Tassajara Zen Mountain Center is the famed mountain retreat of the San Francisco Zen Center. SF Zen center was founded by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in the 60s. It is a vibrant Zen community (sangha) that has been instrumental in bringing Zen to the West and has served as an important crucible in the inevitable forging...

(Sandor cutting cabbage) It is always inspiring to meet people who are passionate about food. Sandor (Sandorkraut) Ellix Katz, author of Wild Fermentation and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, spoke at BU’s “The Future of Food: Transatlantic Perspectives” conference and I snagged a front row seat. Sandor was there a bit early (along with...

(Amazing Wakame Salad) . Time has really gotten away from me these past weeks so this post is just too long in the coming! . Back on March 16th I visited the International Boston Seafood Show (3rd year in a row!) and was fortunate to be able to attend an evening of meeting the fantastic people representing the Japanese...

Click over to this page “Fage” to find a recipe for my fantastic “Fage Yogurt Avocado Buttermilk salad dressing” made from this fantastic yogurt. Learn about how you can win a free case of Fage greek yogurt at my Fage page! FAGE (pronounced “fah-yeh”) is 100% natural Greek yogurt, free of additives, preservatives, and...

See what this does for your taste buds – Smoked Scallops, Smoked Cheddar Bourbon Soup, and artisanal smoked pancetta, all brought together as part of a larger smoked, bourbon tasting menu. Yeah, my tastebuds almost fainted, I almost fainted, my family was inarticulate as they simply scarfed their share of our samples. Brian Treitman, of BT’s Smokehouse,...

Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: Recipes from a Modern Kitchen Garden Eating homegrown food is not only good for you and your bank account but it can be fantastically tasty and quite photogenic. I recently received a review copy of “Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: Recipes from a Modern Kitchen Garden” by Jeanne Kelley (published in April...

(Bisquick pancakes with maple syrup) I promise, this pancake jag will come to an end. These were just too fantastic to pass up shooting tho. I call this the Apotheosis of Pancakes because these pancakes are worthy of worship and awe. This morning my oldest daughter decided to make her own pancakes. For these she used Bisquick and...

I think you would need to be returning from a 50 year roundtrip to Mars to not know that whole grains are superior to processed grains. We all must have gotten the news by now that our bodies experience measurable benefits from eating whole grains and NOT eating processed, depleted...

This book of 288 pages filled with inviting photography and information-rich chapters is an excellent source of inspiration for all of us, not just the "House Beautiful" types. You can pick and choose the details that you feel comfortable with, its really all in the little touches, the details that tell your family and guests that you have been...

[This post first aired on the Paper Palate blog, a member of the Well Fed Network] [I have included a small glossary of terms at the bottom of this post for some of the words that we may have heard a 100 times but never really took the time to look up.] I recently had the pleasure...