We are home again after having driven precisely 2,200 miles in 11 days. An amazing trip through Pittsburgh; Washington, DC; various points in Virginia; Charleston, West Virginia; and Cleveland (with an art stop in Toledo this afternoon). Tuesday nights are when we write our posts that go up on Wednesday, but we’ve seriously been home an hour and a half now. See you next week with a recipe and a travel story or two.
We are on the road again, right now in our nation’s capital. In the next week or so, we’ll talk about some of the food we ate, the cocktails we drank. But for now, just a few thoughts about one place we visit every time we come to Washington, D.C. Continue reading “Another road trip, more random thoughts”
This week’s post was either going to be a cocktail or maybe a compound butter with fish. I had the ingredients for both, more or less, and some basic ideas on how I was going to make them. Only I didn’t. So instead, you’re being treated to an image I nabbed off the Internet. There was no name listed with it, so I can’t even give credit where photo credit is due. Please come back next week. I’ll try to have one of these two recipes or something completely different.
Detroit is internationally known for its street art. And a major center for it is the neighborhood surrounding its farmers market.
EASTERN MARKET IS BUSTLING ON SATURDAYS. Thousands of shoppers crowd the aisles of Detroit’s sprawling historic farmers market, jostling for fresh produce—much of it locally grown—as well as a dazzling array of, well, everything. Spices, jams, baked goods, eggs, cheeses, hot sauces, garden plants, topiaries, candles, T-shirts… even bundles of decorative sticks. Sundays are quieter. Continue reading “Detroit’s Eastern Market: A visual feast”
I’m out of town again, working long hours and away from my familiar kitchen. What little cooking I’m doing is on the perfunctory side, so no recipe this week. But because of where I am—Hamtramck, Michigan, a small, independent, working class municipality inside the city of Detroit—I’m thinking a lot about immigrants. Continue reading “Notes, but no recipes, from the road”
Seven recipes from the Blue Kitchen archives celebrate the flavors immigrants have brought to our shores and tables.
Need proof that America is a land of immigrants? Take a stroll through any supermarket worth the name. You’ll find pasta and pasta sauce makings. You’ll find cumin in the spice aisle; jalapeño peppers and fresh ginger in the produce department; sauerkraut, kielbasa (or certainly, brats). You’ll find miso paste. You’ll find hummus. These foods—once exotic, but now kitchen go-tos for most of us—didn’t get here on their own. Continue reading “Borrowing from the immigrant kitchen: seven globally-inspired recipes”
Life is being too interesting right now. Again. With any luck, we’ll be back next week with a new post.
We’re taking a break from cooking one more week. Enjoying time with family, simple dinners in, the familiar comfort of meals out in favorite places, quiet walks in our new neighborhood. The photo above was taken on one of those walks on Christmas Eve. Continue reading “Heading into a new year with hope and worry”
This has been a year. After almost two years of planning, working and hand wringing, we finally moved into our new old house. And even though literally anywhere I look in the house, I can still see something that needs doing, we love being here. Love it. But what with the gazillion projects we’ve tackled (or avoided), the finally getting around to taking road trips again, reconnecting with friends and just generally living our overbooked lives, we forgot to mark Blue Kitchen’s tenth anniversary last month. Continue reading “Happy holidays—and happy tenth to us”
The sign above says it all. For the first time since we bought our new old house more than two years ago, Marion and I are on a road trip. Not just a weekend getaway, but a bonafide, see-things-we-haven’t-seen-before road trip. Continue reading “Brief, kitchenless notes from the road”