Gluten Free Girl and the Chef

At the moment, I think there is no more beautiful set of words than “organized pantry.” For months, we’ve been dreaming of getting our act together. With all the traveling of this summer, everything in the house functioned on an emergency basis. Dishes done? Mostly. Rinsed, at least. Okay, time to leave for the airport. [...]

It had been a long time since I had seen my friends together. This summer was a constant carnival of new faces and loved ones. I have a thousand flashing memories in my mind. However,  until a couple of weeks ago, there was no quiet. No calm. No chance to let down my guard and [...]

The photo shoot for our cookbookwith Penny de los Santos ended three weeks ago. My mind has been flashing images of it since — Karen twirling rice vermicelli noodles with the focused attention of a zen archer; Danny whirling through the kitchen flipping sautéeing vegetables in a skillet; Anne laughing with me, then choosing a gleaming green [...]

I never thought I’d have to write this post. First of all, let me put your concerns at rest. Danny is alive. Lucy is thriving. We all have our health, a home, work we love, and no one is in any real danger. So really, my life is blessed. This is what I keep telling [...]

We have a lot of bread in our house right now. For months, Danny and I have been scheming and talking, scribbling notes on random bits of paper and trying to collect all this juicy “ooh, what should we make for the cookbook” talk into coherent columns of recipes made and recipes yet to develop. [...]

Oh dear, I just realized that I’m going to show you my vacation photos. If you were stuck in my living room, eating popcorn on the couch, squished too close to the person next to you, there would be no escape. Here, however, you can easily flip to the next blog you are thinking about [...]

Thank you. Thank you to all of you who left such kind and thoughtful comments about my last post, Light in the Darkness. Some small part of the sadness for Jennie lifted, a bit, after writing that piece, and quite a bit more after reading your comments. Once again, I’m reminded: it’s all about love. [...]

This cake is nothing that special. Cakes come in fanciful forms, covered in fondant or whipped into submission with frosting and sprinkles. In tiers and towers, trembling at the weight of themselves, celebration cakes are meant to make you say oooooh. Yesterday, in the car, Lu told me about a cake she ate at school, [...]

Last weekend, I did something I didn’t think I could do. I cooked a five-course dinner at Dog Mountain Farm. I didn’t think I could do it because Danny wasn’t there. (He had to work, since it was Strawberry Festival, the busiest weekend of the year on Vashon.) He’s the chef. I’ve always been his [...]

For years, I’ve been wanting to learn how to make paneer. That creamy, semi-soft cheese bobs in one of my favorite dishes at Indian restaurants: saag paneer. The first year I lived in New York, my friend Gabe and I decided to meet nearly every Friday at one of the restaurants on 6th Street and [...]

  Our daughter has gone a little mad for spices. When she saw that I was standing on the porch with the camera, trying to chase some good light for this photograph, she raced toward me. She left her drawing — and that’s saying something with this kid — with blue ink stains trailing on [...]

I meant to have a recipe for gluten-free fresh pasta here for you tonight. After all, today was the day of July’s Gluten-Free Rally: pasta! Jenn did a great job of rounding up all the various pastas, all of which look delicious. I meant to have my post be part of that chorus. However, the [...]

We’re having a pie party. And you’re all invited. Last week, I was talking with friends on Twitter, late in the evening. All of us avid bakers, we traded stories about what we had made that day. It turns out that Irvin, Garrett, Justin, and Ashley had all made pies. This didn’t surprise me. It’s [...]