04 Dec 2015 2 Comments
in Humor, Recipes, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: Amanda Kitchings, beets, crab, humor, pescetarians, Seattle, surf & turf, vegetarians
It was a fun idea my friend, Amanda, and I had.
She was bringing a vegetarian to our house for dinner. (“What’ya wanna go and do that for!??” I protested.)
I told her as long as it was a vegetarian who didn’t mind other people around him eating meat, that was fine.
“The first course might even be RAW meat!” I told her. More
27 Nov 2015 9 Comments
in Humor, Observations Tags: Fanny Bay oysters, food, humor, Mexico, oysters, San Francisco, Thanksgiving
I was sitting in the dentist chair a few mornings ago, trying to find my Zen place as the hygienist plunged Medieval devices of torture into my mouth. I was feeling thankful that I only had to do this twice a year. Although these days, all things in the world considered, there are a lot of worse places I could be.
Saltimbocca-style turkey
“Maybe if you re-branded teeth cleaning as a kind of ‘spa day’ for your mouth,” I said to the dentist, “people would be less apprehensive about it. You could call it a ‘denticure’.”
02 Oct 2015 2 Comments
in Humor, Recipes Tags: Andreas Viestad, Baja, cooking, humor, New Scandinavian Cooking, Norway, sandwiches, shrimp, Topanga
It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, I was looking in vain for the Dodgers game on cable, and stumbled across “New Scandinavian Cooking” with Andreas Viestad.
Andreas Viestad fixing to smoke some trout in the mountains of Norway
It’s one of my favorite PBS cooking shows, and it was just beginning.
“Dad!” 5-year-old Imogen said as we wandered into the bedroom, “Is that a cooking show!??” More
18 Sep 2015 14 Comments
in Humor, Recipes Tags: Attempts in Domesticity, hákarl, humor, Iceland, Icelandic cooking, lamb, rotten shark, Saveur, Sigur Ros
My 11-year-old son Flynn is obsessed with Iceland.
“I think I want to learn to speak Icelandic,” he declared to us at some point.
He now has two different Icelandic apps on his iPhone and paces around the house working on his pronunciation.
“Kveðja!” he says cheerfully by way of an Icelandic goodbye to our 5-year-old daughter Imogen as she heads off to summer camp.
Svið (singed sheep’s head)
Why Iceland? I take some responsibility, having introduced him to the Icelandic band, Sigur Rós, and taken him to one of their very dramatic concerts.
I’ve always been a bit intrigued by Iceland myself. I’m Irish, I like cold and dramatic northern landscapes and broody people who drink a bit too much and write mournful poetry and music. More
04 Sep 2015 14 Comments
in Humor, Recipes, Starlets Tags: food, humor, kombucha, Lululemon, quinoa, Starbucks, Topanga Canyon
The occasion was the Commitment Dinner for my daughter, Imogen’s kindergarten class. Our friends, Casey and Simone were hosting at their home.
The purpose of the commitment dinner is for the class parents to get together, sign up to volunteer for certain responsibilities in the class, hear the pitch for money from our version of a PTA parent, and then drink profusely and eat potluck.
My quinoa salad
As you might guess, it is the “eating potluck” part of the equation that, every year around this time, sows fear in my soul. And, this being Topanga Canyon, there is one word in particular I expect to see a lot of in the emails leading up to the event: quinoa. More
skinny girls & mayonnaise 