“Relax, don’t worry, have a home brew” advises Charlie Papazian, writer of The Complete Joy of Home Brewing.  After weeks of talking a big game about how we were for sure going to be brewing our own beer we finally made the trek out to the middle-of-nowhere MD to pick up some supplies.  We were [...]

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Jon and I spent much of Halloween brainstorming ideas and tracking down the excellent candy bits for our Halloween cupcakes.  We’ve made cupcakes like this almost every year since… maybe 2004?  Right after we started dating.  Anyway, we ran out of bone sprinkles a year or so ago and kind of lost steam.  This year, [...]

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I don’t like pickles.  For some reason I lump them together with blue cheese and really “good” brie as things that taste like rot.  This is absurd and I know it– I’m just really, really sensitive to bitter things.  Jon is always amazed when I complain about things that are too bitter.  Anyway, only 6 [...]

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I can’t believe I forgot to share this with you– it’s our favorite summer dinner: cabbage salad from Orangette’s book (which I’ve posted about before); bean salad from my mother’s recipe (below); bread, butter, and turnips and; maybe, if we’re feeling fancy (and especially hungry) cream cheese and smoked salmon (or maybe brie or some [...]

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A few weeks ago I listened to Louis Fresco’s TEDtalk on “Feeding the Whole World.”  By the way, if you don’t listen to the TED podcast please subscribe to it now).  I’ve been thinking about it ever since and have more than once used it as part of an argument on behalf of responsible corporate [...]

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As if we needed more evidence that I am an 85-year old lady: my new electric kettle makes me unbelievably happy.  I’ll freely admit that it is probably more electric kettle than I really need– I mean it isn’t like I can actually taste the difference in my 212 degree made coffee and 200 degree [...]

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Wow, Bashfully Designed is one year old today… Hard to believe that in the last year I’ve put up 170 posts (better than I thought I’d to, if we’re being honest) and shared 40 poems.  I’ve also started to face up to a few of my creativity fears (ahem failure ahem), and to at least [...]

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It might not be the world’s most beautiful garden, but I’m hoping we get enough herbs from it to justify the $20 I had to spend getting it all ready.  I’ve planted basil in the long rectangular pot, some cilantro in the circular pot next to it, and a radish plant in that pot on [...]

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Isn’t it delightful when you find a recipe that is your new comfort food?  Something that, once you taste it, you think, “my G-d, why haven’t I been eating this since birth?!”  I suspect that Orangette’s book is going to make me say this a lot.  Last Wednesday I made her (um, her husband’s) cabbage [...]

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“Just Eggs” from Nick Wheeler’s Flickr stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.
For too long egg salad has been relegated to the world of “Things Your Grandmother Ate.”  I do not understand this, eggs are full of protein, cheap (oh-so important in this economy), near impossible to mess up too badly, and reasonably healthy (if you [...]

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