The Cardboard Kitchen Is Haute Cuisine!

The Cardboard Kitchen was featured in the April issue of Jalouse, the French style magazine! Many thanks to my friend Otilia for providing the translation, and to Florence Valencourt for the virtual interview. Next time I would like to be interviewed while sipping café au lait

Rooting Around In Spring

It actually was in Spring, during my first trip to France, that I discovered the radish sandwich. I couldn't believe I had lived so long without knowing about this simple, delicious, and incredibly satisfying meal. Take spicy, salty, sweet, and buttery then place it all in

Be-et Ever so Humble

There's nothing like borscht. It's simple to prepare, and comforting. And beet season lasts from winter to early spring! And while it's been a long winter and what seems like an even longer wait for spring as my blog hiatus indicates, some delicious beet-y dishes

The Persimmon Palette

With persimmon's, it's about the color!  It ranges right across the oranges, yellows and reds of the cadmium family, and matures with a blush of the earth tones, primarily burnt sienna. Because every flavor has a color in my kitchen, I approach the persimmon through

Turn Your Green To Gold!

In spite of the title, this isn't a post about the economy! It's a how-to post, dedicated to constructing a really satisfying salad in winter, without those warm climate salad ingredients that we in the northern realms seem to crave. What brought this on? A discussion

Fall-ing With Apples

In the Pacific Northwest we really do have the very best  local apples.  My inaugural "ode to fall" dish always involves apples. I really look forward to the first Honeycrisps at the farmers market. Sometimes my ode to fall is sweet, but this year it's

Have Your Cake And Felt It Too

In the world of the food obsessed artist it's not the blank canvas that we have to fill, it's the empty plate. And look how my friend Heather Laskowski fills hers! Not only is she a talented multi media artist, she's a bona fide pastry

Lemon Love

On my recent trip to CA, land of perpetual citrus, I brought back a suitcase full of  organic lemons. I picked them the day I left  from a family member's tree.  Lemons are a staple in the Art On The Menu pantry. Eating local aside,

Farewell To The Late Season Strawberry

The late season local strawberries are the sweetest. I'm not sure if this is because they actually are, or because I know they are the last and so I must wait until next summer for that true strawberry flavor. Because of this I always celebrate

Iron Cupcake!

Get your cupcakes on bakers!  If you are baking in the "other" kitchen, let's see your batter, bowl and spoons and your oven center stage. This little "Mini Cupcake With Buttercream and Cherry On Commemorative Silver Dessert Stand" is the October prize for the Iron