Latest Posts


  • Don’t give up! Korean Salmon Bowl

    There is always that time when we just don’t know what it is we are going to make for dinner. Add this to a theme week and that is culinary paralysis. It is Wednesday. Liam and Haylie are coming for dinner. In my mind I saw us all sitting around the table, with a Korean… Continue reading

  • Mandu: Let’s make some dumplings!

     In the last 12 years, I could not count how many thousands of dumplings I have made. These are mostly my take on the typical Chinese dumpling. The ones I usually make are famous for, homemade wrappers, home-ground pork butt, an incredible amount of bok choy, Napa cabbage, spinach, and scallion. Seasoned in fresh ginger,… Continue reading

  • Japchae happens

     Sometimes a course change can happen on a dime. A reality other than the one we planned on seemingly hangs from a fine thread. The storm that brought it upon us leads us to determine that the thread is made of the strongest of materials. It becomes what we are made of. Today’s star is… Continue reading

  • Jayuk Dubap across time

     I have made a lot of Kimchi over the last decade. Often over five pounds at a time, like a person with a healthy Korean diet would. But I have not made it a regular part of my diet and I have to say, I do not know why. The brunch (sorry Tony Bourdain- he… Continue reading

  • The storm is coming – I will understand it

     I have seen it in my father, late at night on a mission to cook things in ways that we or others may never have thought of before. I have seen it in my sons, the call to create something they can see and taste in their minds that they just have to plate into… Continue reading

  • Out of focus

     Mel Robbins has been known to say that if others could hear how we talk to ourselves in our heads, we would be institutionalized. To try to argue that statement would be an act of deception. No matter our age we seem to always virtually beat ourselves over the head with the stick known best… Continue reading

  • 1985: Chapter 2 – No one said it would be easy

     Winter in South Texas is a breed of its own. The island contracted down to its residents and stayed there for quite a while. There was the “Winter Texan”- the nice term for “snowbird”. These were retired folks from Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma who would come to the island to winter in a warmer climate. … Continue reading

  • 1985: Chapter One – I’m Ready

     After spending December 31st with MTV and myself, 1985 was here. I did not have any plans at this point.  I did know a couple of things though, Brooke and Grandma were flying down for a visit next month, which is why we moved to a bigger place back in September.  I also knew that… Continue reading

  • Boomtown falls

     It is a revelation to me when I find recreation. It has been eluding me, fading in the months and years of the ride I have been on.  Somewhere along the road in my life, I saw every moment as a chance to prepare for something. Something was coming, and the only way to gain… Continue reading

  • Dear Heather – It’s Nineteen Hundred Eighty Five

     I was sitting down at my laptop with a cup of coffee just like I do so many mornings. The bitter February wind breathes hard just outside the kitchen window. I went to sleep last night, listening to songs from the summer of 1985. Being so associative, this is nothing short of a time machine… Continue reading