Outpost 505

At lunch today, Shana and I were talking about our respective cooking slumps and how hard it is for us both to find balance between work, home life, and other interests – and it occurred to me that maybe part of this slump is just my life shifting into a new balance, or back into balance period. [...]

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I’ve been in a cooking slump since starting my new job a couple of weeks ago.  We’ve been busy, or we’ve been out of town, or Shane has had something going on and I’ve foraged for big salads or Plum Market takeout.  This dish was the rare exception to the slump. I’ve been really into [...]

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Today was the first day all week that I really felt human.  On a related note, it was also the first day all week that I prepared a real dinner.  Of course, I had help: Have I mentioned that we got a meat grinder as a wedding present?  Perhaps I have.  Have I mentioned that [...]

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Despite the beautiful weather all weekend, today was grim and rainy – perfect for a cookout, right?  Maybe not, but Garin’s leaving town either way, so we all persevered to send him off to Madison and the Underground Food Collective in style.  Matt and Shannon threw a great party under the merciful protection of a [...]

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A miracle in a couple of senses.  First, it’s a miracle that I got dinner on the table at all.  I spent today digging channels for baseboards: and holding 16′ boards in place while they were marked, drilled, and hung: plus lots of other mucking about, digging, holding, and securing while participating in the Spirit [...]

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Remember that pasta we had at Logan a few months ago?  Asparagus and penne in a light cream sauce?  I think that’s what I had in mind tonight, except that I wanted to use up a couple of chicken breasts as well.  I sliced the chicken breasts and the asparagus into penne-sized pieces, then browned [...]

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Cat on a leash, originally uploaded by sukisuki. Over the winter, we bought a grill off a guy on Craigslist – Shane really needed was the propane tank, but for $25, we got a nice gas grill with all the rocks and racks, plus the nearly full tank that alone would’ve cost nearly $25. I [...]

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We were given a copy of Michael Symon’s Live to Cook, the first cookbook by the Cleveland restaurateur and Iron Chef America personality of the same name.  We keep talking about going to Symon’s two restaurants in Cleveland, but the closest we’ve gotten is tonight’s macaroni and cheese. Yeah, yeah, I know this isn’t the [...]

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Shane left in the wee hours to drive to Indiana for Dark Lord Day, which, along with the drizzly spring weather, made it a perfect morning for brunch and baking – or, as I like to think of it, Fancy Lady Baking Brunch. After last month’s relatively successful batch of Twinkies, we settled on pop-tarts [...]

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I seem to only plan to make soup on days when the weather is patently inappropriate for it – like today, when the temperatures neared 80.  This recipe – and the asparagus from the market – looked too good to wait for cooler weather, so soup for dinner it was.  I started dinner after picking [...]

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