your goose is probably only half-baked at this point

I have a VIVID childhood memory of stopping somewhere between my grandparents' home in West Virginia and my home in Ohio to eat lunch at a Burger King that had a wall painted dark blue with stars and moons on it and a white quarter-fed pony ride indoors, near that wall.  I don't know if it's real or if I dreamt it, but I suspect the former because I also  have a distinct memory of eating a burger there that was burnt and dry and just really not all that great, and you'd not think that would feature in a dream about a magical Burger King.  Or at least I wouldn't. Anyway, that's kind of where I feel my relationship to burgers started, and started going downhill.  I'm just not really a fan of the things, for all that I get a bee in my bonnet every few years and decide I want to make them.  I've posted turkey burgers , blue cheese turkey burgers , and chickpea burgers over the last decade, and where the latter two in that list are legitimately good, they...

Several days before our 12-year wedding anniversary, my partner texted me: "I want to make food." I looked at that and my first thought was, "Who doesn't?" because cooking is one of my all-time favorite past-times.  But then my rational brain caught up and reminded me that my dear partner will cook only if he's about to drop dead from starvation because cooking just isn't his thing, so I lifted an eyebrow at my phone and responded with:  "What food do you want to make?" I got a picture in answer and lifted the other eyebrow up to meet its mate.  My not-cooking partner wanted to make cheesy meringue nests cradling a gooey egg yolk?  Yes f*cking please ! So that was awesome enough on its own, but then our anniversary showed up and I got to watch him sweat through making these things (perfectly, by the way) and get a deep, personal appreciation for the feat of getting all the pieces of a complex, skill-heavy meal done at the same time so ...

Today is Memorial Day, and also my partner's and my 12-year wedding anniversary.  It's also 50* and drizzling outside because apparently the great state of Massachusetts likes giving the unholy middle finger to anyone who wants to have a cook-out on a holiday in late May, how dare you even think that's a doable thing. My partner made me some amazing Bespin Eggs for brunch, and of course that put enough calories into my system for me to want to go for a "quick walk" (read: 3-mile trot) afterwards, and because it's Massachusetts out there, we ended up getting well misted for the whole thing and came home cold and wet. Hot cocoa to the rescue, for that!  I made this up as I went along, and oh my stars 'n garters is it good.  Doesn't make a grand amount of cocoa, but just enough to warm body and soul. Creature Comfort Hot Cocoa Ingredients 1 2/3 cup milk 2 Tbsp unsweetened baking cocoa 2 Tbsp white sugar 1 Tbsp dark chocolate chips 2 tsp Amar...

I love pancakes, but man they do not love me back.  Probably because they're nothing but oil and sugar with a bit of processed flour, combined with an egg and fried in butter -- can't imagine  why a human stomach might look at that and say, "Uh, no.  Please and thank you no ." But hey, if you eat pancakes with a veggie-heavy smoothie, they won't kill you as much, and that's awesome because it means you get to eat pancakes, which is just how some weekend days need to go. The name comes from that scene in the original Star Wars  where Luke comes into Leia's holding cell aboard the first Death Star  and tears off his helmet, declaring in his adorably bratty way, "I'm Luke Skywalker!  I'm here to rescue you!"  It must have been humid on that set (I'm betting from the water in the trash compactor, but try not to think about that too hard) because the way his hair fluffs out all over the goddamn place as he's delivering his heroic ...