Sweet Things
Pine Nut Ice Cream
Pine nuts from America's Great Basin are among the best in the world. Combine them with some desert wildflower honey I bought in Arizona and you have one spectacular ice cream.
Foraging
Eating Santa’s Shroom
Amanita muscaria can be a hallucinatory mushroom, a possible symbol of Santa and his flying reindeer. But it also can be eaten safely, if you do it right. So I decided to take a Christmas trip down the rabbit hole...
Recipe
Porcini Risotto
There's nothing quite like a porcini hunt. The mushrooms are huge, meaty and can go for $30 a pound or more, so finding them is like striking gold. And boy did we find them last weekend!
Foraging
Sichuan Stir Fry Puffballs
Puffballs are basically the tofu of the mushroom world, so I normally avoid them. But when I found lots of little puffballs recently, I decided to make Sichuan ma po tofu, only with puffballs instead of tofu!
Sweet Things
Black Walnut Ice Cream
Black walnut season has started, and my favorite thing to do with these hard-to-crack nuts is make ice cream. My version gives you a double-dip of black walnut flavor.
Recipe
Grouse, Solitude and Solace
I hunted grouse in Minnesota last weekend, but did not shoot one. That's OK, because what I really needed in the Northwoods was quiet - and to escape the world within the comforts of cooking.
Recipe
Acorn Spรคtzle
It's fall, and that means acorns are dropping everywhere. If you are adventurous to make your own acorn flour, what then do you do with it? Lots of things, but my favorite use for acorn flour is this spaetzle recipe.
Recipe
New England Mushroom Bonanza
My family never hunted mushrooms when I grew up. But after an epic mushrooming trip on Cape Ann yesterday, they may well become mycophiles in a hurry.
How-To (DIY stuff)
Homemade Hot Sauce
I've been making my own hot sauces for years, but none have been as good as this sauce I made with wild chiltepin chiles from southern Arizona.
Berries and Fruits
How to Make Elderberry Syrup
It's elderberry season, and making elderberry syrup is the first thing I do once the berries turn ripe every year. After all these years running this blog, I thought I'd finally write down the recipe.
Recipe
How to Make Verjus
Verjus, or verjuice, is the juice of unripe grapes. It is a classic French alternative to vinegar, and it is pretty easy to make. Here's how.
Foraging
Cooking Blue Camas
Blue Camas, camassia quamash, has been a staple of the Northwest Indians for centuries, but few modern cooks have experimented with this edible bulb. Here are the results of my experiments.
