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A perfect cup of coffee.

For the past month — since returning from my Arctic cruise — I’ve been on a quest to brew the perfect cup of coffee. Too often, my coffee tastes like muddy water. I know that coffee can taste great because I sometimes get great-tasting coffee when I buy it elsewhere. But my own coffee has …

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Serving Suggestion

Courtesy of the local Fred Meyer produce department, here’s the world’s most hilarious “serving suggestion”: a serving suggestion for bananas. There you have it. In case you weren’t aware of it before, you can use bananas in a fruit salad. Or — believe it or not — you can “simply eat fresh for a natural …

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Temptation and Permission

I’ve struggled with my diet over the past six weeks. Part of this is because I’ve intentionally tried to move from “weight-loss” mode to “stasis” mode. Finding balance has been more difficult than I anticipated. But most of the problem has come from the constant temptations around the house. First, there was the holiday season, …

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Junk Food: A Character Flaw

I have no self-control. This is the fundamental reason that for so long I was fat, in debt, and unable to do anything productive. Instead of doing what I ought to do, I always chose what I wanted to do. These rarely overlapped. When I decided it was time for me to get out of …

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Kris and I had lunch with my cousin Nick today. He wanted to take us to Sushi Kata, a Japanese place in a strip mall not far from our house. But Sushi Kata isn’t open on Sunday, so we scrambled for a replacement. “Let’s go to Ohana,” I said. “I eat there all the time.” …

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Vanilla Extract Recipes

This post is from Kris. It’s part of the Christmas package we’re giving to friends this year. Tahitian Vanilla Beans are prized for their traditional vanilla flavor and are perfect for pastries and other sweet treats. These beans that Santa has brought you are from Papua New Guinea, and the resulting extract is smooth and …

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Black Rock Lodge from along the Macal River Alas, Friday saw the end of our time in Belize. We spent a quiet morning reading and watching birds. We wrote in our journals. We ate breakfast and lunch, savoring our last meals from the lodge’s excellent kitchen. The food at Black Rock Lodge deserves a special …

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Food Rules

Tonight I read Michael Pollan’s latest book, Food Rules which is a short list of 64 guidelines for eating right. These are based on the findings in his last book, In Defense of Food, the thesis of which was: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Pollan’s food rules build on these three main points …

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Clam Chowder Season

Autumn here, and that means clam chowder weather. I made my first batch of the season tonight. It seems especially good, so I’m setting down the modifications I made to my base recipe. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to replicate this batch again in the future.

Autumn here, and that means clam chowder weather. I made my first batch of the season tonight. It seems especially good, so I’m setting down the modifications I made to my base recipe. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to replicate this batch again in the future.

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Behind the Scenes with Buying Food

As with all of these old insructional films (I’ve watched dozens over the past couple of months), I love Buying Food in oh so many ways. I love the cheesiness and the earnestness. But I love it for non-ironic reasons, too. I love the glimpse into the past, I love the writing (it does a great job of distilling ideas into a short segment), and I love a lot of the individual frames. Here are some of my favorites.

As with all of these old insructional films (I’ve watched dozens over the past couple of months), I love Buying Food in oh so many ways. I love the cheesiness and the earnestness. But I love it for non-ironic reasons, too. I love the glimpse into the past, I love the writing (it does a great job of distilling ideas into a short segment), and I love a lot of the individual frames. Here are some of my favorites.

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