It’s 7 in the morning on a Sunday as I write this. The radiators are steaming like a kettle and I can hear crows ca-cawing, cawing, cawing outside. The crows always remind me of the cold months in Massachusetts, where I grew up and where they would circle the sky and hop through the brown […]
More than most, I’m prone to infections, colds, and the flu. When the seasons really begin to shift, I start supplementing my diet with herbal teas and syrups to boost my immune system. My go-to medicines include elderberry syrup and fire cider as a preventative, and a tea of mullein, linden leaf, chamomile and peppermint for strengthening the throat and lungs […]
In less than a week, I’m headed to Oaxaca (wuh-HA-kah). I have wanted to visit Oaxaca since I was about 17 years old, a city and region of southern Mexico famed for its crafts – pottery, weaving, and textiles, primarily – and its food. (Oaxaca is known affectionately as the Land of the Seven Moles for a […]
OR. Christmas Yule log with chestnut cream. My friend and neighbor Nancy has baked many a delicious Yule log cake in her day, and generously offered to share her recipe and techniques on this here blog in honor of the Winter Solstice tomorrow. When I dropped by her home last weekend to help decorate the […]
When I began brewing limoncello, the trees were still barren and we were thirsting for the first glimmer of spring. I’d gathered an armful of the last meyer lemons of the winter in a large bowl in my living room, without any definitive ideas for how to use them. But I’d also picked up a […]
When I first landed upon Nourished Kitchen‘s recipe for black-eyed pea cakes, I immediately thought of dark little moons on a plate. But that was just my own association – Jenny has crafted these little cakes to be rich in meaning and celebration. The black-eyed peas are tokens of luck; the collard greens resemble dollar bills; […]
Remember that blizzard that closed the government, the schools, the shops, the everything? Yes, that blizzard, the blizzard that wasn’t. Well, like every gainfully employed person in Washington that day, I got to work from home – which meant that I got up at 6 am to make jam in my pajamas before hopping on my computer […]
It was a brisk, sunny afternoon when five brown-haired, boot-stompin’ ladies and one golden-locked Viking chap gathered in a bright pink kitchen for a canning party. Emily of Nothing-in-the-House was hosting, and we were armed with 30 jars, $30 worth of onions, and heaping piles of pears, peppers, and garlic. We made three things that […]
My cooking and eating habits have taken a noticeable shift in the new year. Ever since I began learning to cook, food has always been a source of meditation and experimentation for me. But this year, I’ve begun approaching food as medicine. I’ve long struggled with recurrent health ailments, and this winter alone I’ve battled […]
When friends ask me if homemade pie crust is really essential to a good pie, this is what I tell them. Look – a pie is made of just two things: filling and crust. You can have the most amazing, handcrafted pie filling in the world, but if your crust is lousy, your pie will be […]
