June 30, 2024
The weekend in review from the kitchen of Chez Stas: after a marathon day of cooking yesterday, my fridge has laid claim to
(1) a loaf of goat cheese, bacon, and olive quick bread;
(2) sauteed Maitake mushrooms; and
(3) steamed blueberry pudding.
Not pictured (because not as visually interesting): oven baked pork ribs with homemade BBQ sauce and roasted broccoli.
June 25, 2024
My essay "'I Remember..." (A Bay, Ten Acres, and an Old Farmhouse)" is out in the new issue of the Montreal-based journal The Nelligan Review!
June 23, 2024
This weekend's south of the border foodie fun chez Stas: baked chayotes rellenos (pic 1) and yellow rice with peas (pix 2-4). The color of the latter, as you can see, comes from achiote seeds, which you drop in hot oil for a minute or less until the oil turns a rich golden red color, then discard. They don't add any significant flavor, but the dish sure is purty. (NB: Not one to be bound by borders, I used edamames instead of peas because that's what there was at hand, and I threw in some corn because, well, it was at hand.) Not pictured: the main course, a turkey chili that is really tasty but not much to look at. 😋
June 8, 2024
I tabled outside the East End Co-op today for PFLAG Pittsburgh, and our timing couldn't have been better because they had raspberries on sale for $.79/half-pint [sic]. Afterwards, I nabbed a few, then asked a gal working in produce why they were so cheap, and she said she thought the buyer had ordered strawberries but received more raspberries instead. She then said she was thinking about making jam, and suddenly my Plan A, adding them to my breakfast fruit bowls, seemed woefully inadequate.
