March 2013
1 post
an egg-scuse for an egg-regious absence
It is time to regroup, folks. Be Coolinary is taking a brief hiatus to make some essential changes to the blog and web design in order to ramp up and be far more coolinary for years to come. In the meantime, eat food, drink drinks, and be cool.
December 2012
1 post
November 2012
3 posts
i haven't been ignoring you, i've just been busy...
It’s true. It has been a while since I have posted anything here. Fifteen days in fact. I think that might be a new record. My sincerest apologies to my three readers. The truth is that I have just been too busy eating…
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It all started when I realized I needed to cook the last pumpkin I still had laying around from my Halloween pumpkin excursion. And after eating plenty of...
if an awkward fifth grader can make pasta...
It’s funny what you might find rummaging through your childhood bedroom…
In addition to a drawer full of troll dolls, you might find a funny photo or two. I am guessing this gem is from the mid-1990s. My braces, CYO basketball sweatshirt, and horrible haircut suggest my pal Jenny (left) and I are in the midst of some truly awkward adolescent times. I am going to say we are in fifth...
mexicomida
I went to Mexico last week! My pal Jen got married in Tulum so clearly I had to attend and celebrate her nuptials. I was traveling with other awesome Seattle friends and we had a great time swimming, exploring Mayan ruins, trying to speak Spanish without sounding like a bunch of gringos, and most importantly: eating. So. Much. Eating. We ate tacos, sopes, quesadillas, tortas, aqua frescas,...
October 2012
3 posts
it's pumpkininny!
Last week my roommate and I went on a fall excursion to Arata Pumpkin Farm and Bob’s Pumpkin Patch in Half Moon Bay.
We rented a Zipcar and drove 50 minutes out of town, through the thick Pacifica fog to apprehend a few pumpkins to carve whilst sipping apple cider and watching Twin Peaks on Netflix.
It was a successful mission as we both arrived home, our arms tired and full of fall...
i guess i like these apples
Yesterday I came to a disappointing realization: it’s the middle of apple season and I no longer live in Washington State. Just when I thought I had finally become one of them, I upped and moved south to The Golden State. All is not lost however as California certainly has its own apple harvest, I just feel way less special eating California apples. Somethings—like Nirvana and Frasier—are...
be coolinary food news, aka real news
I know there was a presidential debate tonight and the Oakland A’s won the AL West Championship a few hours ago, but let’s get to some real news shall we?
I knew Trader Joe’s was too good to be true. TJ’s recalls their own brand of peanut butter.
Attention friends in Kentucky! Don’t go to this restaurant!
Attention baby-stroller-havers in Berlin! You can’t go...
September 2012
4 posts
fall is here! cavities await!
Sad news everyone: summer is over and as of Saturday fall has officially begun. I am at peace with this bittersweet transition as along with tomatoes, swimming, and blueberries, I also adore crisp mornings, leaves changing, and, most importantly, all the food and flavors that compliment the fall season. Of course there are the obvious perks like Halloween candy and Thanksgiving dinner, as well as...
look mom and dad! i am eating oats and fruit!
What do you get when you combine the last of the season’s nectarines,
with some equally as seasonally-waning raspberries,
and some old-fashioned rolled oats?
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Well, the crispiest and most crisp-tastic raspberry nectarine crisp, of course! Now that the last days of summer are upon us, it seemed only appropriate to spend these final moments basking in all her sunny glory,...
it gave me a lickin', all that chicken...
Since moving to San Francisco, I have started contributing little bits here and there to the SF Weekly’s food blog called SFoodie. It has been fun, slightly lucrative, and a really cool way for me to get to know this completely food-crazed city. I have been so enthusiastic about contributing to SFoodie that recently my editor let me know that if I wanted, I could pitch a “Top Ten...
what i learned today
I just finished watching El Bulli: Cooking in Progress, you know, the documentary about Ferran Adria and his fantastically famous restaurant in Spain, El Bulli. While the movie was entertaining, it wasn’t very informative in that there were no interviews, many images and conversations were left unexplained, and as far as chef-based documentaries are concerned, it has a ways to go to be as...
