Category: Random Food For Thought

Borrowing from the immigrant kitchen: seven globally-inspired recipes

Seven recipes from the Blue Kitchen archives celebrate the flavors immigrants have brought to our shores and tables.

Patatas Riojas

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” →

Happy holidays—and happy tenth to us

box

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” →

Moving, cheats and getting food on the table

Homemade Marina Sauce

Unlike many things, moving doesn’t get easier the more you do it. If anything, it gets harder. As much as we love waking up every day in our new old house, life is still makeshift on a daily basis. Besides living among not always well-labeled boxes here, we’re still vacating our apartment of nine years. We’re working around the contractor finishing up things. We’re dealing with disappearing cats when the contractor leaves doors open (the cat was found—in a closed vanity drawer, of course). And we’re getting up and going to work every day. So instead of a fresh recipe this week, you’ll be getting a confessional post of sorts. Continue reading “Moving, cheats and getting food on the table” →

Again with no recipes

Oscar Wilde said, “Work is the curse of the drinking classes.” We agree.

Mezcaleria Las Flores

We’re working too hard and eating more than our share of takeout food these days. The big mystery project that has been consuming our lives for far too long continues. Happily, in the next few weeks, it should reach some sort of semi-completion, and we will be posting new recipes again. In the meantime, some random blathering. Continue reading “Again with no recipes” →