From second grade through ninth, my family lived in Tacoma on a small farm. I joined a 4-H club that was devoted to cookery and, having already been well established in the home kitchen, there wasn’t much that was new to me in 4-H. However, making homemade chocolate syrup wasn’t something we’d made at home, … More Thank you, Mrs. Hammer & 4-H: Chocolate Syrup better than Hershey’s
My Facebook feed this morning included a post from Washington’s own Bluebird Grain Farms featuring emmer pancakes from their artisan mix. I’d forgotten that there’s a bag of it in the box of flours and such that I brought along in the move, so the virtual reminder and salivation sent me into the cubbyhole kitchen … More Emmer Pancakes? Yes, please.
Just before I moved, Mark handed me a bag with organic grated coconut from the Ballard Market and yesterday I found out that he was still organizing and removing his collections from the yard of the house now owned by a developer. So, it was up early this morning to bake his favorite cookie before … More Toasted Coconut & Butterscotch Bars, aka Hawaiian Dream Bars without Pineapple
There was a couple pounds of fresh Washington-grown apricots which went on a special journey. After taking out the pip and cutting them in pieces, I popped them into a deep Corning Ware baking dish with sugar, intending on roasting them to the stewed stage and then making a first-of-the-summer fruit ice cream. It just … More Oven-stewed Apricot Jam
A couple weeks ago I asked my mother if she’d like to choose the birthday goodies to be baked and mailed to her this year. She had no preference, so I decided it would be based on whatever infused confectionary in my cupboard struck my fancy when I opened the jar on the 4th of … More Treats for Mother’s 89th Birthday
There’s two men arriving about 6 PM tonight to move 30 more filled boxes out of this cubbyhole and into the storage unit. There were also two cups of leftover frostings that needed use — and ended up one beneath the other over the top of a half-recipe of the greatest all-rounder indestructible chocolate cake … More Leftover frostings? Honey badger Crazy Cake don’t care.
Who in my fan club couldn’t guess the first thing I’d do once I’d opened enough moving boxes and partially put away their contents into the new cubbyhole kitchen? There’s a birthday! Someone dear to me is turning 10 years old and she’d asked in passing a couple weeks ago if I’d please make cookies … More Birthday? Time for some Sprinkles Jones
A friend read in a Facebook post that I’d found a way, while presently in a very delicate dental circumstance, to have tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwich (in my mind) by melting sharp cheddar in the soup and soaking the crumbled soda crackers in it. It just so happens that he’s one of two … More Tomato & Basil Soup for Ms. Delicate
As I’m winding down a tenancy while being down physically and still packing, I take pleasure in the paintings I’ve hung or placed in the house that aren’t in crates. This painting caught my attention originally because I love pink mountains, another story of which I told previously.* (I know it doesn’t photograph well, but … More Art as Food: Henry Hewitt’s Pink Mountains, Waterfall, Rocks & Trees
“I’ve got some spring rhubarb in the garden if you want to make something,” said a neighbor a couple days ago. It just so happened that I’d told Stanley yesterday that I would bake him something when he’s working here today on the rig. I asked what he liked, what he didn’t like and then … More Oma’s Rhubarb Cake with Cinnamon Crumble
Ms Chef in Seattle 