Summer

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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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. [...]

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peanut butter pie, gluten-free

Today, all over the world, people are making a pie for Jennifer Perillo’s Mikey. We made one yesterday, so we could freeze it, take it on the airplane for our trip to Utah, and eat some on a family picnic. (The Aherns are gathering. There will be hiking and white water rafting.) I believe we’ll [...]

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Thumbnail image for cherry-basil soda

cherry-basil soda

We are cherry-besotted around here. People, we haven’t had much of a summer. Right now, as I stare out the window while waiting for the words to appear, I see a grey sky before me. A mono-color, same-color-as-slate, no-break-in-the-clouds grey. It’s about 61 degrees. We need as much color and intensity of flavor as we [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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, [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free zucchini bread

gluten-free zucchini bread

We love potlucks in this house. There’s something humble and lovely about a potluck. Sure, dinner parties are great: the day of prepping and anticipation, the smells coming from the kitchen, the moment of lowering the main course onto the table and listening to everyone’s happy sighs. But the only problem with dinner parties? You [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free nectarine-blueberry buckle

gluten-free nectarine-blueberry buckle

I look forward to that first perfect peach every summer. You know the one I mean, right? That firm-fleshed peach that yields to the teeth, the one that is not entirely soft but not as hard as a toddler’s head either. The peach that is so bursting with juice that you have to stand over [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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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Thumbnail image for cooking in the heat

cooking in the heat

Danny, Lu, and I sat at the table on our front porch, our faces hungering for the small breeze that blew through the trees. The day had left us sweltered. After weeks and months of grey clouds and 56°, we finally had some sun. All around us, people were complaining. It’s too hot. And it [...]

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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 [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free cherry crumble pie

gluten-free cherry crumble pie

As I ran down the wooded trail, sunlight on my skin, my thoughts meandered toward the afternoon ahead of me. We had leftover Rainier cherries from our dinner at Dog Mountain Farm. A big bag of Bing cherries waited for me at home, a gift from Northwest Cherries, when they found we couldn’t attend the [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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Thumbnail image for silly for strawberries

silly for strawberries

Some of you might remember that 1970s commercial for sugary cereal: “I’m cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!” That’s how we feel right now. We’re senseless for strawberries in June. I miss strawberries all year long. A sweetness far deeper than sugar could ever dream. The red juice smeared on my lips. The little grit of small [...]

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Thumbnail image for squashes

squashes

Squash. It just sounds good, doesn’t it? Say it loudly, with emphasis, slowly enough to feel the final shhhh leave your lips. S q u a s h. Really, it would be such a satisfying swear word. Around here, we’re trying to train ourselves to not use the typical words that rush from our mouths [...]

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Thumbnail image for snap peas

snap peas

Sharon is visiting us this weekend. The lovely, amazing Sharon, who has been with me for over 25 years of my life. She and the Chef and I have been eating well, and often, for the past two days. Grilled peaches with basil butter. Chickpea and octopus salad. Dinner at the Dahlia Lounge. Roasted potatoes [...]

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sometimes mistakes lead to the best bites

I am always inspired by the comments that accrue at the bottom of the Monday ingredients posts. When I first began this little Monday project, to show a single ingredient, in season, and ask you how you like to eat that food, I had no idea how much you might like it. Some weeks, I [...]

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Thumbnail image for red currants

red currants

This morning, I woke up early. Not too early — I’m lucky. This late in the pregnancy, I’m still sleeping through the night, without a hiccup. (Thank you, Little Bean.) Instead, this was somewhere after seven. The Chef slept, and I didn’t want to disturb him. So I tip-toed from the bedroom toward the kitchen, [...]

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Thumbnail image for watermelon

watermelon

It is finally summer here, after all. Damn, it is hot. I know. After months of wondering if the grey cloud cover would ever lift away to reveal blue sky, I have no right to complain. Last week, I felt exuberant, like a little kid released from school, hop scotching down the sidewalk. Warm air, [...]

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Thumbnail image for ripe strawberries

ripe strawberries

On Saturday afternoon, my friend Tea and I walked around the farmers’ market slowly. Even though it was towards the end of market day, the farmers all looked happy, their stands nearly empty. The sun shone on our skin. People thronged, eager to buy cherries from Yakima and the first real bunches of spinach available [...]

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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 [...]

