Category: Food

Brewpub Beets

Two of the twenty-somethings in our Friday night group got married last September. Since they’re both aficionados of microbrews, we gave them a home brewing kit as a wedding present. They were thrilled. Last night was the debut of their first product, a light ale, at a potluck. This necessitated some thinking about what would …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/04/15/brewpub-beets/

Scent of a Crunch Bar

The New York Times published an essay on the smells that remind one of childhood and home. This elicited a flurry of replies from readers. Here’s my story of childhood aroma. I was born in Fulton, New York. One block from the hospital where I was born was a massive Nestle factory, known in town …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/04/15/scent-of-a-crunch-bar/

First In, Last Out

My maternal grandfather was, by his own admission, an ornery old cuss. He dropped out of school as a teenager, but he had the rural equivalent of street smarts. One of his observations that’s stuck with me for decades is that farmers are the first to get into an economic depression and the last to …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/04/07/first-in-last-out/

A Minor Passover Miracle

The Passover-Easter season is awash in miracles. The burning bush. The parting of the Red Sea. The resurrection of Jesus. I add a small one: I found a vegetable salad that contains neither alliums or nightshades. I offered to make an asparagus salad for tonight’s Mixed-Marriage Seder. This is one of the highlights of the …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/04/01/a-minor-passover-miracle/

St. Patrick’s Day at the Pike

We had a symphony concert on Saturday night. In addition, I was running desperately low on my drug of choice. So we went downtown in late afternoon. It was after the St. Patrick’s Day parade, so traffic was relatively light. First stop was the Perennial Tea Room at Pike Place Market. As we rounded the …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/03/19/st-patricks-day-at-the-pike/

Lessons Learned in Entertaining

Over the years we’ve done a lot of entertaining. Each event can teach valuable lessons, some of which we actually apply to future dinners. Here are three lessons we learned after last week’s French dinner. Don’t overextend yourself, especially when you’re hosting a crowd. Several of our dishes required last-minute preparation, which cut down the …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/03/17/lessons-learned-in-entertaining/

Provisioning a Pantry

One of the challenges of setting up a kitchen is knowing what supplies you need. Start by asking yourself a few questions: Am I really going to cook, or just bring home food to eat? If you’re going to use your kitchen to microwave takeout food or brew coffee in the morning, you’re not going …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/03/05/provisioning-a-pantry/

Lost Recipes

Sometimes recipes have a finite life span. Food that was popular back in your mother’s or grandmother’s youth are no longer in vogue. Some of it may be due to fashion or access to ingredients. Rationing during World War II required some ingenuity that wasn’t needed afterward. Then there are recipes that just fell out …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/02/25/lost-recipes/

Singapore Chili Crab

When we first moved to Washington 15 years ago, Dungeness crabs were often $5 or $6 a pound. Nowadays they’re almost as expensive as Maine lobster is hereabouts. However, we splurged tonight for one of our favorite dishes, Singapore chili crab. The average Dungeness crab weighs about 2 pounds, of which about 1/4 is meat. …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/02/17/singapore-chili-crab/

Another Super Bowl Party

We hosted another Super Bowl party at Casa Sammamish this weekend. It was a smaller group than usual, but we still made a boatload of food. In honor of the teams, we made Boston-style baked beans and Philadelphia cheese steaks. We also made our time-honored Miami-style chicken wings. Our friends brought chips, salsa, salad, wine, …

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Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2018/02/04/another-super-bowl-party/

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