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Charles

Salty Oat Cookies

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When I find a cooking blog that I like, I enjoy taking a moment to read the author’s “About Me” page.  Some of the pages include vast descriptions of the blogger’s life.   Others include only a few passing phrases, sometimes leaving the reader with more questions than answered.  Some pages have yet to even change the default setting from wordpress.

One of the things that I’ve noticed, in looking over the “About Me” pages, is that there seems to be a much larger number of lawyers with cooking blogs than say doctors or businessmen.  It amazes me how often I find a lawyer behind a food blog or a cooking show or a burgeoning cupcake business.  The Zagats, the couple behind the restaurant surveys, started their professional careers in large law firms.  And most recently, one of my good friends quit his law firm job of a few years to start his own restaurant business.

Which begs the question: is there any particular reason lawyers seem more attracted to cooking than their confreres in medicine and business?

Being a lawyer…

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Chai Concentrate

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I don’t have a coffee habit.  In fact, I don’t even like it.  Which, I suppose, is good for me, given the relative cost of feeding a daily Starbucks-addiction.

Instead of coffee, my tastes run towards tea.  And lately, as the Fall weather has turned gray and cool, I’ve turned towards the friendly spices of a chai tea latte.  Unfortunately, the cost of a chai tea latte can rival the cost of any quadruple-hyphenated drink at the coffee shop.  And sometimes, the drink isn’t even that good.

One solution is the packaged chai mixes found in the grocery store.  The mixes are pretty good and will make about eight cups of chai, depending on what kind of milk to chai ratio suits your tastes.  I’ve found the mixes in almost every large grocery store.

Another solution, a better solution, is …

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Simple Roasted Sweet Potato Fries

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It’s no secret that I love sweet potatoes.  I’ve featured them mashed, baked, and grilled.  I’ve also folded them into phyllo dough, and into a bundt cake.

Out of all these variations, one of my favorite ways to prepare sweet potatoes happens to be one of the simplest: sliced and roasted.

As the days start to darker and the weather cooler, these sweet potato fries are a quick remedy.  Simple and quick to make, these warm and healthy fries are the quintessential comfort food, a sizzling side, and an awesome appetizer.

Last week, I …

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Cincinnati Chili

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Every city it seems, has its signature dish.  In Boston, it’s that eponymous Cream Pie; in Baltimore, it’s crab cakes. For Philadelphia, it’s cheese steak, and in Saint Louis, toasted ravioli.  In my home town, rich in culinary traditions, it could be any number of dishes, from gumbo to jambalaya, to po’boys and muffulettas, to beignets and pralines.

Here in Cincinnati, chili carries the day, with residents swearing their allegiance to one of two local brands.  Just as I-75 divides the city into East Cincinnati and West, chili divides the city between Gold Star and Skyline.

But after two months living here, I still had not tried either of the nearly ubiquitous chili shops.  So when Caitlin came to Cincinnati …

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Easy Lemon Squares

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Optimism can be over-rated.  Optimism is hard-work, often requiring an ability to overlook the obvious or turn a blind-eye to the reality staring you straight on.  Optimism demands unnecessary devotion and adherence, a sunny disposition in the face of an oncoming hail storm.

Pessimism, as George Will has triumphed, is the ultimate solution.  You are either constantly being vindicated or, on the other hand, pleasantly surprised.

For those sour moments, those hail storms of bad news and despair, I…

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