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Aug 9

Watermelon sorbet with rose, mint, and gin

Watermelon_sorbet

I realized recently that this move to Madison is really only the second time in my life that I’ve had a significant move. The first was moving to California for college. I’ve moved up and down to Oregon a few times, but always for a defined period of time, and even the first few times it was with someone who already knew the lay of the land. College was a pretty easy transition, complete with a summer camp-like few weeks of orientation and activities, but this is an entirely different beast. We have little idea of where even the simplest things are in town, and the list of administrative tasks to take care of (e.g. new driver’s licenses) is about a mile long. We sold or otherwise disposed of most of our household items when we left California last summer, meaning we’re starting almost from scratch in a lot of ways, and after five days of driving across the country we were left with mountains of boxes to unpack and an ever-changing collection of shopping lists and errands to run.

It’s been a little exhausting.

More than a little. Read more

Jul 27

2 Comments

Trail cooking – sesame peanut noodles, a pair of cocktails, and two meal plans

Trail_cooking

We’ve camped a lot this year. A lot a lot. We realized, in fact, that we have probably spent more nights in our tent over this past year than in any other place. It’s been fantastic, in part because we’ve camped in some amazing, jaw-dropping places (like the Canadian Rockies, the Boundary Waters, and Yosemite), but also because we spent most of our years in Southern California wishing we had more time to head into the wilderness, pitch a tent, and spend days doing not much of anything but hiking.

So these days I have pretty good footing on matters of camp cooking. I get a lot of questions both on this site and from friends and family about how to plan for camp meals, and this page from last year has been by far my most popular this summer, so soon I’ll put together a new site feature all about planning camp meals and menus.

But first, I want to talk about trail cooking, an entirely different beast. Read more

Jul 26

Baker’s snack: Salt + pepper chips with cottage cheese

Let me preface this by saying: I am most definitely in no way, at all, ever, a cottage cheese eater. I have disliked it since I first met it, and despite sporadic further attempts it has remained very firmly on my “no eat” list.

However: 

Chips_cottagecheese Read more

Jul 10

6 Comments

Polenta layer cake with fruit and créme fraîche whipped cream

Cake_duo

Oh doesn’t that look like an amazing cake to make for 4th of July?

I’m so helpful.

I did make this cake for 4th of July, but that means I can’t write about it until after 4th of July, which makes it a little late for all of you. But wait! You can actually make this cake any time of the year. Woo hoo! Now you’re set and I’m not late at all.  Read more

Jul 2

2 Comments

Summer cocktail: Herbed citrus radler (or shandy, should you prefer)

I hope I haven’t been holding out on you. I’ve talked about radlers before, right? I’m sure I have. I must have. In our house (I suppose I should say “house,” these days) it’s a pretty clear line from the first hints of warm weather to a glass filled with lemonade and beer.

Herb_radler_3

Herb_radler

You might know this as a shandy, which is acceptable, but in either case I don’t know how we’ve gotten this far without me talking about one of my all-time favorite go-to summer drinks, fizzy and cold and completely replenishing. Read more

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