John and I finally watched Food Inc. this weekend. If you haven’t seen this challenging documentary on how the American food supply works, now is a good time to put it in your Netflix queue — Earth Day is Thursday and if you have any doubts now that what you put on your plate affects the environment, you won’t after…
Did you see Super Size Me? That terrifying movie where Morgan Spurlock eats only McDonald’s food for a month? I’m thinking of doing a similar experiment. Except less terrifying. And easier. What if I ate a half dozen raw oysters every day for a month? Why oysters? Several reasons: Oysters are associated with loads of health claims, from boosting energy…
If the current locavore food movement were a religion, a trip to Blue Hill would be its trip to Mecca. Blue Hill is perhaps best known around the country as the site of the Obamas’ New York date night dinner. That’s the Manhattan location, a good restaurant in a city crowded with good restaurants. To know the real Blue Hill…
I love Mark Bittman’s food writing. He makes cooking unintimidating. Even recipes with fancy or unfamiliar ingredients feel accessible because he explains it all so clearly. His book How to Cook Everything is my go-to when I’m trying to figure out how long to cook salmon or the best way to store raspberries. This video is a great example of…
Late last year, I got the most amazing freelance gig: interview three University of Michigan graduates who all had connections to the recently closed Gourmet magazine. It started with an assignment from Michigan Alumnus magazine to profile Michael and Jane Stern, authors of the Roadfood series. Then Conde Nast announced it was folding Gourmet. Since the Sterns had a long-standing…
John and I like to host parties. In our dozen years together, we’ve hosted multi-course dinner parties, booze-fueled cocktail parties and backyard barbecue parties. John grew up with parents who threw parties so whether through nature or nurture, it comes naturally to him. Though my mom often had friends pop over for a beer, other than her 30th birthday, I…
Leading up to Thanksgiving, each day I will blog about what I’m doing to be more grateful. I invite you to join me in a Month of Thanksgiving, and to share your thoughts, observations, suggestions and ideas. Day 32 — the final day: For every comment of Thanksgiving, I will make a $1 donation to Feeding America Lots of us…
There are certain life events that seem to amplify our natural tendencies toward perfectionism — planning a wedding and hosting Thanksgiving dinner among them.
We pull out a Martha Stewart yard stick to measure our efforts and almost certainly fall short. In real life, most of us don’t have a staff of dozens invisibily helping and we won’t make five turkeys so we can photograph whichever one looks most perfectly golden, then Photoshop out any flaws.
In short, real life is messy.
I gave up eating meat my junior year of college and since then I’ve been nearly ever flavor of vegetarian possible — from nearly vegan, which means not eating any animal products including milk or eggs, to not eating red meat but partaking of pretty much everything else. One of the best changes that came from my initial decision was that it…
I know I’m late to the party but I’d be remiss if I didn’t post about two true stories of life transformation — Julia Child and Julie Powell — celebrated on the big screen this summer. Julie Powell was lost in a cubicle job when she decided to blog about making her way through Child’s Mastering the Art of French…
While I do confess a weakness for costume jewelry and flashy shoes, I am, in my heart, a practical girl. Whenever I’m considering a significant purchase, I ponder “Do I really need this? Can I make do without it?” The answers were “No” and “Yes” for all three of these kitchen purchases we’ve made. But I stand behind all three.…
As you might recall, I’m newly obsessed with the idea of making my own pickles. I haven’t actually done it but I like to think I will so I’ve bought equipment and reading material, which is practically the same as doing it, right? By this same logic, taking my gym bag to the office equals a work out, by the…
Rick Field, founder of New York pickle concern Rick’s Picks, recently taught a dill pickle making class at farmers market in Prospect Park. As he waited for the brine to heat up in a kettle on a propane burner, Field talked about his unlikely transition from television producer to artisanal pickle maker. As the New York Press reported: Field wasn’t…
When I first met Sarah Endline at a Michigan alumni event, she had the kind of job lots of MBA students envy, working at Yahoo as the major search engines were really coming into power. When she told me she was leaving the corporate world to start a premium chocolate company, I was surprised. She didn’t have a background in…