August 2012
6 posts
be coolinary news
Good morning friends! Let me distract you from your desk job with some most entertaining food news:
I knew it! Even aliens have sweet teeth! Sugar has been found in SPACE!
I’ll see you at da club! Oh wait, I mean Applebees. Oh good, they are the same now.
I’m with Chipotle on this one: I hate pennies too.
But I was really looking forward to eating at San Francisco’s hottest...
dutch baby, baby!
Has it been a while since you have had something warm from the oven for breakfast? Do you have some eggs, half and half, and flour in your kitchen? Do you have an oven? Do you like eating yummy things with your baby (your literal or figurative baby) while you sip coffee and browse your Instagram feed from the night before? If you answered yes to any of these questions then, boy, do I have the...
candy flavor horoscope!
My idols over at The Stranger have created a Candy Flavor Horoscope and now I am mostly illegally posting it on my blog for you all to see (print publications can’t afford lawyers these days, right?). I have decided it is 100% accurate based solely on the fact that my mother is a black licorice lover and fed me microwaved apples as “dessert” when I was a child. Enjoy!
happy birthday julia!
Today marks what would have been Julia Child’s 100th birthday! And it seems quite obvious that to celebrate her legacy we should all treat ourselves to some delicious French food, preferably something whipped up from one of her cookbooks. I went ahead and made two of her trademark dishes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking: vichyssoise and boeuf bourguignon.
So pop open your...
i like cookin'
There is a store down the street from my apartment that I recently discovered. I have walked by it approximately 600 billion times but had never checked it out until last Friday. It’s called Cookin’ and it’s a used kitchenware shop owned by a peculiar, although spectacular, woman named Judith Kaminsky.
In operation for over 25 years, she clearly is doing something right but...
if i were an artist...
perhaps my stuff would look like this…
(Thanks Devin!)
it's a vegetable dish
Right now in the Bay Area, according to people that don’t live in a small SF apartment and therefore have a garden (a.k.a. not me), we are in prime zucchini harvesting time. And, also according to those same garden-havers, after a few weeks of this plentiful harvest, it’s quite possible that they just might be sick and tired of eating zucchini. There are only so many meals of roasted...
July 2012
3 posts
gifts from the south
Just the other day, I received some gifts from a far away land. My friend Christopher is in graduate school all the way down in Alabama and was nice enough to endow our new kitchen in San Francisco with some Southern culinary secrets.
White Lily Flour: Apparently, this is the flour widely known in the South for making their one-of-a-kind biscuits. Any southern Grandma worth her bridge mix...
my first new friend in sf
I have been living in California for almost exactly one month now and I just met my first friend. My new boss, sir Josey Baker, introduced me to her yesterday afternoon and I am so excited to introduce you all to her today. She is unobtrusive, polite, cooperative, and pungent, like a good friend ought to be. Ladies and gentleman, my newest pal is some San Francisco sourdough starter:
I am...
June 2012
7 posts
i may not have my own kitchen yet,
but at least I have this:
My brand new, 4.5 quart, flame orange Le Creuset Dutch oven arrived today and it sure is pretty. And the best part about it is that it only cost me $80 (normally they are $240). I had inherited a blue version of this pot somewhere in my many moves during college and although it was in fact a Le Creuset, it had been damaged at some point in its long life and the black...
somethings never change—err, get thrown away
So we made it. We left Seattle and are currently residing at my Dad’s house in California. Getting down here was a long and stressful journey—and is far from over seeing as how we still don’t have a place to live in San Francisco yet—but after tasting the white corn, tomatoes, and stone fruit here, I might not be able to live anywhere else. California is a fruit and veggie lovers...
what i will miss eating in seattle: day five
Oh Cafe Besalu, I will miss you too.
You are the best bakery in the Pacific Northwest and I sincerely admire you. I will miss your buttery ginger biscuits, your glistening danishes, and your absolutely perfect croissants. I will miss your savory quiches, apple turnovers, and the free homemade jam that comes with your brioche. Your laminated pastries are like none I have had before and I...
what i will miss drinking in seattle: day four
Analog Coffee, I will miss you.
