For the new cooking year, one of my goals is to make more dinners.
I’ve become very comfortable with side dishes, breakfasts, appetizers, and dessert, but sometimes I lack the motivation to make a full-fledged entrée. When I first started cooking, I didn’t think I’d ever use the word “comfortable” to describe how I felt in the kitchen. But now that certain cooking styles and methods …
There is a certain joy to the art of discovery.
Four years ago, I rarely, if ever cooked. But then I discovered that it was something I really enjoyed, and that it could bring me pleasure. I found cooking to be fun and relaxing, irrespective of the process or outcome.
And cooking is only one example. We all have those moments of individual discovery, of learning of a new love or skill, place or interest. Scanning the radio and stumbling upon an artist that inspires. Picking up a paint brush and finding an innate command of the canvas. Walking along the street and feeling the vivacity and charms of a heretofore undiscovered neighborhood.
Most recently, I discovered books on tape. I have always enjoyed fiction and reading. I have pleasant memories of lying awake, in bed, reading – at various times …
The Palouse region along the Idaho-Washington border is lentil country. In field after field, the tiny, green-coated legume covers the land.
The Palouse region counts roughly 200 miles of land, and is home to over 3,000 family farms. Between them, these farms account for nearly 90 percent of the lentils grown in this country. But sadly, few of these lentils ever find their way onto American plates or palates. Nearly the entire lentil crop is exported – to countries like Spain, Italy, Greece, and India – countries that appreciate the culinary qualities of the lentil.
And the lentil is worthy of appreciation. Unlike beans, lentils cook quickly and do not require soaking. They pair with almost any dish, and …
Some days you feel like a home-cooked meal. But most often, that time is after a long day at work, when you least feel like spending the remaining hours of the evening waiting in a checkout line.
That was me the other day.
Walking to my car, lips chapped and cheeks red, I just wanted to head home, where I could kick my feet up and turn on the television. I was in no mood to bundle up, break out a grocery list, and trudge through the aisles. After all, Jon Stewart and a warm apartment were waiting.
So when I got home, I flipped on the DVR, and checked…
During my senior year of high school, I got my first laptop. By today’s standards, it was slow and it was heavy. It hardly had any memory and it couldn’t even play a movie. But it had an ethernet port, and so, it had potential.
When I got to college, Firestone library was only a few hundred yards from my dorm room. But on a cold, wind-swept winter day, its collection and online database couldn’t have seemed farther. Fortunately, with a few keystrokes, and mouse clicks, its newspaper articles and scholarly journals were within reach. From the university network, I could also stream my Russian language files and download my French politics assignment. Early into freshman year, my laptop had become the epicenter of my college education.
Ten years later, …