WAILUKU, Maui — I never want to eat again. Well, until the Kula strawberries are properly chilled for dessert. I’ve spent two days on Maui. Eating. Seeing family. Eating. Seeing friends. Eating. Besides Saturday morning at the Swap Meet: Bistro Casanova. Friday, lunch...
Fresh from commuting 35-plus miles a day in Seattle, teaching two nights a week in Tacoma (another hour or so on the road), reporting stories that took me all over Western Washington, I would protest, "But it's only 8 miles." Twenty one years later, I've become a...
A reader asked if I could get the recipe for the Bird Bars sold at Down to Earth and I promised I'd try. But I gotta be honest: I can't take any of the credit for the recipe that follows. Here's what happened: I went to Down to Earth, bought a couple of bars,...
A journalism friend used to describe the daily pressure to fill the newspaper as "feeding the beast." Some days, as today, this blog feels a bit like an insatiable animal (very like my cat, Precious). So I fall back on random musings. Musing 1: Have you noticed that...
WAILUKU, Maui — For me, every weekend spent on my home island of Maui means a Saturday morning at the Maui Swap Meet (now on the grounds of Maui Community College; mauiexposition.com). There’s not much of the original swap meet character left at this sprawling weekly...
How recipes come into being in real life. I was watching an old "Real Housewives of New Jersey" set during a family Christmas at the Manzo house and heard the charming story of how Caroline Manzo's father concocted a special dish from pantry staples one night when the...
I've been the queen of crisps and cobblers lately, partly because these homey desserts make use of plentiful summer fruits and partly because they are among my fave comfort foods. And they're easy, nothing fussy about them. Neither my grandmother nor my mother made...
You know what I don't understand? Why they can't invent a stove that will stay clean (and don't even get me started on the oven). Earlier this week, I helped a friend clean house, among other things scrubbing her glass-top stove. I was so envious a few years back when...
Daunted by the eye-popping price of artisanal whole grain breads, and missing the regular bread-baking I used to do when I lived in Seattle, I decide to try the "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" method, a one-container method in which dough is mixed in a capped...
I've been going to bon dances for years — in Seattle's International District, when I lived in the Northwest, on Maui, and here. But Friday night, I saw a new side to the obon season. Several new sides. Husband and I joined a trio of friends who are bon dance...
