Also From Picfair Village

Chag S'meach (roughly)

Scarlet Nantes

It's been a really good year for carrots (of the scarlet Nantes variety) in our small garden. We planted seeds in late September, and have been harvesting since January. It's now late March and we still have a handful left. We'll be missing them soon.

Sin Gluten

And low #FODMAP. Recipe here.

Sauerkraut

About 24 hours in to my first-ever batch of homemade sauerkraut, and I wish I could set other responsibilities aside to just spend the day watching it slowly change.

May Your Day Be as Good as This Was

Backyard Economics

Kitchen gardens usually don't make economic sense. That's been my experience, at least. I put more money into mine than I save by growing my own food. Still worthwhile, of course, but don't get into it to save money. The exception: salad greens. And, as with most vegetables you can grow at home, the quality of homegrown is dramatically better than anything Whole Foods or your local farmer's market has to offer.

Dutch Oven

I've been baking.

Compost Lesson #13: You Can Compost Birthday Cake

This Red Onion Played a Significant Role In a Tuna Salad Today

Re-enactment

With the little baking I do, I so enjoy the whole process. There's a reason Play-Doh is so popular with the kids. I do, though, have a favorite moment: It's pulling the Dutch oven out of the oven oven (not a typo), and marveling at the newly baked loaf, listening to it crackle and pop before pulling it out and setting it down on a rack to cool. The black cast iron perfectly frames the fresh loaf, makes it look so much warmer, breadier. This is sort of what that moment looks like, but not what it sounds like. Or smells like.

My Camera

isn't equipped to capture smells. Yet.

Compost Lesson #11

Gingerbread houses are, of course, compostable. And so it all comes full circle, almost like a Hendrik Hertzberg essay, but messier. Happy Holidays!

Gingerbread Rad, contd.

Gingerbread Rad

Go, B!

I Need a

Like the pak choi in the previous post, the vegetables pictured on this photo blog are what we grow in our backyard. These beets are an exception. They just looked too good not to photograph.

"Formula for an Interesting Life:

Acquire skills and use them. The more skills, the more interesting."
-Stewart Brand
The Next Whole Earth Catalog, Second Edition

No Knead Bread How-to Video with Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey.

Aebleskiver

Bless you, you lovely little balls of dough.

Greenwashing

I made the mistake of reading the side of a milk carton this morning, and it annoyed me enough that I picked up the phone. Is there any connection between a stock image of a young seedling in a model's palm, and the milk my child drinks? I called Horizon Organic today and told them I thought it was less than honest to state "choosing organic leaves the world just a little better than how we found it." If they were indeed leaving the world a little better than they found it, you'd think they'd allow customers to visit their facilities. When I asked if I could see where the milk we buy comes from their helpful customer service associate replied, firmly, no.

The Dessert Architect

I did the photography for a book called the Dessert Architect, by Robert Wemischner, and according to Amazon, it's available for preorder, though not yet released. We finished shooting the photos about a year and a half ago, and I'm looking forward to seeing the book soon. Finally. I hope.
The food stylist who used matter-manipulating sorcery to make our subject matter camera-ready is Andy Sheen-Turner. We did, indeed, get to taste the desserts before, after and during shooting, and they were all, without exception, supremely delicious.