Wanted: 200 Million New Cooks — pass it on

February 10, 2010

Whew. I got my at-least-annual “I don’t really garden” confession out of the way yesterday, and now I can indulge in writing about something I DO do. I cook. I value cooking as crucial to my independence in the world, yes. More than that, I cook because cooking delights me.
Recently I learned about Jamie Oliver’s [...]

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Planning Planting; Hearing Snow Shovels

February 9, 2010

My personal planning for garden riches — I’m being honest here — consists of buying a few packets of seeds on impulse and putting them where my Live In Gardener will find them. That, and the occasional “What would you think about growing ______ [insert something hard and obscure like artichokes] this year?”
Tr: “What would [...]

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Kentucky Lucky

February 3, 2010

Kentucky Proud. That’s how we all felt, those of us standing to applaud Proof on Main Chef Michael Paley and the large crew from Sullivan University’s Culinary Arts program at the end of the stellar 2010 Kentucky Proud Grapevine Winemaker Dinner on January 29, 2010.
I felt Kentucky Lucky, too.
How else to feel when…

One has feasted [...]

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These Stories Have Caught My Eye

January 15, 2010

These stories have interested me in recent days.
How restaurants, including servers, are organizing quickly to raise fund to help in Haiti: New York Times Diner’s Journal: Help for Haiti
Advice about foods as medicines, from a chef/doc: Six Foods That Fight Flu
Anya Fernald, who helped produce the first Slow Food Nation (San Francisco, 2008) has put [...]

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What’s Fresh as the New Year? Meyer Lemons.

January 7, 2010

Lucky me! Homegrown Meyer Lemons from New Orleans found me twice this winter, courtesy of generous friends. (Lemony kisses and herbal-flowery Meyer-y smelling hugs to them.)
I am still finding new uses for these strange, splendid fruits. I am tempted by these elaborate (but doable) recipes from Tartelette:
Meyer Lemon Baked Alaska
Meyer Lemon Limoncello Cupcakes (but I [...]

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Bearing Gifts From Right Here

December 19, 2009

Here in the lush and amazing Bluegrass, Christmas and holiday shopping for home and loved ones gets easier and easier, simpler and simpler, and localer and…ever more local. In one stop, with free (dry) parking, I bought fragrant, fresh greens for house and table….

I bought beautiful small gift packages of the incomparably luscious Viburnum Valley [...]

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