When Mike got home from work last Wednesday, he stumbled across a miniature photo studio in our entryway: lights, cords, a camera, a baking sheet I was using as a backdrop. "What have you been up to...

One of my favorite streets that I've come across in my travels is the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado. It's lined with local shops and restaurants, several blocks are pedestrian-only, and it has street performers and excellent people-watching. Most importantly for someone like me who grew up in relatively flat state, you can see the Rocky Mountains.

This is the time of year for best-of lists: the best songs, the most talked about news stories, the most important books. 2018 has been a banner year for me personally—in February, I quit my job as a paralegal to make my side gig as a freelance writer into a full-time career. While there have been plenty of ups and downs, one thing has been constant: so much delicious food. When it came time to sum up 2018, really the only way to do it was...

Christmas is a hard time of year for me. I struggle with seasonal affective disorder, which brings out a very specific sort of sadness. The best way I can describe it is that it's like having your emotional range shifted a few notches downwards: the highs aren't as high as you know they could be, and the lows are worse than usual.

A street lined with small shops, each decorated with fresh pine boughs and Christmas wreaths. Dozens of Christmas trees. Twinkling luminaries along the sidewalks. It sounds like an illustration from the front of a Christmas card, or maybe the opening scene of a Hallmark Channel holiday movie. But actually, I'm in Iowa's Amana Colonies.

The running joke about Minnesota is that we have two seasons: winter and road construction. Likewise, when it comes to what I'm cooking for dinner, there's CSA season and soup season. From June...