I love molasses spice cookies. Almost any molasses spice cookies, from simple gingersnaps to those packaged Archway cookies to the triple-ginger cookies at Flying Star. (Those really are awesome.) But none come close to this oddly named cookie I found in the pages of the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion. So dark brown they’re almost…
The stove died. Finally!
This is my old, sad, battle-scarred, uncleanable stove. It came with the house when we bought it, almost 15 years ago now. Who knows how old it was then? It was in much better shape, though, because the guy who owned the house before us gave no sign of ever having cooked anything. There wasn’t…
Eating ABQ: Lunch at Street Food Market
It was a gorgeous day today in Albuquerque, one of those perfect blue-sky-and-sunshine fall days where you just have to get outside. It was so warm that no jacket was necessary, especially if you strolled with a warm cup of coffee in hand. (I chose a Mike’s Mocha from Michael Thomas Coffee.) After we wandered…
Eating ABQ: Albuquerque’s Best Lattes
Zendo’s Zia Latte I was a latecomer to coffee. Throughout college and grad school, I didn’t drink it at all. But I kept taking sips of Arne’s, and eventually decided those mochas were pretty darn good. (This keep-trying-it method has not reaped similar dividends with beer.) Arne started making me cafe au lait and lattes…
Eating PDX: Blue Star Donuts
Voodoo Doughnut, it seems, is over. I can’t remember where I read that, but it certainly came up a couple of times as I was studying the best and hottest places to eat in Portland. Voodoo Doughnut, apparently, is for tourists. (Fine, hipsters, but I challenge you to argue with a Maple-Bacon doughnut. But I…
Eating PDX: Holdfast Dining, Part 1
scallop, cauliflower, caper, grape Every once in a while, life gifts us with an experience that is purely wonderful from beginning to end. This one started as I was researching places to eat on our trip to Portland: I found an article from The Oregonian naming the 2014 Restaurant of the Year. Such a thing…
On Vegetable Tacos, with recipe: Potato-Soyrizo Tacos with Lime Crema
It was Rick Bayless who turned me on to the idea of vegetable tacos. Not just vegetarian tacos with the meat replaced or removed – bean and cheese, or soy crumbles, or whatever – but tacos that truly celebrate vegetables. When I turn to the “Tacos, Enchiladas and Other Casual Fare” chapter of my battered…
They put what in my soda?
I was walking through the beverage section of Talin Market when I saw it. I didn’t believe it at first. Buffalo wing soda. Now, I love Buffalo wings. And I like soda well enough, though I don’t drink it like I used to. Just a few a month, really. (Oddly, I have a can…
My Favorite Chocolate Chip-and-Chunk Cookies
This one doesn’t really take a lot of explanation. Who doesn’t like cookies? And who among us cookie-lovers doesn’t count chocolate chip near the top of the list? Sure, I love all kinds of cookies: oatmeal-raisin, peanut butter, a wide variety of molasses-spice (Joe Froggers recipe coming soon!), butter cookies with or without fruit fillings,…
Creamy Smoked Gouda and Ale Soup
Arne and I honeymooned at his parents’ rustic cabin in Woodland Park, up a mountain pass from Colorado Springs. At that time neither of us drank alcohol, so I’m not sure what led us, while we were exploring the Springs, to venture into Phantom Canyon Brewing Company. At any rate, in we did venture. We…