Seafood

Good Fish

How do you feel about fish? We’re big fish eaters around here, particularly in this season supposedly called summer. (64 degrees today. Well, at least there was some sun.) Halibut and salmon are back in season. The grill on our front porch has a full tank of propane. In this time of light until 10 [...]

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Thumbnail image for linguine with shrimp and slow-roasted tomatoes

linguine with shrimp and slow-roasted tomatoes

This has been a heady few weeks. Our trip to Washington D.C. followed my trip to Google, which was followed by my time with Penny de los Santos. We’ve been home for a week, working hard, and we leave today for Austin, Texas. (It’s 100 degrees in Austin. Here it has not risen above 65 [...]

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Thumbnail image for baked halibut with asparagus, leeks, and dill

baked halibut with asparagus, leeks, and dill

We’ve been longing for spring around here. Rain. That’s what we’ve had. Rain. I don’t complain about the rain. We live in the Seattle area. It rains here, especially in the winter. We don’t have banks of snow or days so cold we have to bundle up the child in so many layers that her [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free Super Bowl

gluten-free Super Bowl

Back in January, when Danny and I were planning out the food we’d make for the blog in February, we both looked at the calendar and thought, “We should probably make some Super Bowl food.” Good idea, right? Most of the country seems seized by the need to sit in front of the television and [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free crabcakes for my love

gluten-free crabcakes for my love

This morning, I watched this man bend down to grab the hands of our daughter and slowly go around in a circle with her while they sang Ring Around the Rosie together. (There’s no need to tell her yet how creepy that song really is.) Right now, he is taking her on their morning date: [...]

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peace comes dropping slow in the desert

Sunlight. An open book about to be picked up again. A hot cup of coffee. A toddler playing happily by herself. Still in our pajamas at nearly noon. This must be vacation. For five full and loving days, Danny, Little Bean, and I were in Arizona, visiting Danny’s parents. They doted on their granddaughter, she [...]

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how to make gravlax (a video)

It’s salmon season around here. Wild Alaskan sockeye rests on beds of ice at the grocery store. We’ve been searing and grilling, making breakfast with leftovers. This time of year, we eat as much salmon as possible. Once it’s out of season, we won’t be eating it again until next year. If, by some chance, [...]

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Thumbnail image for ceviche from down the road

ceviche from down the road

On Fridays, we grow excited around here. Not because it’s almost the weekend. Our concept of weekends as a couple has always been off the norm, since Saturday nights were one of the busiest days for Danny at the restaurant. I sort of miss that Friday afternoon feeling, when the school week finished and everything [...]

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how to sear fish (a video)

Before I met the Chef, I baked all my fish. I timed it out, a minute per inch of thickness, or some other rule I had read in a magazine somewhere. It came out tasting bland and “healthy.” I convinced myself I was feeding myself well. And then I tasted the first piece of fish [...]

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how to fillet a fish (a video)

It’s Wednesday. And that means it’s time for another Chef video. This week’s video is how to fillet a whole fish. I must admit that I have never done this by myself. The idea daunted me. But after filming the Chef doing this — and making him go much more slowly than he has in [...]

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lobster

We sent the book into our publishers. Oh, what a sweet, sweet sentence. On Friday, at noon, three fingers pressed down on the mouse to hit send: mine, the Chef’s, and Little Bean’s. I’m sure she had no idea what she was doing, but we did. We sent our cookbook off to our editor, all [...]

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Thumbnail image for eating handfuls at a time

eating handfuls at a time

I find that I’m not eating many meals these days. Oh, I’m eating. Every few hours, Little Bean wriggles in my belly, sometimes in quite a concerted fashion, and I know it’s time for food. I’m happy to comply, with shreds of fresh mozzarella with herbed sea salt, or a handful or Rainier cherries, or [...]

