Serenity & Spice

The last few years have been tough. It doesn’t seem like this pandemic is ever going to really end and personal setbacks have me questioning my purpose. As with all traumatic breakups, I’ve been experiencing triumphant highs and extreme lows this year. Even my cat is tired of my shit.  This is the first time in seven years I will be single during the holidays. I’ve been searching for a movie to fit my current situation, but all I can find are cheesy Hallmark rom-coms. Can’t there be a movie about a cynical but quirky food blogger that likes beer and says “fuck” at least five times a day having a magical Christmas on her own?  I need to do things that are nourishing for my soul. Go out on the town. Support local businesses. Spend time with the friends that have stuck around. Maybe make some new ones. The holidays are not about presents or having someone to snuggle up with. Maybe next year, there will be a workaholic businessman with whom I can get into yuletide shenanigans. Thi...

I remember years ago, one cloudy afternoon when my dad decided to take me to Vino’s Pizza and Brewery not too long after my 21st birthday. He ordered two beer samplers and then proceeded to go through each one with me. My dad had been a BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) Judge for years and he took this as the perfect opportunity to teach me about beer styles.  It was probably January or February of 2006, and I had recently returned from my first tour in Iraq. Growing up, he had given me tidbits but never gave me an actual class before. To him, a beer tasting was a rite of passage for me. Ken Haycook was determined that his daughter would go out into the world knowing how to drink beer. In honor of Father’s Day, I made I Love You, Dad Pizza . I made pizza crust with 6 Bridges Cream Ale from Vino’s. A few months back, I did a beer and cookie pairing but wasn’t able to include Vino’s in the mix. Given this memory, I felt it deserved something a little more special.  My d...

There was a time when the world thought eating alone was good for your mental and emotional well being. It gave you a break from constantly interacting with other people. You didn’t feel like you had to smooze or make conversation.  You could just enjoy your food. I have eaten alone roughly 700 times this year, give or take, and most of those meals were filled with stress and crushing isolation.  At any moment, I could lose my job, my apartment, my boyfriend, and I almost did. That’s why, for the last post of the year, I wanted to make something delicious.  Shrimp Fra Diavolo is quite possibly one of my favorite dishes.  Spicy tomato sauce with succulent shrimp on a bed of linguine, or any variation thereof, makes my tummy happy. I used the recipe from Chili Pepper Madness . As spicy red peppers are hard to find this time of year, I used a teaspoon of Italian Bomba Hot Pepper Sauce from Trader Joe’s.  A little goes a long way, but so worth it. Who else thought ...

In my last post, I talked about taking pressure off yourself to save your own sanity during the holidays.  It just occurred to me that I may be a bit of a hypocrite as this time, I have probably created the most involved and expensive baking project to date. I present to you traditional mincemeat pies .  Why do I use the word traditional, you ask? Since the Crusades, mince pies have actually included meat until being phased out of the recipe during the Victorian era. The modern version without meat remains a Christmas staple in the United Kingdom. The reason they didn’t quite get the same iconic seasonal status here in the United States is because we were colonized by Puritans who hated Christmas and anything fun. The first step in this three-step process was making candied citrus peel .  Some of the ingredients for the pies were hard to come by, and as no grocery store here carried these, I followed the suggestion in the recipe to make your own. Each step is simple but r...