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Simple steamed vegetables are one of the reasons I love eating in Japan. I mean, let's be honest, I probably like steamed vegetables more than most, but I enjoy them exponentially more in Japan. Somehow, many of the things I love about traveling there are summed up in this simple preparation. I'd often receive a sampling of seasonal produce as part of a combination lunch, the vegetables arrivi
I went to a lunch in Oakland a few weeks back. It was one of those special lunches that passes all too quickly - a warm April afternoon, a stretch of tables pushed together under a booming canopy of white flowers, good company, Lillet blanc, and some of my favorite cooks arriving with something to share, family-style. It was a celebration of Deborah Madison's new book, and after all these year
The other day I posted a quick snapshot of my lunch on instagram (if you're there, I'm @heidijswanson). It was a soup I make quite often this time of year - with little riffs or tweaks each time. A few of you emailed me on the side asking for specifics, so I thought I'd share it here today. The gist is this - simmer a good amount of grated ginger and shallots in coconut milk, add the brightest
If my count is correct, this is the second favorites list of the year. There was one in January, and now this. I kept ferreting away links, and never got around to organizing them. Apologies. My hope is that perhaps what I lack in frequency is somehow made up for here in quality. Enjoy the links, and I'll be back early next week with a recipe for what has become my favorite, go-to, springtime
I made birthday cake for myself this year. Or maybe I should say cakes, plural. I made one small cake, and a pair of tiny cakes. When they were cooled and frosted I lined a plate with parchment paper, placed the cakes on top, then pushed them into the back of my car before slamming the trunk. We skipped town for Los Angeles, and took a leisurely two days to get there. We did things like look f
Sometimes I open the refrigerator, the star's align, angels sing, and I end up with something off-beat and special. No special trip to the store, and no over-thinking ingredient or flavor combinations. I like putting ingredients together in ways I've never tried before, and sometimes having limited choices is exactly the nudge I need in that direction. I think that's what happened here. I made
I've been straining yogurt, aka making labneh, quite a lot lately. It started when I received a package from Jaipur, India. The package was cloth-covered and hand-stitched at the seams. My address in massive black penmanship. It may have been the most intriguing package I've received via post, and was sent by my friend Melissa, who (some of you might remember) I met after sitting down for lunc
I'm excited to share a new cookbook list today. This one is from the lovely and talented Louisa Shafia. Louisa and I share a publisher, and although she (primarily) lives in Brooklyn, she and I also share a common interest in natural ingredients, farmers' markets, and beautiful food. She wrote Lucid Food a few years back (which I know many of you have), and she has a new book on the horizon -
This was the scene on my counter at 7a.m. the morning we flew from San Francisco to Tokyo. Lunchbox ready, suitcases by the door. If you've been a reader for a while, you know, I don't love long flights. After six or seven hours I tend to get bad headaches and the headaches eventually make me queasy. I've found a few things do help though - packing good meals, drinking water every single time
I'm just home from Japan - thanks to an efficient series of buses, trains, planes, and one fabulously upholstered ferry. The trip started in Tokyo, then on to Kyoto, eventually making our way to the incredibly special island of Naoshima. While I get unpacked and settled back in to my regular routine, I thought I'd do a quick round-up of a few of my favorite soups from the archives, the ones th
The other morning I found myself gushing to this guy about some muffins I baked. Josey is my neighbor (ladies, don't hate), and he's super inspiring - fully geeked out on all things flour, seed, and grain. As a side note, when I get him to show me how to make his Dark Mountain Rye Bread, you'll be the first to know. I see Josey around a lot, and sometimes we chat about what we're baking. So, t
Za'atar is a wonderfully tangy, herb-forward Middle Eastern spice blend. Do you know it? I'm sure a bunch of you do. It's the sort of ingredient that tends to make an appearance in my kitchen this time of year. Right now it sits on my counter next to essentials like sea salt and olive oil, and I suspect it will be there a while. I find za'atar a welcome counterpoint to the sweetness of deeply
Let's switch things up a bit with the favorites this time around. I'm going to put a few things out there, and I'd be incredibly thrilled if you leave a suggestion or two for me. Don't feel pressured, just throw it out there if you've come across something you were particularly excited about, Something you think I might like. Sound o.k? I'm turning the final pages of the book I'm reading, so a
The most delightful thing my oven produces is the popover. Gougères are a close second, but the popover wins for sheer drama. They're golden-crusted bready crescendos made from the simplest ingredients. Their crunchy exterior belies a billowy eggy interior that absolutely begs for a slather of butter or honey. Popovers are worth learning to make well. Which, I'll be honest, takes a bit of prac
