I’ve been using the shreddy stuff out of my shredder to pack boxes with. It’s recycleable, something I’d have to throw out or compost myself, and since I have a huge backlog of old manuscript paged, a nearly-endless resource. I packed the black Chamba pot I sent to my cousin Elizabeth in shredded credit card offers, and it arrived safe and sound. So sorry all my friends and family out there — you’re going to have to contend with paper shreds. Not as bad as styrofoam peanuts, but kind of a pain, I know …
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The past few years I’ve been giving people food presents — we all have so much stuff in our lives, so why do we need more little objects? Particularly for those folks on our lists who we love, and to whom we want to give a little something, but who aren’t family or the kind of friends we buy big presents for — you know, the folks you’d buy a candle or bath products of something like that. Last year I did really swanky Christmas baskets for my family members — cookies, chocolates, some jam I made, cheese, a little…
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There was a terrific little piece on Zen Habits last week, Faith in Humanity: How to Bring People Closer, and Restore Kindness. I read it right after I’d come back from paying my local utilities bill — there never seems any point to paying that bill by mail since the office is just down on the other side of town. So, once a month, I drive down, hand my check through the drive up window, chat with the lady who always puts dog cookies in with my receipt, and drive off with a little smile and with two dogs happily…
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My beloved cousin Elizabeth had a big milestone birthday last summer, and I just sent her a present a couple of weeks ago. She’s one of my favorite people on the planet, she has fabulous taste, and she’s not really into “stuff” — so it took me months to find something I thought she’d genuinely like and that I could afford. I bought her one of these fabulous black Chamba clay pots — it’s lovely, useful, handmade — all the kinds of things that make Elizabeth happy. Plus, it’s fun to get an unexpected present. But I can’t exactly do…
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My DSL is on the fritz — something in the lines apparently, the tech support guy from my ISP (shout out to Bridgeband, they’re great and have terrific support) says it’s in the wires. We think it has something to do with the windstorms we’ve been having. Which means I’m waiting on Qwest. Which is a drag. So I’m ducking out a couple of times a day to the library or one of the coffee houses in town where there’s a wireless connection, but for the most part, I’m back in the pre-internet world. Which is sort of interesting. You…
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I have a little piece up at Culinate about how mushroom hunting saved my health during grad school. It was fun to write, hope you enjoy it.
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Well, now that we’ve explored the strange and wonderful world of bizarre holiday foods — let’s talk about tips and tricks for getting that big ceremonial meal on the table … My mother just called and my cousin Denise wants to know how I did the turkey last year because apparently she remembers it as being especially good — honestly, I can’t really remember. I’m pretty sure I bought an organic bird because those frozen ones shot full of stuff freak me out — and really, if you can get a nice fresh organic turkey, it’s worth the hassle and…
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Okay, I’ll admit it — I think Thanksgiving is the most boring holiday meal of the year. Perhaps it’s the residue of the Turkey Years, when Mom fed us on a couple of turkeys a month because it was a lot of meat for the dollar, or perhaps it’s just because it *is* the most boring meal of the year — but snore snore snore. Turkey. Stuffing. Mashed potatoes. A couple of sides — brussell sprouts or green beans. Cranberry sauce. Pie. It’s inviolable. There are variations, sure — every year the magazines plop into my box full of variations,…
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A couple of weeks ago I decided to take the plunge and buy Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall‘s Meat book, and in that way that Amazon does, it suggested I might like the River Cottage Cookbook as well — and what do you know? They were right … I now have a big fat crush on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I want to go live at River Cottage and raise pigs and cows and chickens and vegetables with that cute man and his crazy hair.
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My friend Robert-the-painter came for dinner last night — like many painters, Robert is also a wonderful cook, and is really invested in local and organic food issues. I made country pork spareribs braised in milk with lots of garlic, thyme, rosemary, sage and a little hot pepper and lemon. Everything except the pork and the lemon was local in that dish — I’m on the list next year for one of my Milk Lady’s pigs, but for now, I’m stuck with what I can get. I also made Clothilde’s yogurt cake with the spiced cherries I put up this…