Holiday/New Year Special

’tis the season of giving, and the gift of good food and free time would be a hit! During December, Cuisine Claire is offering gift certificates for a one-week Petit Plan service at the discounted subscription price. Available for purchase December 1 – 31, 2016, to be redeemed in January, February or March, 2017. What a great way to […]

Eat Local Month

Throughout the year, my menus feature as many local ingredients as possible. Given that September is Eat Local Month in Whatcom County, I thought I’d highlight just how easy it is to enjoy good locally sourced food. Whatcom and Skagit County ingredients from my September 19 menu:  organic pastured pork and beef, organic pastured eggs, […]

Ode to Joe’s Garden

Okay, I’m not really composing a poem, unless photos stand as poetry.  Cleaning out some photo files, I came across two of the same fields at Joe’s. One was taken in July when they were preparing to sow another round of something — look at the rich, dark soil.   The other was taken on October […]

When in Rome. . . or Durango, CO

If, when in Rome, we ‘do as the Romans do,’ it seems when in Durango, we do as Durangoans do. Which, it turns out, is pretty much what we’d do at home. After a family reunion of sorts, floating on a houseboat on Lake Powell, our family of four stopped over for a few days […]

Demo at the Market

I just got home from doing a quick demo of healthy kid snacks at the farmer’s market. It was Kids’ Vending Day, so there were many young entrepreneurs joining the regulars with clever craft and art booths. And as you’d expect, the food activity was geared toward the younger set, too. At first I thought […]

Dan Barber: good flavor from good soil

I just love reading and hearing what’s on the mind of chef Dan Barber. One of these days I hope I get to eat at his New York restaurant. His article in the July/August 2012 Wall Street Journal magazine is a worthy read. Two excerpts below: “. . . truly great-tasting food — that impossibly […]

A Toast to Nora

Returning home from Texas on Tuesday night, I had a long layover at Sea-Tac. To pass the time and soothe my frayed nerves, I pulled from my carry-on bag my Mac and a dvd: ‘Julia and Julia’. I’d just watched the movie a couple of nights before — probably for the fifth time since its […]

One Family’s Local Food Challenge, part III

(May 2007-May 2008: Our Year of Eating Local, continued from previous post) Our Thanksgiving 2007 turkey – fresh, organic, pastured – came from a young Whatcom County farmer, new to the trade so we wanted to support her.  Aged for 24 hours, soaked for another 24 hours in simple brine and slow-roasted, it was the most […]

One Family’s Local Food Challenge, part II

(May 2007-May 2008: Our Year of Eating Local, continued from previous post) Okay, full disclosure. We weren’t absolutely strict about every ingredient, every meal, every day. Neither were the writers of those eat-local books – it’s almost impossible and would quickly turn pleasure to drudgery. We didn’t decline dinner invitations or avoid church potlucks on […]

One Family’s Local Food Challenge, Part I

We’re hearing more than ever lately about local folks and their efforts to look closer to home for food. Yet another example appeared last week in the Bellingham Herald. The piece featured Krista Rome, whose inspiration for her Backyard Beans and Grains Project came from her garden, and from three books of the last decade: […]