Hi all. The past couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind on this end. I'm (happily) juggling a small handful of projects, all of which I love, but when I find myself setting a google alert for a shower - well, I'm not particularly proud of that. On the cooking front, for the time being, it means I've had to get quite fast and creative in the kitchen. I'm throwing together meals, mostly
I spend time with a lot of cookbooks. Some I like for the author's voice, or their cooking palette. Others have beautiful photography or styling. Some of my favorites capture a sense of place and time. There are a lot of good books being produced right now, and a rich range of perspectives reflected. It's great. That said, there aren't many books that completely challenge me to think about my
I took this shot at 7:05 the other morning, just before walking out the door to pack a small mountain of boxes related to our last round of QUITOKEETO. It takes quite a lot to get each package bundled safely and sent on its way, and a proper lunch break on packing days is something I look forward to. We clear the long table, throw down a few sheets of butcher paper, and put out a spread. There
I've done chocolate pudding many, many ways over the years. And it's nearly always good. But from this day forward if you come to my house for dinner, and I decide chocolate pudding might be a nice finish to the meal, this is the recipe I'll be using. It's from a whimsical, illustrated French children's cookbook published by Random House in 1966, La Patisserie est un Jeu d'Enfants, with text a
I'm hoping this breakfast sets the tone for my entire day. I love the pretty pomegranate swirls intertwined with ribbons of a Turkish black pine honey a friend gave to me. There are little puffed BBs of quinoa, toasted sunflower seeds, some bee pollen, and creamy clouds of Greek yogurt. It was a fluke, with everything just falling into place after I reached for the pomegranate juice leftover f
I don't know much about juicers, but I now own one. It's stone heavy, says professional on the label and, generally speaking, seems a bit more hardcore than I would need? My guess is it spent the last ten years on the floor of my parent's pantry. I'll start this post by telling those of you who might be new readers here, I'm a person who didn't have many kitchen appliances until recently - no
Diane Morgan got my attention with the words dried plums cut into chickpea-sized chunks. At the time, I was browsing her new book, Roots. She was referencing a carrot and chickpea salad, and I was seated in my kitchen, two feet from a cluster of ruby-hued dried pluots. They'd found their calling. It's a brilliant recipe, the sort you'll get a bunch of mileage out of, and most of the ingredient
2012 was a quirky one. It had no qualms dealing a number of wildcards - mostly, but not all, the good kind. When I was sitting here last year I certainly had no sense I would find myself in place as incredible as this, or this. I also didn't know I'd learn how to clean up after a flood, use an epi-pen, or stand on a paddle board. But there you have it. And I didn't know anything about starting
This is a drink to close out the year with - simple, strong, made for winter. It's a maple leaf cocktail (typically made with fresh lemon juice, maple syrup, and bourbon) with a few tweaks. I've been making them with whatever lemony-winter citrus is around. After starting with standard Eureka lemons, I branched out to Meyer lemons, and then onto yuzu, a varietal of Japanese citrus. Recently, I
I left everything related to Christmas to the last minute - for a lot of reasons, but mostly because this endearing little beast of a project. Christmas tree? We've been watching them spring up in the windows of neighbors for weeks. We finally went to get one. But, not joking, it was ten minutes before the lot closed for the season. They were backing up the chipper. So, for today, a favorites
Hi all - I thought I'd take a stab at a kid-friendly oatmeal cookie recipe today. Remember when Jack was tiny? Well, he's not anymore. And we cook and bake together when he comes to stay - imagine me hovering over him, pointing out hot surfaces every ten seconds. The number of times I utter the word careful is mind-numbing. He loves making Belgian waffles, blanching broccoli, and baking cookie
If a quick scan through my in-box is any indication, many of you are curious about...living with marble counter tops. The questions just keep coming, month after month, which makes me think this post is long overdue. So, let's give it a shot. After living and cooking in a very active, marble-countered kitchen, I thought I'd share some opinions, a bit of advice, and a recipe for the orzo salad
Hi all - I'm going to make this quick. Our basement flooded in the big storm last night, and although most of the things I cared about were safe on shelves, it's still a mess of soggy boxes down there. Lot's of them. It's one of those situations that gets progressively worse the longer you leave it, so guess where I'll be for the next day or two? But, I made this salad before the rain hit, and
