12 Feb 2013 5 Comments
in Food, Observations Tags: American Beauty, food, Manchego cheese, shishito peppers, Van Morrison
It’s one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies. The kid in “American Beauty” is video-taping a plastic grocery store bag, floating gracefully on a breeze:
“Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can’t take it, and my heart is just going to cave in.”
It’s one of my favorite scenes and quotes because I often have moments like that, and always have. I like to call them “God moments.” More
01 Feb 2013 3 Comments
in Beverages, Food, Humor, Observations Tags: Barley Forge, beer, Green Jug, IPA, Pliny the Elder, Russian River Brewing Company, Sierra Nevada, The Delicious
After my woeful post about my growing preoccupation with Pliny the Elder beer and my utter inability to get ahold of any, I was overwhelmed by an outpouring of support and allegiance from family, friends and assorted wellwishers.
“Sometimes Haven has Pliny on tap,” commented friend Joe.
“Have you checked the Green Jug?” friend Tina emailed. “I called and they said they get it usually once a week. But it goes fast.”
“I’m on a mission to find some Pliny for you,” emailed another friend, Nadine, who is president of a company and likes to make things happen.
My mom, in characteristic told-you-so fashion, offered up these words of encouragement:
“I found 3 on the door of the fridge when I was on a cleaning binge today. I would have happily sent you off with a couple of them but you still seem to be in a rebellious stage where you think you know more than I do. Nobody made a fuss when I insisted you try it here. We have had people in N. Carolina beg us to send them some but I got the ‘sure, sure’ look from you when I tried to make a case for it.” More
18 Jan 2013 24 Comments
in Food, Humor, Observations Tags: Calbee, Lay's, Maui Kitch'n Cook'd, potato chips, Rusty's Island Chips, Saveur 100, snacks, Target, Tim's Cascade, Walker's chips
My name is Sean, and I’m a snackoholic.
There, I got it off my chest. And I feel much better.
My wife and kids would say, “Oh yeah… like that’s news.”
I notice I most often snack when I am either bored or procrastinating, which is how I know I have a problem. Also, I eat small meal portions, so I wind up hungry between meals. Fortunately I’m not one of those people who eats a gallon of ice cream or family-size bag of chips when I’m depressed. I don’t eat anything when I’m depressed. Which might counterbalance my snacking habit, were it not that I’m hardly ever depressed. More
29 Dec 2012 10 Comments
in Food, Observations Tags: caviar, fois gras, food, Kobe beef, New Year's Eve, salmon, Seville bitter oranges, Snake River, white truffles
It begins with a few sketches. Not physical drawings, but culinary ideas thrown down on paper — or in this case, a Microsoft Word document on the computer.
I’m speaking of my annual New Year’s Eve dinner, in which my wife and I host up to a dozen friends — many of them the same for more than a decade — and present a dinner of anywhere from eight to 12 courses.
Matsutake mushroom duxelles for course #5
The planning begins with a consideration of the time of year, and what sorts of things I have on hand or might be likely to find at the market. For example, I’ve usually just returned from my mother’s house in Sonoma, and often come back with pounds of prime wild mushrooms — as I did this year. More
13 Dec 2012 9 Comments
in Food, Humor, Observations Tags: chamomile, Christmas, fasting, fasts, flu, food, kale, New Year's Eve
I remember awhile back, my friend Dan was in the midst of a fast. For one week, he was having nothing but water with cayenne and maple syrup. Midway through, he began not looking so well. “How’s it going?” I asked. “It’s going well!” he said, unconvincingly, and I wasn’t certain if the forced smile on his face was more for himself than me.
People do all kinds of fasts — juice fasts, cabbage soup fasts, lemonade fasts, protein fasts, kale fasts. They are done for weight loss, to rid the body of toxins or for spiritual reasons. More
skinny girls & mayonnaise 