The Outraged Eater

Caramelized Onion Creamy Potato Soup – Or, “Why Doesn’t Everyone Use Leftovers Like This?”

We celebrated my mother-in-law’s birthday last night with a soup and bread buffet. Yes, my anxiety-baking has now turned into a habit, and it’s really great to have fresh bread on the table with every meal. This is definitely not on the “No Excuses November” body satisfaction plan. But I digress. I made two soups,…

Comfort Food: Pumpkin Fondue

My No Excuses November “Conscious eating” column has no check marks so far, because I think like many people, I’m answering my anxiety and sadness with food. For Halloween I made this terrific Food52 recipe for “fondue” in a pumpkin. It looked even cooler in real life than these pictures, and tasted just as good.…

Hoping and Baking

So it’s about 6:30 a.m. on Election Day and I just fussed with my bread. Yesterday I put together Mark Bittman’s No Knead Dough which takes 18 hours to rise, thinking this would be a welcome distraction on a day where I could really use a welcome distraction. I also made about 12 lists, updated…

Sunday Night Comfort Pasta

You might notice a trend by now: Carbs are comfort in my family. Whether it’s biscuits for breakfast or five pounds of potatoes for four people, I rely heavily on carbs. I’m not good with tears. I offer carbs. Leaving aside the merits of this, or the long-term viability for my waistline, I proffer this…

Gratitude – An American Celebrates Canadian Thanksgiving

This weekend we had two friends in town, they’re COVID nomads and for seven months have been hunkering down with family in near isolation. They’re giving up on Washington for a while, and making a go of life in Richmond instead. But they came to visit for a few days, and it was wonderful. Sarah…

Apple Muffins

I have something to admit. I bought a bushel of apples. This is the most annoying influencer/millennial thing I’ve done all year — overbought seasonal produce to the point I have to complain about it and serve said produce in weird ways. In my defense, I did not pick a bushel of apples whilst wearing…

Perfect Shredded Chicken

Do you have things that you know you shouldn’t need a recipe for, but every time you start to make it, you look up the recipe? Like “perfect egg” or “effortless baked potato?” I know I do. Is Google the reason my brain just refuses to keep this sort of information at the forefront anymore? This…

Things You Learn When Building A House

You are stronger than you think. People tell others this when they hear about a cancer diagnosis, or when they start back to school virtually with four kids and a job and mediocre wifi. People don’t tell people embarking on a major home construction project this, because at some point the DIY-ers made a decision…

Dust of All Stripes – Or, Building A House

Demolition dust, concrete dust, wood dust, drywall dust, fine wood dust, painting dust, tile dust, grout dust – bags of it! – dirt dust, soil dust, stone dust, marble dust in your closet, paint dust, and at the end of it, even more dust. This is the story of building a house. It is not…

Today, I Want to Be My Dog

I looked at Cappie this morning and thought, “I want to be you.” Then I burst into tears, because of the absurdity of that thought. But I felt it, genuinely. I don’t know why this is so hard or why I feel like an asparagus rubberband stretched around the Twin Towers, but I’m ready to…