When you're in the upper midwest (or the Great Lakes states as I affectionately refer to them as), the most communal part of the culture is potlucks. I stumbled upon this recipe, which has become the top of the list for me to bring to a potluck, when I was eating at a restaurant in Minnesota that I'd never been to. "Our frier is broken" said the waitress, who let us know the sides are very different than other restaurants. My choice that day was an elote corn dish. It was

What is becoming embarassing to admit, I have never been to the alps. I have wanted to go for as long as I can remember. It has become the kind of wanting that shapes what I paint and what I read and, it turns out, what I cook. I have not yet stood in a high valley or sat down in a chalet at the end of a long day on a trail. So for now I do the next best thing, which is to make the food from the place I'm still longing for. Kaiserschmarrn has become a weekend routine for my

I have always loved to cook, but the skills and the honing of the craft to feel comfortable in what you're serving takes a lot of time. My minestrone recipe was the first time I felt like I had achieved the level of confidence in my cooking ability to allow myself to be given the label of a "good cook." Being a cook for me is not the primary label I identify with, creatively I'm an artist and a writer. But the throughline, and where my passions come together is in the way f