It feels like we just met, but I am afraid I have to say goodbye. I will miss your beautiful windows, your hand-built bar, and your warm wooden counters. I will miss your tasty pour-over, your perfectly pulled espresso, and your Rachel’s Ginger Beer on tap. I will miss you not only because you are the best coffee shop in the city, but also because you are...
what i will miss eating in seattle: day three
Paseo Caribbean Roast sandwich, you complete me.
I will miss you and all your ridiculous deliciousness. I will miss your succulent roast pork shoulder, your creamy aioli, your pungent pickled jalapeños, your sweet caramelized onions, and your weirdly warm—but still totally delicious—romaine lettuce. I will miss eagerly anticipating your arrival, how my stomach can’t help but excitedly...
what i will miss eating in seattle: day two
I will miss you Marination Station.
You are the Hawaiian Korean taco truck turned actual restaurant of my dreams. I will miss eating lunch with you, next to a UPS store, surrounded by concrete in a weird shopping center. I will miss your aloha sliders, your kimchi quesadillas, your kalbi beef tacos, your spam musubi, and the seriously friendly vibes at the register. I will miss knowing that...
what i will miss eating in seattle: day one
Goodbye Sichuanese Cuisine.
I will miss your misspelled menu. I will miss your dusty walls. I will miss your sticky table tops, mostly clean teapots, and friendly service. I will miss your salt and pepper chicken, your green onion pancake, your hot beef chow mein, your Chinese you cai. You are a civic treasure and I will miss you dearly. Let’s stay in touch, okay?
May 2012
6 posts
be coolinary cameo in witch gardens video!
I have some exciting news! A few months ago I helped my pals Bobby and Kyle make a music video for a local Seattle band Witch Gardens and it is all finished! My job was to contribute a few Hook-inspired food stuffs and a birthday cake for two separate scenes.
The video premiered on Vice today which is very exciting, but I also embedded it in this post just for you. Check it out!
Read more to...
upside-down cake messenger
You guys! This past weekend Seattle saw it’s first 80°F day of the year! That is, like, hot for us! I took full advantage of another sunny weekend by putting off working on moving out of my studio, dusting off my favorite pair of spandex shorts, and making it my personal goal to get on my bike and find the Mountains to Sound bike path that goes over the I-90 floating bridge and into Mercer...
be coolinary cookbook club: better late than never
A long time ago, when I first started this blog, I began what I called the Be Coolinary Cookbook Club. I was not only president of this club, but also its only member. As such, it was my goal and duty to mock and ridicule bizarre cookbooks I acquired from the sticky bins of second-hand stores and perhaps even feature a presumably less-than-stellar recipe from said less-than-stellar cookbooks. The...
remembering my food memory
So, in case you haven’t heard, I am moving to California next month. I put in my notice at work, I gave my landlord written confirmation I will be out of my studio by the 31st, and I have started collecting moving boxes. It is happening. For the past few weeks, I have started the long process of going through my belongings, deciding which things are worthy to make the trip with me and which...
just braid some bread already, will ya?
So I braided some bread again recently and it was a blast. Well, it wasn’t really bread, technically it was Danish pastry, but that is sort of like bread except totally different. Danish is like bread in that it contains yeast and flour, but it is different in that it contains a significant amount of butter, requires more patience, attention to detail, and knowledge on how to fold a...
April 2012
5 posts
if you care
This morning, as I was half asleep making my daily cup of coffee, I happened to take a closer look at my box of coffee filters…
I hadn’t really noticed it before but it appeared that I had purchased the most passive aggressive brand of coffee filters in the world. If I care? Of course I care you jerks! I am glad to know that my coffee filters are made from “Forest Stewardship...
sunny sunday shortcake
Holy Moly! It was a 70° sunny Sunday in Seattle yesterday! I even got a bit of a sunburn on my pasty white flesh! This is quite atypical around these parts, but, hey, we’ll take it. To take full advantage of Sunday’s splendidly sunny afternoon, I went to the first neighborhood farmers market of the season to stock up on goodies to cook at the first splendidly sunny Sunday barbecue of...
happy birthday brooke!
