I know, I know, Minnesota, you’re tired of hearing about how crappy the weather has been. So I won’t dwell on the fact that today, May 4th, the opening day of the 2013 Midtown Farmers Market season, didn’t exactly present us with “farmers market weather.” 35° and rainy isn’t unbearable but it doesn’t make you […]

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and it’s true. After all, why bother copying something you don’t like? Take pizza. There are the classics: margherita, marinara, pepperoni — everyone can make these. But when a pizzeria comes up with a truly novel and interesting combination of toppings, what can one do but […]

It started with an innocent question, fueled perhaps by a too strong Blue Moon cocktail: “Can you put lemon slices on a pizza?” I thought immediately of chicken piccata, a dish notable for including whole lemon slices — rind and all, in the sauce. If it works over pasta, it should work on pizza too. […]

The word ‘oatmeal’ technically just refers to dried oats — be they steel-cut, rolled or quick — or a porridge made thereof. Long habit and family tradition, though, conjure up a whole dish for me: oats cooked soft, mixed with raisins and milk and generously sprinkled with brown sugar — you know you’ve got enough when […]

A specter is haunting Minneapolis: the specter of per-half-pound cheese pricing. There you are, innocently perusing the fancy cheeses, thinking to yourself, “Alas! These cheeses entice me so, but I could never afford them!” But then you pick one up and glance furtively at the unit price, and lo! $10! The kids might have to […]

The best thing about your father-in-law building a wood-burning oven in his backyard is the amazing pizza you can bake: its pillowy crust dotted with pinpoints of char, the right balance of chewy, soft and crisp.  The worst thing about baking in a wood-fired oven? All the other pizzas you’ve ever made seem horrible in […]

Just a few weeks ago it seemed like the farmers markets would never open, and now here we are already two weekends into the season at the Midtown Farmers Market. And what a season we are having! May farmers market shopping in Minnesota in any normal year is an affair for the die-hards, an exercise […]

Is it still not farmers market season yet? It feels like it’s been warm enough for a month now — with the occasional frost thrown in for variety — but our market still won’t be open for weeks. To help manage the market jones — or, I guess, to make it much worse — Martha […]

I didn’t set out to veganize Cook’s Illustrated’s ‘Sichuan Stir-Fried Pork in Garlic Sauce’ — it just sort of happened. It’s not that I have anything against vegans, and if you are vegan and ever come to our house for dinner I would enjoy the challenge of preparing a strictly plant-based meal. Personally though, I’ve […]

The most striking feature of Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield is the wetland that sits at its center. Even in winter — if you want to call this winter — when the pond is iced over and almost everything is dead, it brings a certain thrill of being an explorer or a pirate to […]