tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46875706217601971482012-01-23T15:05:20.467-08:00Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.comBlogger941100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-23734256317922006962012-01-21T01:46:00.000-08:002012-01-23T15:04:30.485-08:00

I am up to my hairline with lemons and oranges, and colorful jars of fermenting sauerkraut, kimchi, preserved lemons and Indian "lime" pickle. I have turned my kitchen into a factory. It feels so good.Of course, these things take time. So while I wait the few weeks for them to ripen properly, I wanted to tell you about a soup I made the other week. It is eloquently called Goat Soup, but it is so

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-19892858089329997022012-01-11T21:09:00.001-08:002012-01-13T12:33:44.961-08:00

There is a Nepali-Indian restaurant in the area called Kathmandu Kitchen that's been my favorite for years. Lucky for me its my sister, Mara's favorite too, so the other night we got to celebrate her birthday there.I was late, having had to assemble her cake in the presence of a two and a half year old who wanted a snack, wanted to read, wanted, above all, attention. You do what you have to do.

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-38325893749754865612011-12-27T13:38:00.001-08:002011-12-30T08:24:37.815-08:00

I have done it people. I have successfully made sourdough.A year and a half ago I attempted my first batch of sourdough starter. Two days later I took my new little bundle on a vacation. It didn't make it. Then last year, in the midst of Christmas madness and nearly freezing to death in the funky Victorian, I started and failed another batch. The first attempt was a matter of pure neglect. The

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-41078470538440469782011-12-21T03:02:00.000-08:002011-12-23T13:06:50.623-08:00

I've been cooking nonstop. My latest ventures include real mincemeat (with real beef and real pork, and real--weird--beef suet) but I've also been playing with sourdough starters, quince jelly, and spiced purple sauerkraut. Those might not sound like holiday treats, but for some reason, they are for me!Christmas day meals are are planned and nearly made already. I've made the stollen ahead,

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-48289203271196407432011-12-15T07:30:00.000-08:002011-12-21T03:02:25.396-08:00

Every year for as long as I can remember, my mother has made a pot of soup for Christmas Eve. The soup is always potato, and there is always an abundance of accompanying bread, crackers, and cheeses. She goes all-out, as if that night were the real deal, as if Christmas dinner were just the hyped-up side-show.I love Christmas Eve. I love that Christmas morning hasn't happened yet, that there is

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-71019711056478469312011-12-07T13:50:00.001-08:002011-12-08T14:12:03.905-08:00

I am moments away from literally chaining myself to my desk chair. I am desperate. I've been pacing all morning, trying to beat down that monster some brilliant man called Resistance.How did I learn to cook, after all? I went to grad school, of course. I'm pondering a doctoral program so I can become a world-famous pastry chef.In the meantime I am writing this book. This blasted, wretched,

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-45613931538252341572011-11-29T15:22:00.000-08:002011-11-30T11:11:03.162-08:00

I had planned to share the cake recipe from my sister-in-law's baby shower last week. But I'm having some technical difficulties. In the meantime, I want to tell you something already apparent: I am going to be an auntie!Because I love my sister-in-law, because I will be this child's only aunt, and because I hardly needed an excuse, I, with my mother, hosted the West Coast Baby shower.The party

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-20301986187320711612011-10-26T10:56:00.000-07:002011-10-28T15:08:50.902-07:00

I hope you will forgive me for two breads in a row. After you've seen this recipe, I am sure you will see why I just had to do it. After I posting the Pilgrim's Bread post I took a few minutes break (before jumping into book-land) and checked up on what Daring Bakers was up to this month. I have flopped the last few months and keep assuming I will be deleted as a member but ah, I logged in just

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-71899129056267868332011-10-25T05:44:00.000-07:002011-10-26T11:55:52.547-07:00

I've had the recipe for at least three years. When I first tasted the bread, I was still living in Vancouver, visiting my friend Tora. Maybe I was popping over for a bit of tea and a rest from the rigors of grad school insanity. Maybe I wasn't at her house at all. Maybe she gave me a loaf wrapped up tight to smuggle home on the bus and share with Kevin. Whatever scenario is true, I remember Tora

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-22913059126710300942011-09-21T14:02:00.000-07:002011-10-14T14:41:18.871-07:00

I keep checking my blog, hoping that, miraculously, all I've been thinking about will suddenly appear in written form (with pictures too, of course). But every time, without fail I simply see the dizzying up-side-down photo of the inside of a yellow balloon, and a title that reads, "Totally Not About Food."If this space is a place to write about my life (and food), then that title pretty much

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-1717649323785166272011-08-11T13:23:00.000-07:002011-08-11T15:41:13.741-07:00

It has been a little weird around here lately. I've cooked. I've written. I've had family over. I went for a hot-air balloon ride (see pictures!). I have spent hours upon hours reading books like, Itchy, Itchy Chicken Pox and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. I have wasted even more hours reading blogs and cookbooks and then making up a recipe only to find I really should have listened to

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-72226556269138030532011-07-22T11:39:00.000-07:002011-07-27T15:10:59.399-07:00

