Going online to buy local produce? Exploring Relay Foods
When I first met with Caesar Layton for a story about Relay Foods, a Charlottesville-based online grocery store and farmers market that recently expanded into DC and Baltimore, I didn’t quite get the convenience factor. I mean, I am one of those people who drives to three or four different stores and markets each week. I … Read more
Coconut Porridge Recipe & The Great Grains Debate
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about grains lately. We all know that, if you’re going to have them, whole grains are better than their overly processed relatives. And, for some reason, the weirder and more obscure the grain, the better I feel about eating it (hence the kamut, farro, barley, wheat berry (above) … Read more
Small town famous & a food site you should love
First, I wrote about the great small town food I discovered in Sedan, Kan. — population 1,200 — for you all here at the blog. Then I wrote about it for American Food Roots, this fabulous new site launched in the fall by four storied food journalists, one of whom happens to be my neighbor. … Read more
The fruit-n-veggie “cleanse” experiment
For three days, my Instagram feed, typically resplendent with photos of meat-centric entrees, turned very green. My husband and I — to help kick off his I-rolled-my-ankle-now-back-to-the-gym “diet” — decided to try just veggies and fruits for a few days. Originally, we thought we might last a week. We didn’t do a lot of research, … Read more
Cathal Armstrong’s Alexandria
It all started on a boat in the Chesapeake when a DC chef asked me, “Have you been to Cathal Armstrong‘s restaurants?” I’d been living in the DC area a few months and my food writing career had been focused mostly on my comfort zone of agriculture stories. I could barely feign to be some … Read more
Winter veggie cravings and Farm to Freezer
Something’s wrong with me. It’s the thick of winter (or at least it was a few days ago, before 70 degrees rolled into Washington this week) and all I want is vegetables. I’m craving them. Perhaps I have a vitamin deficiency, or just a masochistic urge to eat the very thing that is not-so-available this … Read more
Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
Baking and chocolate making are not my fortés, but I made an exception for a quick item that includes two of my favorite things — peanut butter and coconut oil — and my husband’s all-time favorite thing — chocolate. I know, I should be the one to be gaga for chocolate, but he is a diehard, … Read more
Ava’s deeply flavorful chili (with bacon & cinnamon to boot!)
This recipe comes to you all the way from Nashville, from a longtime family friend named Ava Parker whom we had the pleasure of staying with on our roadtrip to Kansas for the holidays. I remember Ava cooking a lot when her daughter Jenny and I were BFFs in grade school, but it was fun to connect with … Read more
pink grapefruit & avocado salad
It’s that time of year. When people show up at the gym for the first time in a year and decide that — yes — doing three cardio weight-lifting classes in a row is a good idea. As an instructor, I tell them — no — that is not a good idea. You need to … Read more
Kansas Country Eats — a visit to Sedan
After two weeks of holiday traveling — almost five days of it on the road from Virginia to Oklahoma to Kansas and back — there were plenty of highlights and, overall, far too much eating. There was a four-day streak of big meals in Oklahoma (we consumed so much butter that we ran out and … Read more
