Vegetarian

gluten-free buckwheat crepes

Sometimes, when life feels complicated, it helps to go back to the simple things.   Sunlight on a wooden floor. Dancing to Aretha Franklin, then stopping to belt it out with her. Talking late into the night, vulnerable, saying exactly what is. Sleeping in. Lunch with Lucy, the three of us sitting at the little [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for a big pot of beans

a big pot of beans

The wind is shimmying through the trees outside, green waving against grey. Danny insists we turn on the heater in the mornings, then Lu takes off her socks to put her feet near the fire. When she moves to her kitchen to play, our daughter is making soups, stews, and pies. Definitely fall. Time for [...]

Read the full article →
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 smoked paprika-chipotle sauce

smoked paprika-chipotle sauce

It started innocently enough. A few weeks ago, we had a picnic at the beach. Some good friends decided that the summer ending called for a little gathering. Three moms, one dad, and a bunch of kids playing on driftwood and chattering happily. We talked and laughed. We ate. I brought a pan of grilled [...]

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 roasted green beans with bagna cauda

roasted green beans with bagna cauda

Thank you. Sometimes I am reminded again of the goodness of people. These past four days? I’m madly, swoonily in love with people. Humanity? As Lucy likes to say, “You’re pretty cool.” We launched A Fund for Jennie early Monday morning. By the same time on Tuesday, we already had $7800 in the Paypal account. [...]

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 ice cream sandwiches

gluten-free ice cream sandwiches

For awhile there, we were giving you recommendations here, of foods we like and products that arrived at the house that we would buy again. You can see the tab up there, the one that says RECOMMENDATIONS. However, we sort of tailed off eventually. This morning, I was trying to figure out why. Then it [...]

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 how to live gluten-free

how to live gluten-free

In a few weeks, it will be six years since I started this website. Six years! Folks, I can’t believe it. This past Friday, I flew down to San Francisco and back the same day, to speak at Google headquarters about the need for increased awareness about celiac and gluten sensitivity in this culture, in [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for gluten-free crepes

gluten-free crepes

A couple of weeks ago, we had our friends Tita and John over for breakfast. This isn’t an uncommon occurrence. These are two of our favorite people in the world. However, it was Tita’s birthday recently, so this was a special occasion. We wanted to fix her whatever she wanted to eat. She thought when [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for roasted tofu with dipping sauce

roasted tofu with dipping sauce

Tofu and I have a long, sometimes fractious relationship. We didn’t start off well. When I was in high school, I decided to become a vegetarian. Suddenly disgusted by meat, I announced to my mother that I didn’t want to eat it. My brother joined along too. Mom announced that I would be cooking my [...]

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 braised fennel

braised fennel

Lu grabbed the bulb and ran to the porch shouting, “Fennel! Fennel!” I laughed as I walked behind her, remembering how many bowls of fennel salad I ate when I was pregnant with her. By the middle of the afternoon, as I moved from my first trimester into my second, I stood in the kitchen [...]

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 sweet potato latkes, gluten-free

sweet potato latkes, gluten-free

We have fallen in love with sweet potatoes lately. Look at them, so humble and lovely, nestled against each other. Sweet potatoes don’t call attention to themselves, the way the blowzy red tomatoes of August demand our noticing them. Zucchini are vivid green, with stripes sometimes. The peppers blare so bright they can can hurt [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for curried sweet potato gratin (with a vegan option)

curried sweet potato gratin (with a vegan option)

Lately, Lu and I have been eating sweet potatoes nearly every evening. Thick slices, tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, a bit of fresh thyme, roasted in the oven until they yield to the fork but still have a bite — this has been part of our dinner at least four times a week. [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for gluten-free, vegan pie crust

gluten-free, vegan pie crust

Thank you to everyone who contributed such delicious recipes for our gluten-free Thanksgiving challenge. My goodness, people! Not only did the original bloggers who posted about their own gluten-free baking challenge blow me away, but the hundreds and hundreds of links to great gluten-free food in the comments could keep anyone baking for months on [...]

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 Pumpkin Seed Spread

Roasted Pumpkin Seed Spread

Driving home the other day, I wanted to pull over by the side of the road, on every curve, to take photographs. The sun shone through yellow leaves hanging down from an old tree, like a bright splash of melted yellow crayons suspended in air. One small bush glowed red amidst -dots of green. Two [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for coconut brown rice

coconut brown rice

“Shauna,” you may be thinking. “Have you lost your mind? That’s a bowl of rice. Is that all you have to give us now?” Actually, yes. It’s not that I have run out of ideas. New ideas always seam to leak at the seams around here, and sometimes at the most inappropriate times. For example, [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Pam Anderson’s shells and cheese, gluten-free

Pam Anderson’s shells and cheese, gluten-free

Lu is talking up a storm these days. Yesterday, when she was hungry, she pointed to a photograph of yogurt in a book and said, “May I please have some of that?” We stood there astonished for a moment, and then we ran for the refrigerator to scoop some honey yogurt in a bowl. (The [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for gluten-free tomato tart

gluten-free tomato tart

Lu and I were driving home this afternoon, in sudden warm sunlight. She had been at her two-afternoons-a-week daycare (“..coool!” she calls it), where she splashed in water and sat on a tricycle and longed to be able to pedal. Afterwards, we stopped at Danny’s restaurant, where Lu ran to her daddy on the line, [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Lucini gluten-free chickpea frittata mix

Lucini gluten-free chickpea frittata mix

We receive a lot of food via UPS in this house. Companies with good intentions send us their cookies or pancake mixes to make, hoping that if we like it, we’ll tell you about it. We don’t tell you about most of them. In fact, I’d say 90% of the food we get ends up [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for sweet corn risotto

sweet corn risotto

There’s something mysterious about a cob of corn in its husk. At first it feels smooth and compact. You have to tug on those tough papery sheaths to reveal the gold kernels. It’s surprising how hard you have to pull — halfway through, I’m thinking, this prize better be worth it. And then there are [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for cucumber soup

cucumber soup

I’ve come late to this cucumber party. I don’t just mean that I’m finishing up this post at nearly midnight. I mean that, for decades, I steadfastly refused to eat cucumbers. Their slippery innards kind of grossed me out. The seeds slid around my tongue when I took a bite — ugh. The outside is [...]

