirloom Mashed Potatoes
I have asked daughter Shelley to make the mashed potato casserole for Thanksgiving. Her response was: “You want me to make your mashed potato casserole?” Um…yeah. My hip hurts, and I dread the thought of standing at the sink peeling ten pounds of potatoes and then standing at the counter mashing them. And for those Continue reading
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Friday Night at the Hunting Lodge
I must begin by saying that we do not run a hunting lodge, bed-and-breakfast, boarding house, retreat center, target practice range, catering service, or wedding reception venue. It just feels that way. If we really were doing all those things I would not have to limp into work everyday and deal with sleepy teenagers who are completely Continue reading
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What do you do with pumpkin seeds?
Here’s the dilemma du jour. Do you have to soak pumpkin seeds before roasting them? I have toasted them straight from the pumpkin with resulting tough, chewy seeds. Daughter Shelley, culinary queen in her own right, has either soaked them overnight or boiled them in salt water, both yielding excellent results. Friday night she was Continue reading
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Feed me!
This is a shout-out to Soup’r Natural on York Road in Hereford. (And a thank you for the thank you from neighbors Glenn and Kelly!) I’m still thinking fond thoughts about a meal we had there over a week ago. When you consider that I can’t remember what I had for lunch today or even Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 