Full Gastronomic Tilt

**stole a friend’s computer long enough to type this**
There are nine ten different kinds of vinegar in my pantry.
Ten.
White distilled vinegar (For egg poaching, general cleaning, etc.)
Apple cider (A go-to acid for most dishes.)
Red wine (Another go-to - but different from apple cider. Truth.)
Balsamic (Unique and earthy - good in tomato sauces.)
White Balsamic (I was [...]

One night, it came up that I had never attempted homemade sushi.
“Really?” asked my friend. “It’s so easy. I’ll teach you. The trickiest part is making the rolls, but that comes with practice.”
I was skeptical about the easy part. Many Japanese dishes have a short ingredient list but a long list of steps, as the [...]

News broke last week that a fixture of the Asheville fine dining scene, Savoy’s, is closing on January 31st, another casualty of the recession. But this time there’s a twist. Instead of simply shutting the doors and moving to greener pastures (a la Sugo and Damien Cavicchi), restauranteur Eric Scheffer is holding on to the [...]

As entertaining as it is to read all of the Best of 2009 lists, I didn’t really feel up to the task of creating one. Then Sara Mead’s post over at the IFA inspired me. Brief, reflective, perfect.
I started this blog in 2009, which I still feel was a crazy thing to do. But it [...]

Sometimes you need to reflect and look back. Living in the moment, it can be too easy to forget or downplay your achievements. Our successes spur us onward, offering up the necessary encouragement to keep going.
Let’s face it - task completion is awesome. Who hasn’t, at some point in time, written something on their to-do [...]

Sometimes I do things the hard way. My friends and family will attest to this. A great example: it took me 45 minutes and 6 dirty dishes to make a half-cup of pesto. Normally, this is a 5 or 10 minute job AND you end up with about a cup of pesto. But no. I [...]

At first, back when I thought it was going to be a 10-day hiatus or so, I resolved not to mention my absence from the blogosphere. Then it stretched into a month, then two. Now it’s August. Right.
I’m here. It has been ungodly hot and I’ve been living off of raw vegetables, stone fruits, [...]

June is drawing to a close, and in its wake is an exhausted and frazzled, yet strangely happy me. A month of change, of newness, June has presented many opportunities and challenges and left me feeling like I can leap tall buildings and solve a Rubik’s Cube blindfolded. Though I haven’t had the time to [...]

I have returned from the glorious Pacific Northwest, where everyone was quick to remind me that it does, in fact, rain 9 months out of the year. I was fortunate to have perfect weather and no travel snags the entire trip. (Don’t you love when that happens?) I experienced so much and have many stories [...]

This guest post is courtesy of the fantastic and talented Rachel Edidin.  Many thanks, Rachel! ~L
Food allergies make cooking a challenge–all the more so if you’re dealing with more than one.  It’s not too hard to find information on cooking without nuts, or eggs, or wheat, or dairy, but for anyone who’s allergic to [...]