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Thumbnail image for a love letter to the world

a love letter to the world

Dear lovely, quixotic world, I take you for granted, sometimes. Certainly, I exult at all the tastes that excite me (like this sugar cookie from the Sensitive Baker in Los Angeles, which Sharon and I ate in the parked car before we even drove away). I’m overtaken by the beauty you offer, the sudden flashes [...]

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coming home

All the way home, as the plane strode across the continent, my mind kept ringing with one song: “I want to see him. I can’t wait to see him!” Days in cities filled with people who drove to see me — delightful and filled with stories. But nights alone in strange beds without him — [...]

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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 [...]

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Thumbnail image for mussels are gluten-free

mussels are gluten-free

mussels close-up, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. After yesterday’s loooong and lovey-dovey post — I just couldn’t help it; the Chef and I are getting married! — this one will be brief. I have only this to say about the mussels the Chef is making at his restaurant right now, the ones with cream, Dijon mustard, [...]

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Thumbnail image for heading north

heading north

shauna on top of the #C8BBF, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. Here I am, triumphant, on the top of Mount Verstovia, in Sitka, Alaska. Four hours of hiking behind me, the sweat on my back starting to dry in the cool air, mountains, vast bodies of water, and eagles with six-foot wingspans surrounding me — I [...]

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Thumbnail image for the markets are open and all is well with the world

the markets are open and all is well with the world

farmers’ market III, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. Spring is definitely in the air. All around the city, ebullient-looking couples are holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes. People talk about summer vacation as though it is just around the weekend. Even the air feels sprightly. The world is alive again. And for me, one [...]

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Thumbnail image for the making of another foodie

the making of another foodie

Selene with the tuna rolls, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. I remember the first meal I ever made. I was only eight years old, or so — memory is only guessing at best, sometimes. By that age, I knew how to make grilled cheese sandwiches, or heat up a can of soup. Macaroni and cheese from [...]

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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 [...]

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Thumbnail image for Hi, my name is Shauna, and I am…..

Hi, my name is Shauna, and I am…..

the Market IV, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. I have a confession to make: I’m addicted to food shopping. You know how some women are so slavishly excited about shopping for shoes that, when they pass a tiny boutique with impossibly tall shoes on little stages, their friends have to pry them away from the window [...]

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Thumbnail image for lamb, basil, citrus, and fish (stock)–must be Paper Chef!

lamb, basil, citrus, and fish (stock)–must be Paper Chef!

saffron seafood soup, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. On Sunday afternoon, I stood up in the kitchen and cooked. Now, of course, for months, that was a quotidian activity for me. A daily activity I never took for granted. The ineffable grace of a mundane day. But for the previous nine days, standing in the kitchen [...]

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Thumbnail image for a few words about fish

a few words about fish

tuna with fennel and coriander, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. It hit me this morning: if you look at this blog as a record of what I eat, it must look as though I gorge myself on butter, cheese, and chocolate all the time. It wouldn’t be a bad way to go, on some days, but [...]

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Thumbnail image for that rich red thread of connection

that rich red thread of connection

spicy tuna, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. Sometimes a girl just needs her sushi. Or, in my case, her sashimi. I vividly remember the first time I ate sushi. 1984, my junior year of high school, late in the year, in Claremont, California. One of my best friends that year was a bubbly girl who laughed [...]

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Thumbnail image for but then again, there’s always meat

but then again, there’s always meat

apricot sausage, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. Sometimes at lunch these days, my colleagues ask me, “What did you do last evening?” These are the ones who don’t know me well, the ones who just happen to sit next to me in our large, happy lunchroom because there is an open seat, the ones who haven’t [...]

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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 [...]

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Thumbnail image for cooking your own dinner makes it taste better

cooking your own dinner makes it taste better

halibut with green-olive relish, originally uploaded by shaunaforce.   This morning, I started teaching at this excellent writing program, one of the best in Seattle. I’m thrilled to be back to teaching writing—it’s like breathing for me, and even with the beautiful indolence of summer, I start to feel as though I’m holding my breath [...]

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