When Jennie Perillo instructed us to “make a peanut butter pie and share it with someone you love. Then hug them like there is no tomorrow because today is the only guarantee we can count on” I complied. Jennie lost her husband Mikey to a sudden heart attack a week ago and this was his favorite pie. I don’t know her very well, but I’ve felt her charismatic character around the blogging universe and she’s always struck me as plucky and up for anything. In fact, Jennie was all slated to be a Nudie Foodie with the rest of us until unforeseen circumstances kept her from her photo shoot, which goes to show she’d be baking a pie for someone else right now if they needed it.

I decided to focus on the part of Jennie’s directive “share it with someone you love,” because this is my baby boy Bentley Danger’s birthday week and I can think of nothing better than peanut butter pie to help commemorate it. I need to stop calling him my baby- he’s three now, and lives wholeheartedly up to his middle name. Read more

*After you read this post, you should go have a look at what The Nudie Foodies are doing for Japan. It’s food porn at its finest, all for a great cause.

Is there a soul on the planet who is aggrieved by the approach of spring? Really, what’s not to love? I especially welcome the nubile tips of frigid bulbs poking up from beneath rain-loosed soil. The spoils of the earth finally make a verdant appearance on the plate and I, finally, am the kind of happy for which sunshine is the only cause. After months of tubers and meat in the dark cave of winter, the simple surprise of a wild morel can make all the difference.

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Just when I think it might be nice to gnaw on a simple roast and gaze contentedly out the frost-paned window whilst puffing on a pipe wearing a sweater with elbow patches, THE DARK SIDE CREEPETH FORTH. The Dark Side has a voice and it sounds suspiciously like James Earl Jones. I’m at the butcher shop, fingers fondling an enticing slab of chuck, and The Dark Side says, “How the hell are you going to modernize a roast, Salty? You have a reputation to uphold- go buy some sustainable Ahi tuna and update Ahi Poke. It’s so tired with those boring wontons and gloppy salsa. Make it new, fresh and hip or I will chase you down the street with the giant roast you’re clutching and I’ll throw it at your head and it will land on your face and you’ll hereto forth be known as Roast Face rather than Salty Seattle.  Do you really think Roast Face would be a good name for a blog? I didn’t think so. Now take off that nubbly sweater and those hideous rain boots, put on your big girl panties and a pair of stilettos, and feed me something clever.” Read more