24 Oct 2014 8 Comments
in On the Road, Pork, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: Barley Forge Brewing Co., Camping, cowboys, Don Julio 70, Dumbledore, Garth's Boulder Garden, Greg Nylen, Joshua Tree, Pioneertown, Santa Maria tri tip, Sean Colgin, smoked pork shoulder
It was past Pioneertown, the last outpost, at the end of a long and dusty dirt road amidst the boulders and Joshua trees and outlaw cabins of the Mojave desert, that we set up camp.
Desert shadow selfie
More specifically, it was the property of our friend and Scoutmaster, Greg, and his wife Mary Ann, and an official Cub Scouts camp out. And I was designated cook for 50 or so people on Saturday night.
10 Oct 2014 12 Comments
in Humor, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: bantam silkies, chicken farming, eggs, food, humor, Topanga
My 4-year-old daughter Imogen had her 4-year-old pal, Kinley, over to play the other day. They were outside enjoying themselves, when Kinley approached me sheepishly.
Kinley and her egg
“Sean,” she said, “Can we go get eggs from the chicken coop?”
I explained to her that I had, sadly, already gathered the eggs a short while before. But they could certainly go see if any more had been laid. She then went on to explain to me how her 6-year-old brother, Finn, was trying to lay his own egg. I asked their mother, Amber, about this later, and she told me that Finn actually wanted to hatch a chicken from an egg, not lay an egg. I’m not certain if he planned to nest on the egg himself. More
06 Jun 2014 6 Comments
in Humor, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: Armand Kay, Canoga Park, El Savador, Elvis, food, piano, pupusas, Roland, Salvadoran cooking, Steinway
Life sometimes has a strange way of surprising you when you expect little, and touching you when you least expect it.
Such was my past Sunday.
A Sunday surprise in Canoga Park
My daughter, Willa, has been taking piano lessons. Except we don’t have a piano. So we needed to get something for her. My wife was out and about, and somehow wound up at a piano store. She called me and said she’d found an electric piano. I asked how much, and she said $900. More
30 May 2014 21 Comments
in Humor, Pork, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: barbecue, BBQ, buttermilk fried chicken, California Chrome, Kansas City, Memorial Day, mint julep, muffaleta, North Carolina pork shoulder
I’m not sure what gave me the idea for a deep Southern barbecue for Memorial Weekend. I think it may have been the pile of paper plates and plastic cups I had left over from an event — no dishes to clean! (And you can’t exactly serve Tuscan grill on paper plates.) Maybe it was Brownie McGhee popping up on the iTunes playlist. Whatever the motivation, the invitations went out and preparations began.
Brisket & pork shoulders on the smoker
“Good god,” my friend Katy emailed when she got the invitation, “This is almost like catering the auction all over again. You’re obviously a glutton for punishment.” More
23 May 2014 13 Comments
in Humor, Observations, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: 2001, 9/11, cheese, Deep Nutrition, France, French food, Nova Scotia, September 11, unpasteurized
My biggest regret about not living in France is cheese.
A few weeks ago, my friend Brian (he of 90/60 blood pressure and 48 bmp heart rate) arrived to a small birthday celebration I’d hastily thrown together for myself with several raw-milk cheeses he’d just brought back from France. I can’t even remember what I cooked — the cheeses were the stars of the night.
Contraband French cheeses
You are not allowed to bring soft unpasteurized cheese into the United States. Which technically makes Brian a smuggler. But these are cheeses worth any risk — rich, deep and complex in a way you just can’t find in the imported stuff. More
skinny girls & mayonnaise 