white truffle, hen egg, robiola pizza with Bolognese sauce

I did not intend for 2012 to start somberly, but I can’t seem to lighten my loafers. All I can think about is change. Once I start to lose my personal struggle with change, it shrouds everything I see, taste and touch like a thick, mocking apparition.

Let me back up. Ever since I was small, I have had a heel-dragging reaction to stagnancy. At the merest whisper of stillness, my tiny self leapt on to the next dragon, slaying it with the unbridled passion of a wild-minded child. When I was six I attacked the art of spelling fiercely, until I won the Idaho State Spelling Bee. Granted, the state’s population was only a million at the time, but still. I drank in words and letters like a parched vulture, eventually conquering every volume of an encyclopedia. Read more

In the spirit of pursuing things that matter in the new year, I’ve been distilling my priorities. I am the type of person whose home reflects the state of her inner monologue. If my home is clean and orderly, so is my head and heart. I can work, cook, and generally have a more positive outlook. I love my current house, but I’m starting to grow restless.

I am fortunate to live in a single-family home that is very near the nucleus of Seattle and all she has to offer. I can be at Pike Place Market in five minutes flat. I do much of my shopping there, from farm-fresh eggs to esoteric cuts of meat like veal shins and Moulard duck legs to foraged produce such as fiddlehead ferns or morel mushrooms. On the rare occasions when I can’t get what I need at Pike Place, it’s likely that Uwajimaya, the most well-stocked Asian grocer in the Northwest, will have it. I am there at least three times a week, and they keep me in pig’s heads, Buddha’s hands and chicken feet as well as pea shoots, yamaimo potatoes and all manner of sea creatures, from urchins to smelt roe. Read more

I’ve done it now. Gotten myself in too deep and forgotten a step- now it’s too late! Will my guests realize the cream cheese is store-bought? Should I feign illness and beg-off when it’s really that I’m ashamed of serving something that is not homemade, even if it’s only a condiment?

A few days ago I read this article and it made me think long and hard about my approach to holiday cooking.

In life I’m spontaneous and a little loco.

In the kitchen, I’m type AAAAAA.

Sure, I can cook off the cuff, often tossing three random ingredients together to make an accidental masterpiece (or failure), but for the most part I plan. I am a firm believer in mise en place. I study. I approach food anthropologically and draft heat maps based on predilections for certain spices. I generally don’t cook from recipes, so planning and research are essential in order to understand the fundamentals and science behind what makes things work.

I realize this makes me part of the 1% (please don’t occupy my kitchen though- I’ll serve you excellent wine if you just stay the eff in the living room), but you know what? I’m ok with that when it comes to cooking. It’s my craft. Everyone should be allowed to be a geek about something, and food is my chosen medium. You know what you can call me without me going all Pulp Fiction on your ass like many of my peers? A Foodie. Read more