I just got a notice about a speaking engagement featuring Michael Ableman this Friday evening , which I highly recommend for anyone in the area who can make it. Michael Ableman is one of those people who can be a bit hard to describe, but farmer-activist-speaker-photographer-storyteller sums him up to a small degree. I’ve had occasion to [...]
Entries from October 2008
October 16, 2008
My Own Private Yakima
This funny reflection came to mind as I was surveying my small backyard patio-garden a few weeks ago. As my eyes cast over one corner, where I have an espalier apple tree framed across the top by a trailing vine of golden hops, I realized it was a tiny little slice of the Yakima Valley [...]
October 12, 2008
Beer Meets Birthday Cake
Not long after I got to help toast the 21st birthday of Rover’s restaurant, it was time to celebrate another birthday. My brother’s. He’s older than 21, that’s all I’m going to say. I crafted a dinner menu around one of his favorite food groups: beer. Make that top-quality, finely crafted beer, the likes of [...]
October 7, 2008
Marcella Comes to Seattle
It’s so tempting to call Marcella Hazan the “Julia Child of Italy.” The temptation made that much easier because I know so much more about Julia Child’s life than I do about Marcella’s, which I imagine to be true for many other cooks in this country. Reading the New York Times Book Review this weekend taught me far [...]
October 3, 2008
My Kind of Fast Food
When I left for La Varenne cooking school back in the summer of 1989, I thought I had a tidy 9 months ahead of me. But what already was clearly going to be a fascinating adventure became even more so when the excursion got extended a few different times and became 2 1/2 years of [...]
