No maps for these territories

Today was a lovely day, so this morning I made myself a totally decadent serendipitous treat to match. There’s a lot of recipes for this on the web but I made this up on the spot.
amaretto french toast

stale french bread
little splash of milk; bigger splash of whipping cream
two eggs
shot of amaretto

Combine everything; soak for as [...]

I am feeling lazy (it’s 100 degrees out!) so I will repost a recipe that I first invented and wrote about almost exactly two years ago, and that I have made numerous times since. I just made it again this afternoon and it’s as delicious as I remember. If you have access to tons of [...]

Work (paid and unpaid) is hard, so I am going to take a moment to think about other things, and write about my favorite subject — dinner.
I made Cobb salad for dinner last night, and it was delicious. I almost never buy iceberg lettuce (yes, I am a salad hipster) but the time seemed right [...]

I have no idea if their products are available outside northern California, but I have been consistently impressed with the Sierra Nevada Cheese Company’s products. Their cream cheese, which is what I’ve been getting is amazing. Tonight I tried their butter, which is shockingly good; almost like firm chevre, but mild and lovely and amazingly [...]

Today at the market I bought:
* okra pickles — truly delicious, if you have never had them
* butter beans
* anchovies
* pasta
* parmesan
* mango pickle — spicy and delicious. I used to live on the mango pickle from that Indian place by my house in Seattle. It kept me going.
* limequats — a cross between a [...]

I am making olives!
Well, to be totally specific, the trees on the campus here — 1500 of them, apparently mostly heritage varieties, planted as a gift by ye olde settlers — made the olives. But I picked some, from the trees that overhang a bikepath I frequent, and now I am attempting to cure them.
I [...]

My package of linguine has a little splashy note down in the bottom corner, reminiscent of the general mills food pyramid splashes:
“Pasta and Other Complex Carbohydrates are the Preferred Fuel for the Brain and Body. A Nutrition Message for the American Dietetic Association.”
Which leads me to ask: preferred by whom, precisely? The American Council of [...]