Two weeks ago Thursday, Kevin's grandfather, age 90, had a stroke. His whole right side was paralyzed. He couldn't swallow. And we all knew this was it. This last Friday he passed away after being at home for six days.It is an odd thing, and the timing was terrible. Wayne was the kind of hilariously gruff old man who thought it ridiculous and a bit of a mean trick that he was still around to

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-90789783285806709742011-07-06T09:19:00.000-07:002011-07-06T14:30:22.928-07:00

The last couple of weeks have been one thing after another--moving, working, running, partying, visiting, cleaning, picture-hunting, and soap selling. The craziness ended with our first gathering in this house to celebrate none other than the America's Independence Day, or, more precisely termed, the 4th of July.I am not one for much patriotism. In Vancouver, it took me months to not blush every

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-31840876214227685832011-06-22T09:21:00.001-07:002011-06-24T12:53:13.930-07:00

I had meant this post to be a belated recipe from my birthday, but when I sat down this morning, it didn't seem right. There is another, more pertinent item of news to share, one that also explain my tardiness.We've moved! Again. Let us not have to do that again for a good little while. We are so ready to settle our feet in the sand. We were ready the last time. But the stars were apparently not

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-63720425432785635952011-06-17T10:13:00.000-07:002011-06-29T10:39:09.270-07:00

A couple weeks ago was my birthday, and there were many wonderful, silly things.There was the striped, cotton stretch mini skirt I found shopping with the boys (I never wear stripes; I don't wear skin-tight skirts), or that I got to spend quality time peeling loquats with my sister, or that it just so happened to also be Pentecost Sunday (the Church's birthday, you know, when the Spirit of the

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-29572004527310240712011-06-03T10:10:00.001-07:002011-06-07T14:14:42.457-07:00

I was not at the farmer's market. And we were alone. It was Saturday, and Kevin and I were sitting in the car on a motionless street in Calistoga, California. We were supposed to be in a hot air balloon by now, rising slowly in the chilly morning air with the blare and blaze of the burners drowning out the small crowd standing and staring around us in the basket. It was probably a good thing the

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-18357357812523400042011-05-20T16:18:00.000-07:002011-05-22T15:21:26.931-07:00

Something must have happened yesterday. Was it the way the air felt on my arms while I ran on the edge of town? Perhaps. It was also, likely, how I could actually see the air, all misty in the early light. The morning was cool and shocking but there was this inner warmth, like the whole day already knew how hot it was going to be.Then there was that walk with Cedar under the cottonwood trees.

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-26716589085815904222011-05-13T19:00:00.000-07:002011-05-15T17:33:46.660-07:00

I've been addicted to Alice Water's Chez Panisse Fruit lately. The drawings are beautiful, her descriptions exquisite, and her recipes simple and elegant. I love this book.It is not new to the world but it is somewhat new to me. I bought it in January in an Amazon buying frenzy on whim. All I knew when I started was that I wanted something from Alice Waters and something from Deborah Madisson.

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-32339452102127383852011-05-09T08:59:00.000-07:002011-05-10T06:18:34.524-07:00

This last Saturday I spent the morning running a booth at the Davis Farmers' Market. It was fabulous people watching, and I got to listen to live Jewish-style accordion band music for much of it, but by the end, I was peopled out, wind-blow, hot, hungry, and moneyless.Naturally then, after I packed up my tent and crammed my car full of sales paraphenalia, I drove myself to the 42nd annual Whole

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-39321877261661513762011-04-22T10:49:00.001-07:002011-04-22T15:10:13.298-07:00

I was going to share a delightful, crispy shortbread recipe with you. The cookie above, actually. But it is Good Friday, and most of the people I know will be hosting or attending an Easter weekend full of picnics, lunches, dinners, and desserts. And the shortbread just didn't seem to fit. Next time.Deviled eggs fit, and I have been eating an inordinate amount of them lately. But that seemed

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-71659454119627897042011-04-10T13:32:00.000-07:002011-04-16T07:09:49.730-07:00

Hi there. (long pause) It's been a while... (long pause) I'd like to reintroduce myself. (waiting) My name is Amanda Hawkins, and I love many things. A little over a year ago I moved from Canada back to my childhood romping grounds in California's Central Valley. I moved with my husband, Kevin, my son, Cedar, and my cat, Tyrone from our funky, dark basement suite in Vancouver to a pink-walled,

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-65120683475480526872010-12-27T09:45:00.000-08:002010-12-27T11:25:07.819-08:00

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.I know we're all supposed to be sick of rich, sweet foods right about now. I know

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-25327486050651483962010-12-13T13:02:00.000-08:002010-12-15T12:38:11.831-08:00

For one whole year I have been looking forward to the making and the sharing of fruitcake. I've been pondering fruity combinations, deciding whether or not to increase the spice or the almond, or both, and comparing recipes, techniques, and sources. In short, I've been a little obsessed.Last Christmas was my first time even tasting fruitcake. Before then, I didn't realize people actually ate it.

