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In the Woods
This weekend we packed up cars with coolers and tents, filled water bottles and bought sunscreen. Stoves and fishing poles were procured, firewood and flashlights. We headed east, over the mountains,...
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Picnic Salad Season
It’s picnic salad season, the invitations start rolling in. Beaches, meadows, parks, lakes—this time of year we gather outdoors. It’s too nice, no one wants to be inside. Dinners even, are often eaten...
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Chicken Update
Do you remember these guys, the baby chicks the kids got around Easter? Well, the babies are growing. In the past couple of months they’ve gone from these little fluffballs, who had to be kept under...
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Things I Want to Remember
Even though you’re now six and eight years old, and growing like weeds, you still occasionally pull out the “capes” your grandma bought you, tying the pieces of fabric around your necks (or, more...
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Under Water
This morning I woke at 5am to a light grey sky and dragged myself from bed. The shower failed to wake me because I failed to turn it cold for the final thirty seconds—when one feels like a beaten dog...
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Quickie Dinners, Late Nights
Thanks for your sweet comments on Friday, friends. A bit of sleep and a bit of perspective, I’m feeling much better now. I’ve been spending a lot of time in the garden these days. Like, a lot. In...
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In the Strawberry Fields
A few weeks ago, on an early Saturday morning, the niecelets and I got in the car and drove north. We were headed to the Skagit Valley, about an hour from Seattle, where green farmland spreads out,...
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Planting Peaches
These days, I’m spending all my time in the garden (and, well, writing a book about the garden). It’s a busy time. There is so much to be watered, weeded, and watered again. We’re in the midst of a...
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What is Ripe, What is Ready
The other day I took an egg from the laying box in the chicken coop that was still warm, the hen who had produced it had just waddled off into the yard. That was the moment I admitted I was wrong...
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Coming to My Senses
May I ask you a question? It might be a personal one, but do you wear perfume? Myself, I don’t. Not usually. I did wear perfume. Years ago, when I was in my teens and early twenties—the time of life...
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The Late Summer List
The other day, having lunch on a picnic blanket in the park, I noticed there were two fallen maple leaves by my friend’s sandals. Ooooh, people, it is getting to that time here in Seattle. That time....
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Cookbook Club Does Plenty
About this time last year, our cookbook club had what might be our loveliest meeting to date. We always make sure to pick an appropriate book for the end of summer—one that celebrates the almost...
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Into the Mountains
One of the things I am most proud of this summer is making good on a promise to go camping once a month. It’s not been easy—this summer is busy, it’s hard to get away—but it’s been one of the things...
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The Grand Art of Sussing Out a Swimming Hole
I will forever be grateful that I grew up and spent my summers in the wild mountains of the west coast. Being a west coaster leaves you with particular skills. In my case, the grand art of sussing out...
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So Easy
We’ve entered that time of year when cooking is easy—so easy. Everything is ripe, everything is luscious, and throwing dinner together takes just a bit of heat, salt, olive oil. With vegetables like...
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What the Tea Leaves Said
About thirteen years ago I attended a bridal shower held at a tea house in San Francisco. I hardly knew the bride. Her fiancée was friends with my friends and I was surprised to have been invited. But...
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Food Memory
It was twenty years ago when I, a nervous art history student, moved into a small, sparsely furnished apartment in the fourth district of Vienna. My roommate was a music student from the East Coast....
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Happy for Fall
I took this picture a few years ago, one of the first autumns I spent in Seattle. I loved that someone was putting a happy face on the season. As much as I love fall—and I do—it can be bittersweet...
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Bountiful
I can’t remember the first time I found myself on Diane Cu and Todd Porter’s beautiful website, White on Rice Couple, but I remember what I found there: gorgeous photography, beautiful food, and a...
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Pounds and Pounds of Pears
Say a person tripped and fell under something heavy. Like a pear harvest. Or a book deadline. Or a magazine. All of these are possible, simultaneous even. Let’s start with the pears. That’s where this...
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