I saw Lucy Attwater when she came through San Francisco last Fall. She was the stylist on the feature I did with Whole Living Magazine, and we've kept in touch. That night we were chatting over drinks at Fat Angel and she was telling me about a fantastic shoot she'd just come from related to True Food Kitchen. Ditte Isager was the photographer and the cookbook was related to Dr. Weil's restaur
Hi all! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I thought I'd write a quick note to let you know we're just about ready to share our holiday collection of items for QUITOKEETO. I thought a bit of a photo preview might be in order while we scramble to get things ready for a Monday morning opening. There will be a handful of new items we're incredibly excited about, a sprinkling of favorit
I thought it might be helpful if I posted a round up of Thanksgiving links - favorites from my archive, links to recipes that caught my attention out & about, and a handful of good reads. And(!) I'm hoping to be back later in the week with a preview of the holiday shop. Happy Thanksgiving all. xoxo-h A few Thanksgiving-spirited reads: - Top Contender - "My mom has a recipe on Epicurio
You might not think you need another scone recipe, but you do. And, although I would like to think that this is the sort of recipe I might come up with, I didn't. Deb did, it's brilliant, and it was the first recipe I tackled from her blockbuster new cookbook. I did a blackberry twist on her Whole Wheat Raspberry Ricotta Scones, and might never look back - these scones are golden-crusted, tend
Happy happy Friday friends. So many good favorites to share today! For those of you who need a touch of weekend inspiration, it's time to sweep them off my desktop and sprinkle them in your direction. Hope they do the trick. xo -h - "It's not a 'me' place. It's an 'us' place." - These croquettes. - Letter from India: The Haunting - Reading this | Watching this. - 75 Pariesiennes
Anytime I travel for an extended period of time, let's say longer than a couple of weeks, I end up craving certain foods from home. The craving creeps up on me like a fungus - not bad at first, but in the end, formidable. This trip it was avocado, then leafy salads, eventually dovetailing into broccoli. The greenest of the green stuff. I stocked up on the lot when I arrived home, and the salad
The provisions were scarce when we got back from India the other night - my first winter squash of the year still on the counter, brown rice in the freezer, a bit of sad looking ginger on the windowsill, random nuts and seeds in the cupboard, herbs still going strong in the planter boxes out back, and a three week old knob of butter. That was pretty much it. But I felt exhausted after getting
While I wrap up my trip to India, I have a fantastic cookbook list to share with you. It's really a good one thanks to Aran Goyoaga - who, I know, many of you are familiar with. And for those of you who aren't, Aran is many things. She is the mother of two cuties, a talented writer and photographer, and the author of this brand-new beauty of a cookbook - Small Plates and Sweet Treats. I hope y
I thought a lot about how I might pack for India. A lot. I'm excited about the adventure, and in the days before pulling my suitcase out of the closet I found myself deep inside my own head considering which cameras to bring, which dresses (just 2, maybe 3!), and what food to bring for the flight - SFO to Frankfurt to Delhi. That, my friends, is the one part of the trip I wasn't looking forwar
Hi all, I'm pretty excited about sharing this favorites list with you - my sense is it's a good one. At least I hope so - cakes, and rose petals, and pretty patterns, and people & projects that inspire. I'm also excited to share some details next week about an adventure I'm on. Hope you all have a great weekend! xo -h - Recommended Reading - Dream House - Weeknights at The Yellow Hous
I know a lot of you are excited about Yotam Ottolenghi's new cookbook (or anything Ottolenghi, really). As am I. He was working on this, Jerusalem, with his partner Sami Tamimi when I saw him in London last year, and it is as beautifully done as I'd imagined. Both Yotam and Sami were born in Jerusalem - Sami in the Arab east side and Yotam in the Jewish west, and the book is rooted in their st
I thought it might be fun to highlight a few vintage cookbooks in the coming months. I pick them up here and there, without much rhyme or reason. There might be a design element I like, it might be the voice of the author, or sometimes a single recipe pops out at me. I typically flip through them in antique shops on road trips, at yard sales and flea markets, but I found this gem at Omnivore B
Here's one of the little secret weapons I've kept stocked in my refrigerator all summer. It's a simple tarragon oil. Actually, it's equal parts tarragon, parsley, and olive oil - but I think of it as having tarragon in the limelight. The grassy anise notes and electric color of the herbs permeate the golden olive oil, it's beautiful. I use it as a finishing oil on soups, as a component of anyt
Just a few photographs from a recent, end-of-summer trip to Lake Tahoe. There were crawdads and bats, lightening storms behind the distant mountains, crystal blue water, and bracingly cold, invigorating(!) daily swims. There was a single, endless game of Trivial Pursuit, paddle boarding, a hike to an alpine lighthouse, and a 45 minute drive to Truckee for a proper macchiato ;)....
