I love farming, but from a distance. Enter farming, and suddenly you’re shellacking your kitchen table with bills, breaking your back, never to see a skyscraper again. Kiss off health insurance and an IRA account. And holidays. But, knowing all this, I still feel a longing to tend cabbages. I’m almost sure it’s lunacy, this longing, but I’m not so [...]
For Shannalee Mallon, author of the blog foodloveswriting.com, writing and cooking seemed to be the perfect partnership. She embarked on her food blogging journey on the one year anniversary of her grandma’s passing, to celebrate her grandma’s fervent love of cooking. It seems like it was a fated event–with grandma’s recipes in hand and grandma’s lessons in her soul, Mallon [...]
The first movie I remember seeing in a theater was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I know this sounds crazy, but it was indeed re-released in theaters in 1987. I remember how exciting it was to sit in that dark theater, with the giant screen and that big tub of popcorn; feeling so tiny in those seats, and in [...]
Tracktown USA: the home of the almighty Ducks, Prefontaine, and the birthplace of Nike–welcome to Eugene, Oregon. Centered in the lush green carpet of the Willamette Valley a little under three hours south of Portland, Eugene is a cultural hotbed of activity. Who wants to make a stop in Eugene, you ask? In the last 30 days I’ve seen Wilco, [...]
Tigers, giant pandas, polar bears and whales–these are just some of the most well-known species rapidly disappearing from our planet each day. But did you know your morning smoothie and beloved banana cream pie are also on the verge of extinction? Well, they might be. Cavendish bananas, which make up 99 percent of the world’s banana exports, are considered an [...]
You hear: “Didn’t love it. Didn’t hate it.” “Not bad.” “Not my thing.” These are probably not the words food critics would normally use to persuade you to dine in one of the most celebrated restaurants in the world — unless that restaurant happens to be the obscurely famous El Bulli. Managed by the frequently praised and often criticized Ferran [...]
It’s February (already!), the month when hearts (and loins) are all aflutter. If all that pink, romantic, fluffy stuff that comes along with this month makes you want to shoot actual arrows at people, we’ve got news for ya–instead of drowning your sorrows in a glass of red wine while being mentally smothered with heart-shaped candies and cheap, grade-school valentines, [...]
With a penchant for personable, dessert-orientated recipes, Pastrygirl, a.k.a. Anita Chu, has sweetly and steadily made a name for herself in today’s dessert world. With a scientific background in computer studies, Chu took a leap of faith and pursued her more palatable passions with success. Despite already having two published cookbooks tucked under her apron (see one and two), a [...]
Whenever I get the chance, I race to 18th and Guerrero Streets in the Mission district of San Francisco to drool over the famed pastries of Tartine Bakery. But I recently discovered that there’s even more to love on my favorite block of San Francisco; a hidden gem resides there, nestled among holistic medicine shops and vintage clothing boutiques. It’s [...]
With rampant rumors floating around stating that ‘fake’ sugar will kill you or that all-natural agave syrup will help you lose weight, sugar–and its substitutes–can become a surprisingly confusing topic. Now that New Year’s Resolutions are in full swing, January is prime weight-loss season for many people in the United States. The number of nation-wide gym memberships typically increases dramatically, [...]