Hey everybody! It’s my oldest sister’s birthday today! To celebrate this momentous occasion, I thought I would share with you all what I would have bought her, or anyone of equal awesomeness, had I 1) been more organized, 2) had copious amounts of disposable income, and 3) been a more generous and giving human being. Unfortunately for Brooke— and the rest of you—I am/have none of those...
WatchIt’s shaping up to be a nice day outside so I can’t bring myself to be on my computer longer than it takes to post this funny video. From SNL, I bring you not pizza exactly, but almost pizza!
if the fda asks, i rub these tonka beans under my...
So, yes, it has been a while. I am not ignoring you and I promise I have not forgotten all the time we have spent together. But I have no doubt been distracted by some pretty significant happenings around here, the most important and commanding being that I am moving to California in June. In case you were wondering why, the most compelling reason looks like this:
The other reasons are less...
March 2012
7 posts
why didn't i think of this...
…because I would be a millionaire!
celebrating the swiss on st. patrick's day
Last weekend, like any American mutt, I celebrated my questionable Irish heritage by eating and drinking too much on St. Patrick’s Day. This year, instead of drinking green milk and boiling meat according to a recipe that doubles as kitchen kitsch, I made a cake inspired by Irish libations but filled with buttercream of Swiss origins. Specifically, we are talking a Guinness chocolate cake...
powell's city of (awesome, vintage, cook) books
As I mentioned here, I was recently in Portland again, this time only for the day, just visiting some old pals. On the three hour train ride, I happened to make my way through all of Gordon Ramsay’s Roasting In Hell’s Kitchen, a mostly forgettable autobiography of Britain’s beloved and berating chef. So upon my arrival to PDX I became giddy at the thought of getting to purchase...
my favorite food
is this:
It comes from Paseo and it is called the Cuban roast sandwich. I have an unhealthy obsession with it. Toasted baguette, marinated and slow roasted pork shoulder, aioli, cilantro, pickled jalapeños, romaine, and caramelized onions. It is so unearthly delicious that sometimes, when I am eating it, I can’t believe that I am eating it. The taste can’t possibly be real it is...
portlandia rules and so do their biscuits and...
Did you know that I like the show Portlandia? Did you know that Portland is only a three hour drive from Seattle? Did you know that I have already referenced Portlandia twice on this blog (here and here) and now I am doing it again? I was in Portland recently and am going back this weekend so I thought I would take this opportunity to tout its awesomeness to you all. While I was there the last...
toast, eggs and toast, a sugar cookie, toast,...
What one suffering from the flu might eat in a day should they be too sick/defeated/tired/irritable to go grocery shopping…
February 2012
5 posts
two things:
1) Next time you need a cake perhaps you should consider something by Scott Hove, like this:
And 2) if you like burgers with a “pinkish-yellow tinge,” it’s almost your lucky day.
addicted to painkillers mon
So try not to get too mad at me but I just returned home from a spectacular tropical vacation in the Virgin Islands.
My pal moved there in September so like a typical sodden and pale Pacific Northwestner, I absconded to her Caribbean abode for a short break from the rain. We snorkeled and sunbathed and I managed to escape a sunburn until the very last day. However, the burn was certainly...
to the farm!
Can you believe that spring is just 41 days away? In 41 days, not only will it officially no longer be winter, but I will officially expect it to be nicer outside than it most likely will be. The days will get longer, people in Seattle will wear sunglasses at every possible opportunity, and I will rejoice at the sign of edible things growing out of the ground again. The kale, apples, and potatoes...
cookie collaboration!
It appears that I am in some kind of psychedelic cookie phase of my life. I realize this is the third time I have made similarly colorful cookies and then told you about them (remember this? and these?), so my apologies for presenting you with repeat material. However, in my defense, I am not sure that there is such a thing as too many cookies. Especially ones that channel a kaleidoscopic energy...
