Salads

Thumbnail image for coming home

coming home

First, there was the photo shoot. The photo shoot for our cookbook, with this woman. That week was tremendous — a swirl of colors, the smell of food wafting from the kitchen, watching how Penny and Karen and Anne and Justin do their jobs — a week of amazement. It was also utterly exhausting. It [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for warm brown rice and grilled vegetable salad

warm brown rice and grilled vegetable salad

This weekend I spent exactly 25 hours in New Orleans. It was a pell-mell trip, one of many I have made this summer. I rose in the darkness, kissed my sleeping husband, then my sleeping daughter in the other room. Leaving them, even though I would be back late the next night, made my heart [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for shaved asparagus salad

shaved asparagus salad

  “Cooking for others is a generous and civilized act, even if it’s just a simple pot of beans.” — David Tanis   I read this quote from David Tanis this morning, and I have been thinking about it all day. Before Lu went to her little preschool, we sat together at the table and [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for gluten-free in airports

gluten-free in airports

When the airplane’s wheels left the land, I looked over to see Lu’s eyes wide. Danny and I both smiled. She has been on a lot of airplane trips, this kid, but not in awhile. This is the first time, it seems, she was able to take it in. Flying. We were actually flying in [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for roasted vegetable salad

roasted vegetable salad

I wonder how many pesticides I have eaten in my life. When I was a kid, I never heard about organic produce. We went to the store and bought lettuce (mostly iceberg) or apples (those mushy disappointments known as reds) or potatoes (always russet). There wasn’t a special section in the produce aisle, even a [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Emerald City salad, inspired by PCC

Emerald City salad, inspired by PCC

I lost my gluten-free virginity at PCC. In the late spring of 2005 — good god, that’s nearly 6 years ago — I wandered into the PCC in Fremont with a list from a dietician and big wide eyes. I had just been diagnosed with celiac disease that day. Now, let me tell you, I [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for apple-fennel slaw

apple-fennel slaw

It’s January. Are you dieting yet? You are? Sigh. Let me explain. A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting at a coffee shop, trying to work while Lu was at her little school. I say trying to work because I’m an inveterate eavesdropper. When there’s something fascinating being said to the side of me, [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Brussels sprouts salad

Brussels sprouts salad

I’m a little obsessed with this brussels sprouts salad. Does that make me weird? You don’t have to say it. I know I’m weird. I’m weird enough that I just had to ask on Twitter: Brussels sprouts? brussels sprouts? brussel sprouts? My first instinct was the right one. But I’ve been seeing it spelled differently, [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for roasted vegetable pasta salad

roasted vegetable pasta salad

“The recipes in this book are easy. Easy to imagine why you want to eat them. Easy to cook, but more than that, easy to prepare in a low-stress way in any home kitchen…Most of the work-work in these recipes — the part where you mess up your counters and floor and generally feel like [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for millet salad with green juice

millet salad with green juice

My friend Tea wrote this book. I’m so proud of her. A few days ago I told you about our friend Lorna Yee’s book, The Newlywed Kitchen. (If you have not read the comments yet, please do. People telling stories of cooking with the ones they love have been making me teary for days. Thank [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for asparagus salad with walnuts and Mizithra

asparagus salad with walnuts and Mizithra

Thank you. For days I have been speechless. The stories that arrived on the comment section of the post I put up last week left me in awe. All day Thursday, when I wasn’t with Lu and Danny, I was reading comments, emails, and messages you sent me. I wish that I could hug you [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for quinoa with spring vegetables and walnut-kale pesto

quinoa with spring vegetables and walnut-kale pesto

Five days a week, just about 2 o’clock, Lu and I stand by the door for kisses. She waves her hand vigorously, then asks me to stand her up on the windowsill to wave and blow more kisses. Danny’s leaving for work. Within the hour, he’ll be creating dishes like this. Many of you write [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for broccoli winter slaw

broccoli winter slaw

My goodness, people, you certainly love broccoli! If you haven’t had the chance to read this piece on broccoli, go there now. Not so much for my writing — you can skip that. Jump right to the comments and see what the community of people reading here has recommended to each other. Roasted broccoli, broccoli [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for wild rice salad (gluten-free and vegan)

wild rice salad (gluten-free and vegan)