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 black bean roasted poblano hummus

black bean roasted poblano hummus

I got some gluten by mistake a few weeks ago. If you read this site, you might have heard about this already, on Twitter or Facebook just after. I was angry, I was in pain, and I wanted everyone to know what had happened so you wouldn’t have to go through what I went through [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for gluten-free macaroni and cheese

gluten-free macaroni and cheese

I’m pretty sure it was 1974. The year we watched the Watergate trials on television all summer long, in the cool dark den on the shag carpeting. The year that the Vietnam war had been declared over but still appeared on the television between Watergate and the Brady Bunch. The year of third grade, when [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for roasted asparagus frittata

roasted asparagus frittata

It is finally spring around here. This may have been the mildest winter in Seattle history, weather-wise, but it was a long one in this house. I’ve written about that here before. No need to repeat. The sun is out now. It might have been cold these past few weeks (37° at night, Seattle? Really?), [...]

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 gluten-free onion rings

gluten-free onion rings

Within the first two weeks of knowing each other, Danny and I were in a kitchen together, standing side by side, chopping and talking about what we were going to eat. He was sort of horrified by how badly I mangled the onions when I cut them up into giant hacking pieces, but he refrained [...]

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 quinoa crackers with seeds

quinoa crackers with seeds

Even when I could eat gluten, I was never that big a fan of crackers. Oh sure, the occasional saltine with a swig of ginger ale when I wasn’t feeling well satisfied a need. But no one really enjoys those moments, do they? When I lived in London, a Jacob’s cream cracker could sometimes captivate [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for corn tortillas

corn tortillas

People, I have a problem. I’m in love with corn tortillas. Oh, I’m still in love with my wonderful husband, who takes our daughter to the playspace on the island — to climb jungle gym equipment and feed pretend tea to her dolly — every morning about this time so I can settle in front [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for baked kale chips

baked kale chips

I don’t know why I resisted making kale chips for so long. For months, even years, I’ve been reading raves of this healthy snack from bloggers across the country, and the world. Maybe it’s this stubborn quirk I have. If too many people extol the virtues of something, I resist it. This is why I [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for gluten-free crusty boule

gluten-free crusty boule

If you don’t want to eat this bread, I’m going to have to check your pulse. This is gluten-free. I wrote the sentences for this piece in my head, long before today. However, they have all disappeared in a haze of too-much coffee, too-little sleep, notes scrawled in orange marker, and a darling toddler interrupting [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for making mayonnaise

making mayonnaise

We finished the United Way Hunger Action Week yesterday. We were never hungry. Instead, we feel humbled. If you have not read the piece I posted about why we did this, please do. Mostly, I want you to read the comments. People, you amaze us every time. Your generosity in sharing your stories, your tips [...]

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 pumpkin mash

pumpkin mash

Pumpkins deserve more attention than the pies. This year, we’re making a pumpkin mash, inspired by Marcus Samuelsson’s recipe. Locally grown pumpkins, roasted sweet potatoes, garlic and shallots, a hint of sweetness. What could be wrong? We had this idea, inspired by a question on Twitter. What about a savory pumpkin custard? Sounds good to [...]

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 Make It Fast, Cook It Slow

Make It Fast, Cook It Slow

In 1977, my 11-year-old self felt daring by staying up late for Saturday Night Live. Those were the best years, the Gilda Radner as Emily Litella saying “Never mind” years, the Wild and Crazy Guy when Steve Martin hosted years, the John Belushi as samurai guy years. You know, the funny years. For some reason, [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Soul of a New Cuisine

Soul of a New Cuisine

Two autumns ago, when Danny was still working full-time as a chef, and we were still living in Seattle, I sat in a Starbucks in Madison Park, excited. Marcus Samuelsson would be there soon. His glorious cookbook, The Soul of a New Cuisine, had come out the year before, and we had been dog-earing pages [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Modern Spice

Modern Spice

Fresh curry leaves. Pomegranate seeds. Turmeric that leaves little trails of neon-yellow dollops on saucers. Brown basmati rice. Fenugreek. Coconut milk-simmered chicken. Cardamom pods. These have been the flavors of our kitchen this week. What a feast it has been, thanks to Modern Spice. You see, Danny and I are still deep in the throes [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for unexpected tastes in the kitchen

unexpected tastes in the kitchen

You think you know someone and then he surprises you. For me, wishing to be married was like walking around thirsty all the time, and only getting gulps of lukewarm tap water once in awhile. Finding the guy I would marry was like a long cool drink, in fast slurps at first (with stops for [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for sliced tomatoes (and smoked tomato salsa)

sliced tomatoes (and smoked tomato salsa)

Remember winter? When everything came in shades of grey? When the world felt silent, waiting, dormant beneath the earth? When nothing had a smell and we longed for something, anything to release its scent? Here is the color we longed for then. A rioutous shout of reds and yellows and greens. The slightly acidic tinge [...]

Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for I made pickles.

I made pickles.

There’s something satisfying about a kitchen project. Instead of racing to the next place we have to be, or sitting hunched at the computer completing another assignment, or trying to figure out what to have for dinner in ten minutes, a big project forces us to slow down. Focus. Be there. All that work can [...]

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 →

← Previous Entries