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-71149021422078927032010-12-08T08:56:00.000-08:002010-12-08T10:21:45.594-08:00

I have these jars of homemade marmalade. A lot of marmalade. And, while I should be able to gift it ("should" here implies that, perhaps, I was not greeted with delight at the mention of marmalade, but rather a few nose-crinkles and a disdainful "isn't that kind of bitter?"), there are few I know who would really appreciate it. Well, one can only have so much toast.If you find yourself in a

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-75833095830285988532010-11-30T13:18:00.000-08:002010-12-01T07:54:54.538-08:00

This is it. The Season is upon us. It is the season for parties (even if you never go to them otherwise), for baking (even if you don't usually bake), for singing (yeah, even when you can't sing), and for believing (even if you don't usually believe). In my neck of the woods, the particular season is Christmas, or more precisely, Advent. And let me tell you, I am thrilled.Christmas has

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-59777024354679361422010-11-27T08:46:00.000-08:002010-11-28T07:20:24.294-08:00

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.I'm feeling pretty proud right about now. Not only did I make a rather delightful crostada, not only

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-91766021573202926012010-11-22T16:41:00.000-08:002010-11-25T07:32:37.034-08:00

Maybe some of you celebrating Thanksgiving today are as unprepared as I am. Very few hours left and I am flipping through cookbooks and searching cyberspace for the perfect recipe to contribute. This time, I have been given the job of rolls. But which to make? What kind--what shape?Rolls are not exactly the most exciting or memorable part of Thanksgiving, or any meal. They are that filler. That

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-63062927372742418382010-11-17T13:35:00.000-08:002010-11-18T11:48:28.624-08:00

Meet my new shoulder of goat. My new beginning in meatiness.We don't do much meat around our house, and as of today, I haven't done much meat around this blog either. The last time I mentioned meat, actually, I did not give a recipe, because the meal was (aside from taste and texture) a disaster. That incident scared me away from meat making for almost ten months.Then last weekend I found myself

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-10662735273271179632010-11-10T14:47:00.000-08:002010-11-11T07:05:28.103-08:00

I am up to my eyeballs in projects. There are the expected 60 pounds of walnuts and the who knows how much pecans to shell (the walnuts shell nicely, the pecans take about 15 minutes per handful at this point). There are the similarly expected bushel of apples I was sure we needed from the u-pick apple orchard at Willow Pond Organic Farm. But then, there is also the artist's easel, the ridiculous

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-25885499135238647642010-11-03T09:23:00.000-07:002010-11-04T06:53:29.852-07:00

Last Sunday we had a Victorian Holloween Housewarming. What that means is, we live in a Victorian, it was Halloween, and it was a housewarming. It just so happened that October 31st was the perfect day to have our housewarming. There is something potentially whimsical, even magical about Halloween. I have really never liked the day before this year, but looking for vintage-looking decorations was

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-63579542049008634332010-10-29T09:29:00.000-07:002010-10-29T11:28:12.330-07:00

Actually, I've been reading and thinking.My reading is The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection by the Episcopalian priest, writer, and general lover of food, Robert Farrar Capon. Maybe you've read it before. I have. But books like this are poetry and scripture: one benefits from a regular reading.In case you don't know about this book yet, let me introduce you. It is part of the Modern

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-1980093662145223462010-10-27T19:36:00.000-07:002010-10-27T21:08:51.273-07:00

I made doughnuts, and they were good.I had the synchronistic opportunity to make them for the this month's Daring Baker's Challenge and my parent's yard sale. The idea was to make them, eat a couple, and then sell off the rest for an outrageous 'home-made' price to hungry, on-the-run sale hoppers. But as usual, something went awry. To our benefit, the doughnuts themselves were not what went wrong

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-43023272326594124682010-10-21T15:05:00.000-07:002010-10-27T21:14:17.733-07:00

Hello. Welcome to my new home:Come in through my purple front door:Have a snack:Stay for supper:Because it's been awhile, and we have some catching up to do.For more than a month now, I have been consumed by this thing called moving. My beloved and I have done it, we have, after a nine-solid-month gestation period, found a place to call our own and have officially, completely moved in. There

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-54142524591673222782010-09-12T13:34:00.001-07:002010-09-19T10:33:01.790-07:00

Something about the change in light around September makes me extra melancholy. I look at cookbooks and nearly cry for the beauty of a well-roasted tomato. I ponder that beauty and remember food's holiness, the act of eating as having some spiritual potential, the ability to stir us towards good, towards the other. This is the burden of the mundane. This is the stuff that will make or break you.

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-50151457643021751352010-09-07T20:18:00.001-07:002010-09-08T20:16:28.122-07:00

Fall is inching its way forward, but there are just a few garden stragglers from high summer that will likely last another month. I'm thinking tomatoes, and cucumbers. And when I think of tomatoes and cucumbers, I think of Dill Dip, and when I think of Dill Dip, I think of Grammie.So let me introduce you first to Grammie, then, to Dill Dip:Dorris May, or Grammie, as we called her, passed

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-58029867266512050392010-08-27T21:05:00.000-07:002010-08-29T07:36:36.058-07:00

Thursday the 26th:Daring Bakers is one of those online communities I knew about a while back, before blogging was even a twinkle in my eye. I thought of the group as one of those middle school clubs you have to be cool enough to join, because cool people have been in it (like Susan, Deeba, and the first blogger who started me on this food blog bunny trail--Anne). So, in a moment of