There’s a funny way of looking at food when you first find out you can’t eat a certain one. I started dividing food into two categories: can and can’t. I can eat roasted potatoes, Alaskan salmon, fresh quince, raspberry jam, teff porridge, and duck confit. I can’t eat bread or pasta or pizza or pie [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for early summer vegetable love

early summer vegetable love

Danny’s at the kitchen counter, chopping and humming, the sunlight flooding in. Little Bean is standing at her wooden stove, just behind him in her room, banging out a rhythm with a wooden spoon. I’m bustling around them, rinsing the dishes or putting something on Twitter or opening the refrigerator to see what I can [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for the best we can

the best we can

I once taught with a man named Paul Raymond. Oh, Paul Raymond. Paul had survived the Korean War, the Civil Rights movement, the Kennedy assassination, the 60s, Tricky Dick, all the machinations of Vietnam, Ronald Reagan, and beyond. He taught the human stories that make up 20th-century history at the school in Seattle where I [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for at home, with potato salad

at home, with potato salad

After returning from a week in the hospital with our baby, we sat around in a bit of a stupor for a day or two, holding her close. We watched her giggle and crawl, clapping at everything, her eyes open and her smile wide. She rebounded more quickly than we did. Seeing her thrive, we [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for I made you this delicious rice salad.

I made you this delicious rice salad.

I had this story forming in my head, one I wanted to write so I could learn what would spin from it. It’s a story that started with me buying myself a pair of Birkenstocks yesterday, because my belly has grown so large that I literally could not bend down and tie my own shoes [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for simple fruit salad

simple fruit salad

I used to spend hours in the kitchen, dancing to music and creating flavors underneath my hands. I’m hoping to return to that state of being, loose and not focused on any particular goal, someday. But for now, I’m growing pretty darned tired. Little Bean arrives into this world in five weeks. That’s barely longer [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for would you like some Tang with that?

would you like some Tang with that?

The longer I am pregnant, the more immediate my food needs become. If you have been reading this site for awhile, you know that I love playing with new flavors, tasting new foods, throwing ingredients together and inventing something that I have never made before. For the first year after I lived gluten-free, innovation was [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for back in Italy (if in memory only)

back in Italy (if in memory only)

It has been nearly three months since we returned from our honeymoon in Italy. (And the book has been out for nearly two months?!) Life continues to amaze us with its pace. Tonight, the Chef and I stood behind a table at Palace Ballroom, for hours, surrounded by some of the best chefs and writers [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for road food, gluten-free food

road food, gluten-free food

I’ve been spending a lot of time in cars lately. Breakfasts on the back porch, long lunches at the picnic table, snacks when I feel hungry and can simply walk into the kitchen? Those feel like words on a page right now. These days, I’m eating in the car. The two weddings required hours of [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for how to throw a gluten-free wedding

how to throw a gluten-free wedding

Food is the stuff of life. And particularly of our lives. The Chef and I thrive on food. We discuss what I might make for dinner on our drives to the restaurant in the early afternoon. And after a day of eating, we breathe sense memories between each other with every sigh. Creamy butter slathered [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for my first lunch in our new home

my first lunch in our new home

The first night the Chef and I spent in our new home, we held hands all night long. Nicked on nearly every finger from paper cuts or unexpected bumps against doorknobs and stove handles, our hands were exhausted. Our muscles were sore. Our feet wanted to leave the ground. We slept well that night, after [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for the offerings of spring

the offerings of spring

When I woke up this morning, I saw the sunlight shine on the Chef’s closed eyes for a moment. When the warmth on his eyelids woke him up, he turned toward me and kissed me. “I love you,” he said, which are the first words he utters every day. And then he turned toward the [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for a woman in white, I shall be

