It's been awhile since my cooking set off the smoke detector. I realized this as I stood on a chair in my living room, randomly stabbing at the innards of the dissembled device dangling from the...
I recently got a chance to sample foods from the newest vendors at this year's Linden Hills and Mill City Farmers Markets. It was an afternoon of delicious eating, but the true highlight was connecting with people who are pursuing their passion, whether that's brewing ginger beer or baking artisanal pastries.
For me, one of the best things about travel is the food: trying local specialties, visiting markets and grocery stores, and eating dessert far more often than I do at home. But our recent vacation to Disney World presented a challenge, especially since we were staying on Disney property without a rental car.
It's time for my annual gripe about how warmer temperatures arrive in Minnesota long before the first produce of the year. The birds are singing, the days are lengthening, and I'm running through the...
As longtime readers know, I love to support local businesses, from my CSA farmer to my favorite Ethiopian restaurant. Recently, I had a chance to take a sneak peak at some of the dozens of local artisans and craftspeople who will be selling their wares at Lowertown Pop, a maker event at St. Paul's Union Depot on Saturday, April 15, 2017.
Every year, I do a summer round up post with the edible and non-edible highlights of my favorite season (2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016). But here's the thing: while summer in Minnesota is a glorious thing, the majority of the year is taken up by winter.
This month, I accepted Barlean's challenge to develop a recipe using their Forti-Flax Premium Ground Flaxseed. If you're unfamiliar with flaxseed, it's an excellent source of fiber and plant-based omega-3 fatty acids. Ground flaxseed is easier for your body to digest than whole flaxseeds, making Forti-Flax an easy way to add some extra nutrition to your diet.
For the past several months, I've been working to establish myself as a freelance travel writer. This sounds glamorous and summons up images of me trotting the globe, notebook in hand. In reality, it...
A couple years ago, I read a piece by Shauna James Ahern about her family's weekly dinner template , with Mondays for meat and potatoes, Tuesdays as kids' choice night, soup and salad on Wednesdays,...
As longtime readers know, I occasionally work with Stonyfield to promote their line of organic yogurts. I'm selective about the brands I produce sponsored content for, and one of the reasons I work with Stonyfield is because I appreciate their commitment to sustainability.
Channa and Potatoes with Dhalpourie Roti "Have you eaten at Marla's before?" asked our server. We shook our heads. "Oooh, you are in for a treat! You're gonna love it." Marla's Caribbean Cuisine is a...
To those on the outside, I look like I've got the healthy eating thing down pat. I snack on carefully measured portions of cottage cheese and edamame, I spend Sunday nights prepping a week's worth of...
This season will be my seventh year as a CSA shareholder. Each year, I gets lots of curious questions from family and friends: how does this whole CSA thing work? What do I get in my CSA box each week? And most importantly, what do I with all that produce? If you're new to CSA shares, or if you're thinking of subscribing but want to know a little more, here's everything you need to know.
Around here, Saturday lunch is a fend-for-yourself meal. For me, it usually involves oatmeal, roasted vegetables, or whatever leftovers are rattling around in the fridge. Mike, on the other hand, uses Saturday lunch to eat the sort of convenience foods that we never have for dinner: frozen pizza, tater tots, fried chicken from the grocery store deli, and chicken nuggets dipped in hot sauce.
I still remember my first-ever potluck contribution, back when I was a very new cook: onion dip. The classic recipe, where you mix one packet of onion soup mix with a tub of sour cream, and serve it with a bag of potato chips. Looking back, it seems somewhat basic. But my classmates were impressed that I had actually made something--they all brought packaged cookies.
As a food blogger, I spend a lot of time thinking about food. My weekly meal plans are intricate works of strategy, taking into account produce seasonality, pantry inventory, and the various...
I love Ritter Sport: the square German candy bars combine my appreciation for quality chocolate with a a compulsive urge to collect the brightly colored packages and admire my personal chocolate rainbow. And about the only thing I like as much as eating Ritter Sport chocolate is writing about it. My review of the Ritter Sport chocolate flavors available at the time in the U.S. is one of my all-time most popular posts, and I've also written a review of Ritter Sport's seasonal summer 2016 flavors.
The African climate where Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisines originate is vastly different from Minnesota's. Nevertheless, the cuisines' signature stews, warming spices, and spongy rounds of injera that serve as carbohydrate plates are exactly what's needed to survive a frigid Midwestern winter.
2016 has been a year of change for me and my blog--last January, I started working part-time at my day job so that I would have more time to focus on my blog and freelance writing. Mostly, I've used my extra time for freelancing, with a feature on Twin Cities coffee shops in the City Pages, a travel piece in the Star Tribune, and a few more articles...
I used to be tough in the face of frigid temperatures. My childhood winters in northern Minnesota were spent sledding down a toboggan run my dad constructed in the backyard and building giant snowmen, outfitted with faces and buttons fashioned from the plastic tops of aerosol cans. In high school, my friend Karen and I spent some of the coldest weeks of winter ice skating outside, windchill be damned, rather than playing broomball with the rest of our gym class in the relative comfort of the hockey arena.