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-81990090568817572632010-08-19T15:23:00.000-07:002010-08-20T15:17:00.956-07:00

So I had this list of goodies to bake and cook this month, and on that list was a bread I called "fruit or veggie bread," meaning, some kind of healthy snack I could make in quantity. Because I sometimes have a hard time with expectations, the bread I ended up baking deviated slightly from my original idea. In fact, it is probably significant evidence of my psychological imbalance or manipulation

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-15475242420416345492010-08-11T13:41:00.000-07:002010-08-12T21:04:49.953-07:00

Funny how the simplest, subtle delights in a day make me intensely happy. Today I watched Cedar fall asleep in his car seat. What a beautiful sight, witnessing someone nodding off. I almost felt as relaxed as he looked.But that is a usual, typical example of simple pleasures. I enjoy my kid much of the time. What was really a breakthrough in simple pleasures was the other night when I made

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-8917506736498120592010-08-04T18:39:00.000-07:002010-08-05T10:58:34.649-07:00

All is well. The house is quiet. The child sleeps. There is nothing you absolutely must do.Let's pretend, as well, you're feeling creative, grounded, decisive. The cool air wafts through the window. The pleasant sound of tweeting birds is in the distance. The morning is before you with bold, delicious potential. And instead of reflecting again on the night's sleep interruptions: the dog

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-18541231329895772862010-08-01T19:30:00.001-07:002010-08-02T11:24:09.345-07:00

Certain foods are rather divine, sexy even, and this cake is one of them.Look at it! Rounded and tall, it has gorgeous, dark sloping shoulders. It demands attention. It says, "Look! I harbor a sumptuous treat." It is stately. Stately and voluptuous. And it knows it.Wish I had some of that right now. The cake, that is. It is gone now due to being incredibly tasty. But also, I wish I had some of

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-87766117777295359722010-07-25T05:15:00.000-07:002010-08-06T05:34:34.470-07:00

I'm awake again at an unholy hour.Sometime after my son stopped tossing and turning, my father's buzzer went off to stop icing his back. Then the cat mewed at my door. Then father left the buzzer on and I got up to turn it off. I realized I was actually the only one awake in the house anymore, and decided going back to sleep was just silly. I was already out of bed. I was already awake. And I

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-3042498281981621382010-07-19T10:57:00.000-07:002010-07-20T20:28:53.110-07:00

My baby's first birthday was on Sunday. Cedar is now a toddler. Soon he'll be driving and I'll make him promise to go 55 miles an hour on the highway. My life passes before my eyes. Somehow we all survived infancy. Oh, that we survive the rest.In some circles, after one year you are no longer considered a new parent. At six months you get kicked out of new mommy groups, and there are fewer and

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-85158081722995647872010-07-12T07:17:00.000-07:002010-07-12T18:01:37.424-07:00

The first thing is that I tried to make purple basil into purple pesto. I had two gorgeous bunches of the basil, plans for polenta that night to spread it over, and a very concise recipe.What I did not have were measurements.The recipe comes from my poetry adviser from Regent College in Vancouver. He is the quintessential philosopher-poet. He is logical and intuitive. He is a teacher. He loves

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-90460425350919651352010-07-07T10:19:00.000-07:002010-07-08T11:59:04.385-07:00

Last Wednesday I had my first harvest of figs, or brebas as they call it. It seems appropriate, as it was almost perfectly six months after I began this blog. Happy six month oh Enchanted Fig!I haven't written much about figs yet because it didn't seem right unless I had a picture of the gorgeous, fleshy, sensual fruits to share. Well as I said, the brebas is here,so here is the much awaited

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-15050119830387019672010-06-25T06:42:00.000-07:002010-08-13T19:40:50.070-07:00

Last weekend my family and I and some friends from Vancouver stayed at a cabin in the woods. I have never stayed in a cabin before, we being the camping or backpacking types. I like getting rather dirty around the edges. I like the rustic challenge and taste of eating food cooked on open flame. But this cabin weekend was so delightful, so not difficult with the wee one, the only thing I missed

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-65239247103832060062010-06-20T11:46:00.001-07:002010-07-08T11:56:16.112-07:00

It seems incredibly appropriate to celebrate summer solstice in sunny, warm California. It is the longest day of the year, in a good way.This year I began the day like another special day, by making pastry dough. This pastry dough is a recipe from my newly-acquired Good to the Grain by Kate Boyce. I have been hearing very good things about this book for a while. I have made her scones twice and

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-26196604674321715852010-06-18T06:45:00.000-07:002010-06-19T07:02:58.033-07:00

When someone says 'quick-bread' I do not immediately think, "savory," or "onions," or even "whole wheat." I think "bananas-butter-zucchini-sweet-sweet-sweet." I should know better. I should think fun and exciting things like "candied ginger and chocolate" or "persimmon oat spice." I should then think of savory possibilities as well, like "cheddar and green peppers," "cottage cheese and dill," or

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-21250704067801374622010-06-15T10:45:00.000-07:002010-06-16T10:50:07.266-07:00

...the Chocolate Cream Pie.I think I might be addicted to crumb crusts. They're just kind of fun and homey. They are the polar opposite of puff pastry. They are unassuming, simple to make, require only a little forethought, and they can utilize a strange range of 'crumb' sources. Think leftovers, dessert-style. Did you make too many cookies (ok, does that ever happen?), make a crumb crust.