a woman in white, I shall be

I found my wedding dress. Slowly, a niggling worry was creeping in. After all, it is almost three months until we are married. (And every time one of us says that out loud, we giggle, like little kids delighted by the toy dangling above us.) The wedding planning goes as easily as breathing. The rings [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for sudden sunlight

sudden sunlight

Sudden sunlight broke into the living room as I was writing. Furrowed into myself in front of the computer — busy stringing sentences together and trying to make them sing — I looked up for the first time in twenty minutes. The clouds had been nudged out of place by bright, blue-tinted light. Seattle light. [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Love in Every Bite

Love in Every Bite

DSCN8304, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. Sometimes, all it takes is one bite. For weeks on end, the Chef and I had been moony in love, head over heels, dazzled and dancing, happy as clams. And not just any weeks, but weeks of swooning every night, eating in the best restaurants in Seattle, making roasted chicken [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for healing a broken heart with food

healing a broken heart with food

tomato-fava salad, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. My dear friend Sharon has a broken heart. For those of you who have been reading for awhile, you might remember that Sharon and I have been close friends since we were in high school. And in November, her boyfriend flew me down to Los Angeles to surprise her [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for springtime, in Seattle, with IACP

springtime, in Seattle, with IACP

IACP conference, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. A bulging green bag is resting against the bookcases in my bedroom. It’s stuffed with a weird array of disparate items: a bottle of vanilla syrup for espresso drinks; hastily scrawled notes from long seminars; chocolates from around the world; a menu for a gala dinner, with an antipasti [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for glupit-free

glupit-free

Elliott loves trees II, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. When I returned home from school today, I found a message on my machine, in a sweet, little voice: “Happy Berfday.” In the background, I could hear my brother say, “Tell her it’s your birthday. Tell her how old you are.” And then, Elliott said: “I am [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for happiness: lemony squash and roasted pork

happiness: lemony squash and roasted pork

butternut squash pork salad, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. Happiness arrives on a rainy afternoon, after a long walk through the neighborhood. Happiness steps forward on a break from waiting, waiting for the words to fall through my fingers. Happiness emerges shyly, then stays, brazenly, for a few moments. Walking west on Galer, the grey clouds [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for "I want to be a part of it…."

"I want to be a part of it…."

New York spinach and raisins, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. New York, New York. That’s where I’m heading tonight. After writing New York memories with increasing frequency here, I recognized that I needed to visit. After all, because of the mystery illness last winter and spring, the one that took nearly three months to correctly diagnose [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for when the world shimmers into winter, make zucchini

when the world shimmers into winter, make zucchini

zucchini carapaccio, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. Right now, in Seattle, the rain is pounding down outside. The amber-golden street lights are glimmering in the puddles, shimmering and shifting shape. And some of the trees, through the raindrops, are merely bare branches now. Gone are the days when I remarked, “It’s starting to be autumn.” We’re [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for quinoa salmon salad in the fading evening light

quinoa salmon salad in the fading evening light

quinoa salmon salad, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. I took a big bowl of quinoa salad out onto my porch this evening, set it down on the stone steps, then hunched over it to take a photo. I know that I must have looked a sight to the cars driving by, but I didn’t care. I’ll [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for the simple happiness of poached eggs on toast

the simple happiness of poached eggs on toast

poached eggs on toast, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. Sometimes the simplest foods can just sigh in my mouth. Yesterday, about 1 pm, I was hungry. Now, this isn’t unusual. These days, I always have that feeling of food just waiting to be eaten. But I’ve learned not to pay attention to it until it gnaws [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for loving the kitchen

loving the kitchen

summer lunch, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. I’m loving my kitchen lately. For the past couple of years, I’ve neglected my poor kitchen. I let dishes pile up in the sink. The countertops were perpetually ringed in coffee stains. Splatters stayed near the burners after I had made pasta sauce. It wasn’t that I didn’t care. [...]

Read the full article →