When I was little we lived in a sequence of places that were nowhere particularly near Virginia. This is only relevant because Virginia was where my grandmother lived, and my mother and I used to spend a month visiting with her every summer. I loved the month we spent in Richmond, among other things it has left me with a lifelong appreciation for heat and humidity which pretty much nobody else I know shares. What I didn’t love was the process of getting there, which was long and tedious. I imagine it was even longer and more tedious for my mother who had to play the responsible adult in that scenario as opposed to being the bored 7 – 9 – 12 – 14 year old whose biggest responsibility was trying to sleep on the plane, picking at the food, and not being too much of a pill about traveling for 24 hours straight. Read the rest of this entry ?
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

TND – Year in Review + New Year’s (food) Resolutions
January 11, 20122011 was the year of discovering that it wasn’t that I disliked entire categories of ingredients or cuisines, it was just one iteration of them that I disliked and that iteration happened to be the only one I’d ever eaten. Read the rest of this entry ?

TND – All things considered, I’d rather be on Curacao
January 6, 2012It was 12 F when I left my house on Wednesday morning, and that was before wind chill. While it has warmed up considerably since then, I can still say with absolute certainty that not only would I like to still be on vacation, I’d really like to be back in the 85 F sunshine of the Caribbean.

TND – The Dinner That Wasn’t
December 16, 2011The applesauce was made. The figs were soaking in chai tea. The green beans had been trimmed. Two heads of garlic had been pulled apart. The ham just needed to be grilled and served. In other words, everything was ready for Dinner on Tuesday when I got suddenly and dramatically ill on Tuesday afternoon and abruptly had to cancel Dinner in favor of careful sips of ginger ale at discrete intervals.
This was to be the last Dinner of the year – Saturday I’m heading off to sunny Curacao for Christmas with my parents (I know, my life is tragic). So, unless ninjas decide to hijack the blog again next week like they did last year, I will see you all in the New Year. Happy Holidays to all.

TND – Best of 2011?
December 8, 2011This is the time of year when everyone comes out with their “Best of Lists” and either my reading material has changed in the past year (entirely possible) or cooking/food has become a much bigger deal (also possible) because I’ve seen more “Best of 2011 Cookbook” lists in the past few weeks than I think I saw in the previous decade.
A random, and completely unscientific, sampling of lists (epicurious, Bon Appetit, NPR, the NYT, the Boston Globe, Serious Eats, The Kitchn, David Lebovitz, Kirkus, and The Huffington Post) reveals the following moments of agreement and endorsement. And, in a rare moment of being insync with the zeitgeist I have not only read two of the three books, I wholeheartedly second their endorsement. Read the rest of this entry ?

TND – Not for the Onion Shy
November 22, 2011I was not a kid who had to suffer through many cafeteria meals during my school years. I was spoiled and my mother packed me a lunch almost every day well into high school. By and large the only times I ever bought lunch were on the rare occasions that the school cafeteria was serving something I really wanted to eat. In the year I spent at Convent of the Sacred Heart this meant the days that they did Indian Fry Bread for lunch – don’t ask me how that was nutritionally viable, but it came hot from the fryer and covered in powdered sugar and everyone wanted one – and any time they served tater tots. In the year and a half I spent at the Old Greenwich Elementary School this meant the occasional pizza on Friday (why I wanted burnt pizza is an issue to explore some other time), and any time they served tacos. Read the rest of this entry ?

TND – Mental Dyspepsia
November 9, 2011I’m suffering from an attack of mental dyspepsia brought on by the stream of holiday baking catalogs arriving on my doorstep, the fact that Macys has already put up their Christmas tree, and that stores segued directly from Halloween to Christmas candy without even a pause for post-Halloween candy sales. Read the rest of this entry ?

TND – Exactly as Complicated as Necessary
September 7, 2011I’ll cop to the fact that I frequently make my life more complicated than is strictly necessary. Case in point, I’m making a quilt from old t-shirts. The easy way to do this is to cut out 14”x14” squares from each t-shirt, iron it onto fusible interfacing, sew them together and attach a backing fabric and hey presto, you’re done. Is this what I’m doing? Not even close. Read the rest of this entry ?

TND – This is not the end, this is not the beginning of the end . . .
September 1, 2011Where did August go? I have a fairly clear idea about what happened to June (wedding in late May + NOLA trip), I’m reasonably sure I remember July . . . but, it’s the first of September today? How did that even happen? Where did August go? Was it kidnapped? Can we ransom it back?
Rather than focusing on the fact that the weather has embraced Fall, and it’s getting duskier and duskier as I walk home at night, and that come Monday I won’t be able to wear white shoes anymore, I’m going to look at the bright side of the start of the close of the year. Read the rest of this entry ?

TND – “The Dutch” (now with added rebuttals)
August 17, 2011My roommate and I were up in Stowe, Vermont this past weekend for the annual antique car show – her father has a 1942 fully restored Cadillac (which won best in its class for the second year running this year – full web album of the car parade here. We go up every year for this and while her parents are showing off the car to other antique car enthusiasts we tool around Stowe poking into the various arts & crafts stores, buying chocolates to take home with us, and sampling copious varieties of jam at the awesome Stowe Farmer’s Market. We managed to spend entirely too much money on clothing, jewelry and a seriously awesome tray (we got the square elephant one – it was on sale!). What we did not get to do, sadly, was go to the Dutch Pancake House for brunch on Sunday morning. Read the rest of this entry ?