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-25490461815814319722010-06-13T14:32:00.000-07:002010-06-14T10:14:38.138-07:00

Yesterday I turned 28, and it was lovely. I am usually indifferent to numbers, but this year I am delighted! The number 28 is very sophisticated and integrated, and because now I am officially 28, I think the year has much good potential.Stick with me here. The number eight is a contouring, continuous line. It crosses over, loops, meets its end to its beginning. It is the symbol for infinity

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-42114631238002177342010-06-03T08:54:00.001-07:002010-06-10T10:14:26.640-07:00

I first encountered the loquat on a study tour in Palestine. Our lunches consisted of pita bread, canned meat and mayonnaise, peanut butter and jelly (true gelatinous jelly--strawberry or grape), canned green olives, and a plethora of these fuzzy little fruits I learned were loquats. Usually I was so hungry this lunch fare did not bother me too much. In fact, I liked the mayo-meat and the pitas.

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-70718567256602080752010-05-31T16:16:00.000-07:002010-06-08T14:40:12.092-07:00

My little family and I went a pickin' last weekend! And as you can see, it was a lovely (if windy) day for it.I had been shocked to find fruit that morning at the farmers' market. I have been so out-of-sorts with the weather, it could be July or January and I wouldn't know the difference. I am used to seeing a lot of rhubarb and English peas before anything else. I haven't. I am used to

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-90157213764071433822010-05-26T14:03:00.000-07:002010-05-27T15:42:47.016-07:00

My father keeps calling them cookies."They're Scottish Oat Cakes," I say.He says, "They just need a little salt."I try to explain: the Scottish Oat Cakes I know are dry, bland, little else but oats. In texture, they are strangely reminiscent of particleboard. Flavor-wise, again, they are just plain oaty.He likes them he says.This is another one of those dry, partially edible biscuits I discovered

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-1018373822455097892010-05-22T08:36:00.001-07:002010-05-24T18:06:46.237-07:00

A few days ago I told my beloved that I had been researching Red Velvet Cake. He listened as I talked about it for a few minutes, and when I was done, he rather timidly suggested I think about making something healthy.I was only mildly indignant. i make healthy food! However, I had just finished looking over my new (and might I add, exciting) Recipe Index, and had realized I have been a little

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-47144754122752583472010-05-17T15:07:00.001-07:002010-08-29T16:18:43.952-07:00

This weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. My brother got married! He and his darling had many festivities that I participated in, all lovely, and for the bridal shower, I got to bake!I am tired now, the lull after the great stormy excitement, but I had so much fun (mostly cooking), that I am still coming down off the high. Saturday morning I woke up at 4:30 am without an alarm thinking, I better

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-2860942342832462010-05-10T10:19:00.000-07:002010-05-17T15:05:29.176-07:00

It was like a dream: a coconut-topped, marzipan encased chocolate cake that was somehow not too sweet. My sister's Mother's Day Cake haunts me like a fuzzy-edged dream, like a memory so beautiful you can't tell if it's too good to have ever happened.But it did happen! My sister baked my mother and I a cake last weekend. Many sisters and daughters and husbands and sons can do that, but my Dear

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-59760376613894551962010-05-04T10:30:00.000-07:002010-06-04T17:08:23.323-07:00

This morning: Almond-Blueberry Coffeecake. Sigh. I think she is beautiful.I made it this morning in honor of my dear friend visiting from Southern California. I love visitors, not only because I usually like the people themselves, quite a bit really, but also because I get a thrill out of playing hostess. Especially with mornings. Dinners usually intimidate me. We've been over this before. I

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-68468888632618892662010-04-29T12:51:00.000-07:002010-04-29T15:22:46.417-07:00

Today is not the full moon. Today is bright and sunny and would totally be the kind of day I would actually remember to be out to see such and sight. But instead, yesterday was the day and night of April's Grass Moon. And I completely forgot.This saddens me deeply. I have these visions of me celebrating full moon every month with friends and family. I see us feasting a little, celebrating the

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-53992577323062816852010-04-26T15:08:00.001-07:002010-04-26T15:08:58.176-07:00

It is spring. Spring means cream.I did not know why cream comes in the spring and summer until way way too late. A fresh abundance of green grasses gives cows what they need to get the sweet, fat-rich milk that signifies spring. Ah, I wish I had such an obstacle right now: farm-fresh milk to use, plan ahead for, and enjoy.See the smudge there at the top left in the jar...that is some renegade

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-79392267121323267722010-04-20T08:15:00.000-07:002010-04-21T12:47:19.975-07:00

For the last couple of years, when people have asked what it is I want for the future, I answer with a smile, "I want to have a cow."This reply is usually received with a smile back and a laugh maybe, if I am lucky. And then, there is the pause, to which I insist, "No, really, I want a cow."What I really mean is, I want the kind of life you have to have to have a cow. I want to be rested enough

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-83903453260003952622010-04-18T14:18:00.000-07:002010-04-20T07:38:13.348-07:00

