Miscellaneous Items

This morning found me with my head wedged in the oven. Despite my comparatively petite size, I was unable to squeeze in far enough. In an attempt to gain better purchase, I pulled the lower oven rack out. There. Perfect. Tweezers in hand, I wormed myself back in and got…

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Tomato Conserve

August 15, 2016

Why tomato conserve and not paste? Excellent question. This comes fromThe Art Of Simple Food II, where Alice Waters explains it is conserve because the result is more jammy than paste-like–at least, I think that’s what she means by “The tomatoes are concentrated into a paste that is more like…

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Kitchen Note: Upheaval

August 10, 2016

  John and I live in a 1000 square foot house. It’s fine for two people, only one of those people has four wheelchairs (two regular powerchairs, one soccer chair, one manual chair). These take up much space, as does his standing frame. Still, we manage well enough, most of…

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Meet Napa. Napa is not our cat. Napa was here when we arrived six years ago. I learned her name from a neighbor. Napa knows a sucker when she sees one. She sat on our fence, meowing imploringly until I caved. Ever since, she asks for food by sitting outside…

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Red Pepper Chicken Wings

August 3, 2016

Sunday Afternoon This post is nearly a year old. Well, not the post. It’s new. The handwritten draft and the recipe are nearly a year old: 9/5/15, to be exact. Somehow, this keeps slipping under the radar, three sheets of yellow notepaper migrating to the bottom of various piles in…

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Some time ago Shauna James Ahern wrote a long post about negative commenters, including some of the most vicious and/or irrational remarks she’d received. These were startling in their ugliness. Yet the piece was remarkably level-headed, even kind. Ahern wasn’t seeking revenge or attempting to expose certain commenters. She wanted to shine…

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Madly craving fiery udon noodles today. I can’t really say “for lunch” because I eat at odd hours: breakfasting before 6am means by 9:30 I am ravenous for what most people would call lunch. Around 1pm I might snack. Or not. We eat dinner around 6:30. It works. Anyway, I…

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Today: A summons for jury duty. No matter how many times I write back with doctor’s notes, they still summon me. I am both a caregiver and disabled myself. How many doctor’s notes do they require? Yesterday I woke with foot cramp. Nothing novel there. Except it refused to resolve,…

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  Okay, yeah, so this is a food blog, right? I did say that, once upon a time. So, happy news. There is some, yes. The tomatoes have finally arrived. We’ve been doing nothing but eating them raw, sliced and salted with fresh Mozzarella. In between belts of bourbon. There…

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Kitchen Note: Bento Box

July 19, 2016

Tomorrow there will be a full post on cheesecake. For now, a quick note. Today I take a walk. It takes a good block before I achieve a normal gait instead of a shambling, arthritic lurch. Jesus, I must be a sight to behold. Middle-age wrapped in neoprene. Never mind. John…

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