A while back, I got the idea in my head that I wanted to make my own sausage. Why? first and foremost, I love good sausage; secondly, I’m *very* picky about my sausage — it needs to be high quality…
September 16th, 2008 | by Jen | published in All, DIY Food Projects, Fantastic Fruits, Garlic, Homemade Sausage and Meat Cookery, Honorable Herbs, Most Popular, Orange, Sausages, Meats, Succulent Spices, Thyme, Weekend Projects
A while back, I got the idea in my head that I wanted to make my own sausage. Why? first and foremost, I love good sausage; secondly, I’m *very* picky about my sausage — it needs to be high quality…
August 29th, 2008 | by Jen | published in All, DIY Food Projects, Fantastic Fruits, Lemon, Most Popular, Weekend Projects
I was walking back from lunch the other day with my coworker Fritz, and he (very) jokingly proclaimed, ‘If it’s not instant, it’s not gratification!”. Well, as true as that rings much of the time, this recipe…
July 16th, 2008 | by Jen | published in All, DIY Food Projects, Grand Grains, Most Popular, Weekend Projects
I have tried to make bread from scratch many times, and I have failed miserably many times… It’s probably that I don’t knead enough, but whenever I try to make bread from scratch (quick breads excepted), they…
June 29th, 2008 | by Jen | published in All, DIY Food Projects, Fantastic Fruits, Sweets and Desserts, Weekend Projects
This month I joined the Daring Bakers! After drooling over the opera cake at Sugarlaws and Feeding Maybelle last month, I decided I would throw my hat into the ring and learn to bake something new…
June 12th, 2008 | by Jen | published in All, DIY Food Projects, Farming, Gardening, & Food Preservation, Garlic, Ginger, Honorable Herbs, Most Popular, Peppers (Spicy & Sweet), Preserves and Pickles, Succulent Spices, Veritable Vegetables
Pickles, pickles, pickles of every kind… that’s how the last few months have been going — pickled kohlrabi, pickled lemons, pickled cabbage, pickled onions, and now pickled eggs! Pickled peppers, pickled cucumber, and pickled okra…
May 1st, 2008 | by Jen | published in All, Around the World, DIY Food Projects, Farming, Gardening, & Food Preservation, Legumes, Most Popular, Veritable Vegetables, Weekend Projects
I can’t say for sure what possessed me to decide to make homemade tofu. Most likely it’s because I’ve heard tofu called both ‘one of the most natural and healthful’ as well as ‘one of the most processed and adulterated’…
April 22nd, 2008 | by Jen | published in All, DIY Food Projects, Farming, Gardening, & Food Preservation, Kohlrabi, Most Popular, Preserves and Pickles, Veritable Vegetables
Ever since I bought Linda Ziedrich’s book The Joy of Pickling, I’ve had pickles on the brain… not the typical pickles one usually imagines — you know, made with cucumbers, puckering-ly salty, sour, sweet, or vinegar-y…
April 2nd, 2008 | by Jen | published in All, DIY Food Projects, Delectable Dairy, Most Popular
My last remaining vice in the high-fructose-corn-syrup-laden, partially-hydrogenated, machine-cuisine world I’ve been gradually opting out of is, believe it or not, French Vanilla Coffee Mate. Eww, gross! you’re probably thinking…
March 15th, 2008 | by Jen | published in DIY Food Projects, Fantastic Fruits, Farming, Gardening, & Food Preservation, Most Popular
After being delayed multiple weeks by ice storms, the seeds for my summer garden finally arrived! I had been waiting with baited breath, and got to planting within a day of receiving the package. All of the seeds are heirloom varieties…
March 6th, 2008 | by Jen | published in All, DIY Food Projects, Fantastic Fruits, Lemon, Most Popular, Orange, Preserves and Pickles, Weekend Projects
Yaarrrr! It be citrus bounty week here in Los Altos Hills, CA… I gathered m’self about 10 schhwarly pounds of home-grown blood oranges and meyer lemons (from a co-worker and a neighbor, respectively). Ahh…

I daydream a lot about cooking during the week, especially when I’m on the train. Its rhythmic...
Yesterday I inaugurated my new canning equipment -- a huge 12 quart stockpot, a canning funnel, a ma...
I read cookbooks to relax. There is no better way for me to unwind than to read a recipe, imagine t...
I have been craving some serious American food as of late. A week ago I had the overwhelming urge ...
A few weeks ago on the same France trip that introduced me to Feves au Lard Fume, Steven and I met u...
When I try to explain what tempeh is to a person who isn't familiar with it, it never ends up soundi...
I had a quiche epiphany the first time I tasted the quiche from Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. Th...
Besides the expected potatoes and cabbage, green garlic is one item that I have been coming across w...
Hands down, my favorite breakfast is two soft boiled eggs, a touch of butter, a piece or two of good...
The range of culinary emotions I've experienced living here in Germany for the past three months spa...
Long time no see! The recent Modern Beet silence has been due to the fact that I made an internatio...

I can't believe how easy it is to make gravlax. Or let me rephrase that statement -- I can't belie...
I was looking out my apartment window the other day when my gaze came to rest on a tree about fiftee...
Oh. My. God. This is the best pie crust I have ever tasted! So flaky. So moist. And oh the hin...
These past few weeks have been particularly busy and challenging for me. I changed jobs, spent two ...

Wilkommen nach Deutschland! Ok, full-disclosure time: I haven't yet made this myself, but I watche...

A while back, I got the idea in my head that I wanted to make my own sausage. Why? first and forem...

I was walking back from lunch the other day with my coworker Fritz, and he (very) jokingly proclaime...
Perhaps you would have chuckled if you saw me leaping into the air, grabbing at bunches of elderberr...

The annual zucchini proliferation is upon us! Last week alone I was given six large zucchini, which...