Let me explain.One of my first jobs was in the bakery department of Nugget Market, a local grocery store that has been family owned since 1926. My life in food truly began in earnest there, for in that job, I was making a choice to work and pursue the world of food, the world of cake decorating and baking especially, regardless of pay, regardless of the strange sweet smell I always seemed to reek

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-72143688582176505372010-04-16T15:46:00.000-07:002010-04-21T20:28:10.681-07:00

I look forward to asparagus season for most of the year. I love their sweet, stringy flesh, that they are one of the first new veggies to eat of the year, and that they seem special even when prepared simply. But the reason I really, really like them? They take three years to grow your own (to establish the root system before you hack their little heads off every subsequent spring), so they

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-42764325281349740992010-03-22T14:19:00.000-07:002010-04-01T11:03:25.827-07:00

Mine is the one on the right.I have fallen down a very nice rabbit hole, The Weston A. Price Foundation rabbit hole. The hole seems to lead back to all I had hoped for my life as a teen: whole food, whole good (tasting) fat, cheese, homemade everything, and maybe some long, flowing hair too.I've been sprouting grains, exploring resources for truly raw nuts, and gathering the nerve to pay the

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-42894569570080123732010-03-11T11:02:00.000-08:002010-03-24T06:14:51.606-07:00

It has been a long time. Please forgive the pause on those lovely, blasted bananas.I have been cooking a lot actually (soups, salads, these incredible bean brownies), but I've been projecting and whining: no one wants to eat my funky food. No one wants to eat my good food. Standstill. Standoff. What does one make when no one wants to eat?The answer came in a roundabout way. I spent one morning a

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-39441708175017616772010-02-28T07:43:00.000-08:002010-03-01T18:52:23.379-08:00

I cleaned out the freezer a couple days ago and discovered a hefty stash of frozen bananas. Now, normally I might chuck them in the back of the freezer again for later use, alongside the cranberries. But that would defeat the purpose of cleaning out the freezer. So in a moment of strength and inspiration, I put those six bananas in a bowl to thaw and got out three of my trustiest cookbooks to

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-79709539151345398022010-02-24T13:10:00.000-08:002010-02-28T07:41:15.838-08:00

It is Full Crow Moon today. It is Crow because around this time the crows begin their cawing in earnest.In Vancouver, the first sign of spring (that I noticed) was the crows begin to call. Here, the doves are a little more prominent, and I awake to the soft hoo-hoo hooing from their timid and strawberry blong bodies. I once mistook their call for a far-off owl, but now I know better.I paid a

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-18414633091124655582010-02-23T07:58:00.000-08:002010-02-23T16:54:19.730-08:00

If you haven't been following, my last post, Brown Sugar Banana Tart did not originally have a recipe because I did not like the tart I made. The night after I made it though, I went out to the kitchen to get some water before bed and what did I find?--my dear mother enjoying a little piece of the second banana tart. Her eyes were wide, like I had caught her with a treasure chest, and after a

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-52805899205407950432010-02-18T10:03:00.000-08:002010-02-23T16:34:10.801-08:00

I love bananas. I love how aromatic they are, how very tropical and warm even when they aren't really warm. A while back though, I swore off bananas in the name of local eating. It was one of those things from far away I just couldn't justify. I had to have coffee. Sugar can be gotten closer to home. With good storage, there was local fruit available to me year round without the need to buy

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-19149858748740988532010-02-18T07:11:00.000-08:002010-02-18T20:06:22.348-08:00

When I have a house, I usually keep a bag or container in the freezer and shove in there all my carrot ends, onion clippings, and (almost) any other veggie or fruit scrap that is clean and healthy. This means I have a fairly regular supply of stock-making materials. If am diligent and don't eat too much soup in the summer months, I can make enough stock ahead of time to get a solid head start on

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-35562149286706508042010-02-15T15:06:00.001-08:002010-08-04T05:57:43.886-07:00

My beloved and I and our child have been sick again. I must now be feeling better because I woke up at 4 this morning and decided to stay up.I had been plotting all last week, attempting to find the most fabulously fabulous way to use a vanilla bean I have in my possession. But then I got sick. It must have been vanilla bean stress, because I have been pretty wound about them. They should be

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-58545171711315832822010-02-09T11:24:00.000-08:002010-04-27T05:38:42.065-07:00

I've spent the last four days with friends in the country--calling for owls, making a few new whole wheat recipes, playing canasta, making goat cheese, and remembering what incredible changes some of our friends are making in their lives.Our friends out in Millville Plains have three kids under the age of five. They have two sheep that are lambing as we speak (three lambs already born! That mama

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-78824379030064569272010-02-02T15:02:00.000-08:002010-02-03T10:57:53.744-08:00

I have been reading Annie Dillard's The Writing Life again, and have come to the conclusion that, as I am still in my twenties, I should give in to this impulse to be fanatic.The kind of fanaticism I am talking about is what got my thesis done. It is what got me through my pregnancy healthfully. It is what, in high school, let me stay up till 3am every other day and paint a lot. It is the kind of

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-68661606010653367132010-02-01T17:07:00.001-08:002010-02-01T21:31:08.980-08:00