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Thumbnail image for cherries

cherries

The first time I read Homer’s The Odyssey, I was plagued by a confusing phrase. He referred to the waters around Ithaka as “…the wine-dark sea.” Being only 16, and never having drunk any wine, I couldn’t figure out what Homer was trying to make me see. Was it just supposed to sound funny and [...]

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Thumbnail image for the decadent pleasure of summer

the decadent pleasure of summer

The weather outside may look like January — heavy grey clouds; rain on the freeway that makes the truck to our right loom larger with its spray; nippy air — but it really is June. The light, no matter how dim, is lingering longer into the evening than it did a month before. All the [...]

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summerautumn

Summer slowly seeps into autumn, creeping like a child on tip-toes. The light fades and simmers, so softly that we hardly notice the changes. Every day, a new revelation. That’s not true, actually. For me, it has always felt like summer Summer SUMMER! for three months, and then — boom — it’s fall. No warning, [...]

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Thumbnail image for the ongoing saga of gluten-free crumble (or crisp)

the ongoing saga of gluten-free crumble (or crisp)

Elliott and I held hands as we walked back to the picnic table. This is one of my favorite places in the world: my nephew beside me, his small hand in mine, my family and the Chef waiting at the other end. Elliott and I talked about the treehouse, the bubbles he had been blowing, [...]

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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 [...]

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the abundance of summer

Last night, about 11 o’clock, the Chef and I were laying on the grassy hillside across from his restaurant. It was the longest day of the year, so light still lingered in the sky to the west, twilight blue beneath glowering clouds. It had been a day of disappointment, and some small stresses that felt [...]

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Thumbnail image for Summer beckons.

Summer beckons.

The summer I turned sixteen, I ate cherries every day. After hours of swimming in the chlorine-blue water of our backyard swimming pool, I came inside to eat the same lunch, every day. An egg-salad sandwich, the creamy whites of fresh-boiled eggs and sunny yellow of French’s mustard, mixed together and bursting out of the [...]

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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 [...]

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Thumbnail image for the simple pleasures of the last day of summer

the simple pleasures of the last day of summer

blackberry jam, II, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. The day bloomed unexpectedly, beautifully. Broken-hearted by the lack of humanity in the Bayou, buoyed up by the humanity in people who help each other. Singing, dancing, laughing with people I love. Crying at scenes on the television I wish I had never seen, glad I forced myself [...]

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a sad confession

blackberries, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. I did a bad thing. I bought blackberries. Oh, there’s nothing wrong with blackberries. In fact, there’s everything right with them. Nothing can match the full-on explosion of sweet tartness, warm spikiness, indelible pleasure on the tongue. Rolling waves of taste and memories jumbled into one. And the summer sun [...]

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Thumbnail image for frozen goodness, made at home

frozen goodness, made at home

RASPBERRY FROZEN YOGURT, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. Silky sweet, the pucker of tartness. A few seeds on my tongue, icy cold on the top of my mouth. The fullness of raspberry frozen yogurt melting into my teeth. It’s late summer. In Seatle, the weather is slowly starting to turn. Mornings emerge from behind soft white [...]

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Thumbnail image for gluten-free apricot-cherry crisp

gluten-free apricot-cherry crisp

apricot-cherry crisp, originally uploaded by shaunaforce. Ah, the joys of summer. Seattle hot today (mid-80s, and everyone talking about it). After two hours of kayaking on Lake Union with my friend Julie, looking at that open sky, I knew I needed to cook tonight. I’ve been reading nothing but food blogs lately, and my mouth [...]

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Thumbnail image for homemade jam

homemade jam

jam! Originally uploaded by shaunaforce. Last week, I made eleven jars of raspberry jam. (It was supposed to be twelve jars, but apparently the portions I spooned into the mason jars were too generous. Oh well.) Only I would do this: never having made jam before in my life, I decided to make it at [...]

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the bounties of summer

red peppers Originally uploaded by shaunaforce.   Sun on my skin smells like freedom to me. Especially now that my skin is healthy brown after months of being ashy grey. I adore the summer. Sometimes people outside of teaching like to tease us that we have extra-long vacations, and therefore have no right to complain [...]

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the glories of the farmers’ market

I’m back in Seattle, eating well, feeling well. Alaska was a blessing, and I managed to not accidentally have gluten more than once, right at the beginning. Glorious Sitka–I’ll write more about that in here later. But now, after a week of readjusting to city life, I’m happy to be here too. I’m still learning [...]

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