This blog post originally appeared on the Bear Pond Books’ Educators Resources Page – if you’re in the Montpelier area next Saturday, January 23rd, stop by Bear Pond Books for the workshop, it’s part of the Author-Educator series (but you don’t have to be an educator to enjoy it). January 23rd, at 11:00 am in the Children’s Room, Helen Labun kicks off the 2016 Author-Educator workshops with Cooking Experiments – a look at recent cookbooks for kids, the range of topics classes […]

Categories: Miscellaneous

It’s the official publication date for Discovering Flavor (which you can order from Bear Pond Books at this link. . . you can order it from a certain other online retailer too). If you order the book now, you can receive it, read it, and start to play around with the food ideas it contains well before Halloween. Since many of the flavor examples involve candy and other junk food, getting this research phase completed before Halloween is a good idea. Because we (I) are […]

Categories: Miscellaneous

Here it is – DISCOVERING FLAVOR out and about in the world, at the 99: The Press table at the AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) conference in Minneapolis. DISCOVERING FLAVOR is an introduction to food appreciation for the average eater. It takes a commonsense approach to explaining flavor using everyday foods, like coffee, bacon, and pie. The leap from understanding your favorite cookies to understanding why some people are euphoric about high end Champagne is not as great […]

Categories: Miscellaneous

Lawrence and I recently hosted a Oaxacan dinner because (and this should be obvious) we got our hands on a large container of dehydrated grasshoppers – or Chapulines. Having a big batch, seasoned to be super tart and salty, meant we could add them to dishes at will (or not, as was the case for most of our guests). You know how in some southeast Asian cuisines chopped up peanuts taste good on everything? Well. Salty, crunchy, tangy, protein-y grasshoppers […]

Categories: Miscellaneous

We all have weird things that we enjoy, and a minority of other people enjoy, and most people think is gross. I mush corn Chex into Cream of Wheat. I drink Orleans Bitters (which is, as the name implies, bitters) straight not as a mixer. It’s bitter. I like raw bread dough (and realize that eating a bunch of it would make me sick, so I don’t) and I like unsweetened baking chocolate. It’s tempting, and fundamentally correct, to look […]

Categories: Miscellaneous