Yes, you read right, and that is no typo--Butter-Beer Soup.My mom left the house today asking if I was going to make bean soup, and if I was, could I make cornbread too. Bean soup usually means mixed bean soup, usually with tomatoes, usually the kind of soup in which, as a kid, I would put extra catchup and honey at the dinner table. It is a comforting soup. And though I have yet to give you a

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-74677676198994859512010-01-31T06:59:00.000-08:002010-01-31T09:35:04.986-08:00

Saturday there was the full moon. Wolf Moon. It rained all night, but sometime late (or early) most of those clouds dispersed and out shone the perigee moon, the largest-looking moon of the whole year. And I saw it.I went outside, breathed, and looked for the moon. To the west there were clouds lit from behind, but there was no moon. Ten minutes later I walked outside again, and there she was--

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-51064612734784020462010-01-27T08:05:00.001-08:002010-01-28T15:54:49.390-08:00

I used to be the kind of girl to get up early every day. I used to go to bed by 9pm and get a full, totally uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep and get up at before dawn. I would go running, take a shower, drink coffee, eat breakfast and have some quiet, reflective time before I had to go to work or school.For the most part, I now sleep until whenever Mr. Baby wakes me up and I am lucky if I drink a

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-50751282787736241882010-01-26T10:07:00.000-08:002010-01-27T07:14:43.601-08:00

I have spent a lot of time making a lot of soup. In 2007 I was in charge of my school's Soup Tuesdays. Soup Tuesday was started by the college's food-loving and community-minded professor/couple Loren and Mary-Ruth Wilkinson.In the beginning, Loren and Mary-Ruth would make a huge pot (or pots) of soup at home, then bring it to the school for lunch on Tuesdays. The idea was to make a reason for

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-41180634932027928802010-01-23T12:47:00.000-08:002010-01-24T10:21:25.590-08:00

Yesterday was a full day. It was gorgeous. The sky started sunny and open, with a lovely rim of dark, smooth clouds. I was originally going to get up and go running, get some sunlight and oxygen and move a little.Instead, my mother-in-law and K's Grampa Hawkins asked if I wanted to go orange picking. Gladly.It has been raining this last week, so the ground is sufficiently muddy, and there is

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-18235032863219305222010-01-22T20:35:00.000-08:002010-01-23T09:51:28.741-08:00

It is the weekend. The weekend needs cake. I made this one.It's a buttery cake with a course crumb and a topping that lets the lemony goodness melt into the butter flavor. It is a good Friday night cake, or a Wednesday night cake--easy to make and not overly decadent, just sweet, simple, and good.In my humble opinion, any opportunity to use my tangerine-rimmed milk glass cake plate is fine with

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-81396713064820265652010-01-21T21:45:00.000-08:002010-01-22T09:04:12.937-08:00

I like greens.I like kale especially, because it is the one plant my beloved and I could get to produce anything of value in our Vancouver garden. We had two kale plants in our little front yard plot, teetering between the tomatoes and the peas. They looked kind of awful and spindly, but they lived and they kept putting out their tender kale leaves all through the winter. They even survived a

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-71546037702830365352010-01-19T18:02:00.000-08:002010-01-19T18:09:41.205-08:00

There are a few cake recipes that show up often around my family gatherings. There was the pineapple upside-down cake for my uncle's birthday, the Mocha Almond cake for my own, the bunny cake for Easter (chocolate cake rectangle with two cake rounds cut into the shape of a face with ears, and bunny hind legs, jelly bean eyes and licorice whiskers, egg white icing and coconut for fur), and for my

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-63379184014237213182010-01-17T17:25:00.000-08:002010-01-19T09:17:36.865-08:00

Last week my mother came home with a little brown box of leftover pudding. She had ordered it from a restaurant in Sacramento's Midtown called the Magpie Cafe, and I got to eat the rest! It was a straightforward pudding doused in a healthy ooze of warm persimmon caramel sauce. Memory ignited.The first time I encountered bread pudding was when my Nana made it with hard sauce. By the time I had

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-44474737065639688052010-01-16T14:24:00.000-08:002010-01-17T09:42:50.250-08:00

When I first moved to Vancouver, I was horrified by the cookie section of the grocery store. I was still rather addicted to Pepperridge Farms cookies that managed a soft, chewy texture, even though they were not kitchen fresh. My first visits to the cookie isle were marked with disgust: biscuits! Dry, crusty, barely sweet, barely edible biscuits!I have since converted. This world needs

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-79380104723044827752010-01-15T14:11:00.000-08:002010-01-15T21:17:24.268-08:00

This post is not exactly about food. This post is more the enchanted side of the enchanted fig. Where does enchantment come from?Tonight I saw two Barn Owls ouside, flying around and chirping at eachother. Mating, or matching, I'm guessing.This is my street, one mile out of town, in March. It is enchanted. If you have not read Annie Dillard yet, you must get in your car. Please, drive quickly

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-5953785992208230352010-01-14T22:30:00.000-08:002010-01-14T22:33:33.017-08:00

