beets and self-sufficiency.

Even before the pandemic happened and all the restaurants were forced to close and life ceased to be as it was, I had cooked and baked almost everything we ate. Besides the meals themselves, I made lots of kitchen staples: loaves of flax-laden sourdough, almond walnut granola, jars of spicy salsa and sweet marmalade…delicious things …

grapefruit season of life.

We didn’t grow up eating grapefruit. In terms of citrus, my family ate oranges, with maybe some mandarins here and there on special occasions. In fact, I don’t think I tasted grapefruit until I was an adult living on my own, and its sharp bitter sourness was initially so shocking that I couldn’t understand how …

retreat-worthy: beet and black rice salad.

The key to successfully cooking for other people while they are on a meditation retreat is to think thoughts of love and compassion, so as to channel those same qualities into the food you make, hence providing nourishment that dares to delve into a world beyond physical.  With this intention in mind, I like to …

gomae!

Gomae!  My new war cry! But also the Japanese word for a side dish of vegetables and sesame dressing. Gomaaaaeeee!!! I first ate gomae during a lovely party held at a Japanese restaurant a few weeks ago.  It was a terrific and well-timed discovery, as I had just bought a gigantic, 1 kg bag of …

“Everything was amazing.”

Said the Muffin Man, when I asked him what his favorite dish was from the night’s dinner. Well! We had a couple of friends over for dinner on a Saturday night, and I had greatly looked forward to an evening filled with good company and of course, good food.  As you may or may not …