I like to sit in the sun on the beautiful stone slab benches across from the Blue Bottle Coffee kiosk in Hayes Valley here in San Francisco. It's just a short walk from my house in an alleyway, a not-so-secret spot, slightly off the main strip. I also love to have lazy breakfasts beneath the tall ceilings, light streaking through the massive windows, in their cafe at Mint Plaza. I've known the
Before we jump into this favorites list, a quick question for you all. I'm planning a trip to India(!), specifically New Delhi and Rajasthan. If you've been (or live there), and know of spots/shops/eats that we absolutely can't miss, please please give a shout in the comments. Jodhpur, Jaipur, Agra, Udaipur...so far, all are in the cards and I'm out-of-my-mind excited. A couple of my favorite
I've been posting a sprinkling of recipes to QUITOKEETO, and this is one from a few months back. It is the prettiest dip in my repertoire, one I've been revisiting all summer, and I wanted to be sure you didn't miss it. It's a simple herbed-out yogurt base finished with dried fruit, rose petals, toasted walnuts, and a slick of the best olive oil you've got. A real show stopper. This version ha
I brought this twist on banana bread on our ill-fated camping trip. I imagined a slice of it would be perfect mid-hike, preferably somewhere near an alpine lake. We have an endless amount of toasted sesame seeds around the house (jars, bags, bins), because Wayne bakes the sesame version of the Tartine country loaf a couple times a week. I was set on the idea of banana bread for the hike, and i
We ventured out of San Francisco last week for a quick, mid-week, two-night camping trip - and this was the last thing I cooked before leaving. Five ears of corn, shaved in quick fashion, then sautéed in a bit of butter. I tricked it out with thyme, red onions, toasted almonds and coconut. And, come to think of it, that might have been the last time I ate a proper meal (kidding!). We go
Hi hi! Just a quick note before the weekend. We're aiming to open QUITOKEETO Monday morning (9:30 PST) with a few new items, and some favorites back in stock. We were able to get another shipment of the churned seashore honey, as well as an allocation of massive, 1-kilo jars of rare, raw, electric yellow springtime honey. And we'll have one of my favorite culinary staples - a beautiful, tick-s
I'm going to argue that this is a summer salad better overdressed than under. And, it's all about getting your hands on the best beans you can find. No joke, if all you can find are crap beans, make it with something better - great broccoli or even cauliflower. I go the extra mile here and slice yellow beans into bite-sized segments, but you can certainly stop at topping and tailing. The dress
Friends, my freezer is near empty. It's clean, anything remaining is labeled, and I can see every item top to bottom. It feels great. One of those small accomplishments that, for weeks, will give me a boost every time I open the door. I baked this simple tomato tarte tatin with a round of frozen pie dough (leftover from this) and some ripe market tomatoes. It's silly simple, and I keep thinkin
A favorites list - short and sweet, for the weekend. Enjoy! xo -h - Reading this, Watching this. - This soup. (via Bonni) - Off the Deep End: Balloons - Bea Feitler - Bircher Muesli with Spiced Strawberry Sauce - Dream Listing: Boutique hotel, Buenos Aires - Or, how about Belize: 4 Suites & 5 Cabanas - Wind Map - This honey - Colors of Confinement (via wb) - Co
