Chicken and Coffee

On the right, a neighborhood girl and her chicken, Neptune, outside Makeda Coffee in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood. Neptune is a frizzle bantam. She stayed on her leash, tied up to the bench outside until the girls got their drinks. I asked one of the owners about pets in the shop. “I think I’d draw the …


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Fish Wednesday, Drunken Snapper Edition

Disclaimer: Tonight’s Fish Wednesday is sponsored, unofficially, by Three Olives Vodka. Why? Because they sent me the sample vodka I used in the recipe. Just so you know, I’m not much of a drinker, so I’ll bypass the deep analysis of the vodka and tell you what we had for dinner. Penne with Vodka is …


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Postcard: Seattle

Downtown in the summer rain, stylish girls are wearing rubber boots – yellow and paisley – with miniskirts. On the bus, an old Chinese man in a pale linen jacket and a baseball hat that says “#1 Grampa!” And a family, Peruvian, maybe, with wide Indian faces. The boy, six years old, I’m guessing, has …


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On Top of Spaghetti

Spaghetti

When it’s dark and rainy (even in the middle of summer) there’s something reassuring about a big bowl of spaghetti with red sauce. We make up a batch of what we call “schaumgummi red sauce” every few weeks – enough to have some for dinner and the rest, to stow in the freezer for, you guessed it, a rainy day. I have gradually been trying to rotate out the white flour pasta for the mixed grain varieties from Trader Joe’s – so far the flax is the most popular, with the rice flour pasta being awful and gummy and the whole wheat too crunchy for the likes of some people. But there are times when you just want old school spaghetti.


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