Just now I realized I like most to cook when I am supposed to be doing something else, like showering. I just finished stretching after a run, I go into the kitchen and from the random dairy paraphernalia I left on the counter, I begin to cook.I have the luxury at the moment of sharing food with four other people, two of which have a repertoire of food suspects fairly other than my own. One

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-19393623921116140372010-01-13T19:16:00.000-08:002010-01-13T22:11:41.990-08:00

No matter how much I like to think I am adventuresome, whimsical, and not pinned in too much by utility, in reality, I like the practical. It is intensely satisfying for me to make lentils with greens, or risotto with corn and tomatoes just because that is what's in the fridge.I tend toward a full pantry and refrigerator for this reason. I thrive on utility. I think its romantic. What can I say

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-72794470497289773632010-01-12T16:34:00.000-08:002010-01-13T22:12:21.834-08:00

In Vancouver there is a fabulous cafe called Rhizome near to where I used to live. They have good food and a bar and you can book them as a venue for poetry readings and family dance nights. I love this cafe. They serve a lentil soup there, and when you order it, they point to a box on the counter and explain the procedure: this is a donations only soup--pay what you can, pay what you think

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-76857938361301567872010-01-11T07:19:00.000-08:002010-01-28T10:55:09.737-08:00

Morning, before the battle began:Today, I am to make a Beef Wellington dinner. I have made steak once. I have used hamburger many times. I have never baked anything beefy.We'll see how this goes. The menu is as follows:Appetizer-whipped blue cheese bruchetta topped with a stewed fig and a drizzle of port wine syrupMain Plate-Beef Wellington with foie gras and duxelle, roasted carrots and parsnips

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-14255589070366555472010-01-10T20:31:00.000-08:002010-01-12T00:21:21.067-08:00

I have had a bit of a cold for a few days now, but I must be feeling better. I woke up this morning and made this bit of leek and eggs from The Wednesday Chef (who got it from Camino restaurant) for my extended family.It is smothered in a couple of tablespoons of cream and baked in the oven. Why does that delight me so? Eggs unbeaten, in all their sunny-faced glory, baked in the oven. Yes, I

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-50878710866074772122010-01-09T16:10:00.000-08:002010-01-10T09:22:47.754-08:00

I have made contact with the local food-loving world. Hallelujah. Amen. My favorite grocery in town, Nugget Market, was tonight's need-to-get-out-of-the-house-and-see-something-good destination. I met a delightful lad of my generation at the cheese counter who helped me understand the taste nuances of a few blues...some calm and creamy, some salty, some punchy-pungent. I usually try to avoid

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-75212795626691974892010-01-08T19:07:00.001-08:002010-01-10T13:08:29.610-08:00

The world can rest, today I found my book boxes.I can rest, I found my world of books. I am very attached to my books. I read and reread the same poetry and cookbooks, and as I found today, I read and reread (make and remake) many of the same recipes. It is like reading a comforting note from an old friend, like reading Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. It does not matter who wrote the recipe

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-7545374585293686722010-01-06T09:27:00.000-08:002010-01-06T22:36:51.007-08:00

Wednesday is a day for musing. The slog of Monday is gone, the weekend is enticingly in sight, and the middle, the in between, the thick waist of the week is now the present.According to my nifty new magnetic poetry calendar, all of January is for musing:"The year starts when the days are shorter and the temperatures are cold, a time well suitedto hibernation and sleep. In poetic terms, it's a

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-60674084867545736032010-01-05T09:06:00.000-08:002010-01-09T13:37:11.514-08:00

A couple of days ago, there was that bad day. I missed Vancouver. I missed the natural foods store in walking distance. I missed my friends, my yellow kitchen, my teacups now packed in some box. I missed things like not having to say hello to passersby when feeling introverted--silly things like having to share a laundry room, and the odd smell of toast around my neighborhood (never could

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-34600347125093364912010-01-04T19:39:00.000-08:002010-05-18T10:49:35.691-07:00

Cooking for my husband and I has never been difficult. If I cook, he eats it. And as long as I don't give him a plate of cooked mushrooms, or a a fatty slab of tongue, he's pretty game to try anything. But I am not only cooking for him now. We are currently living in my parents' house. Until we get jobs, or go crazy. That means that cooking just got difficult. K and I usually eat vegetarian while

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-65762057256512337612010-01-03T11:07:00.000-08:002010-01-17T10:18:46.230-08:00

I usually get excited when I wake up on some winter morning to find the trees pleasantly fuzzed into looking like a living Monet. The world feels more approachable in the fog. It is more quiet, the hard edges of buildings are softened, the sunlight diffused and unintrusive, and the mist of it makes pretty little droplets on my eyelashes when I walk. Fog is, in my humble opinion, just lovely.Today

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4687570621760197148.post-64766878430997190432010-01-02T13:57:00.000-08:002010-01-02T13:58:30.256-08:00

Good day. That is how I hope to start this new blog. This whole new life. Three weeks ago I boarded an airplane from Vancouver, British Columbia with my five month old son, my mother-in-law, a few bags, and a Thomas Haas double-baked almond croissant. I know now I should have followed my intuition and packed my favorite books (the Mary Oliver poetry, the Moosewood cookbooks, Supper of the

Amanda Hawkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01129569502505404614noreply@blogger.com0