CSA = Crazy-Sexy Agriculture
Fri 30 Dec 2022 - Filed under: Not a Journal., cooking, LCRW, Nicole Kimberling| Posted by: Gavin
Just added LCRW Cooking Columnist Nicole Kimberling’s fifth column for LCRW which was originally published in LCRW 31:
I think whoever invented the idea of paying a local farmer for a whole season of vegetables in advance, must have been some sort of subversive genius. . . .
[read on]
Crazy-Sexy Agriculture = CSA
Thu 29 Dec 2022 - Filed under: Free Stuff to Read, cooking, LCRW 31, Nicole Kimberling| Posted by: Gavin
This is LCRW Cooking Columnist Nicole Kimberling’s fifth column for LCRW and was originally published in LCRW 31.
I think whoever invented the idea of paying a local farmer for a whole season of vegetables in advance, must have been some sort of subversive genius.
The weekly delivery of the CSA (community supported agriculture) box flies in the face of modern thinking about choice—which is that you should have it, always. Contemporary cooks are accustomed to asking the question, “What would I like to make?” and then expecting to be able to go and realize their dreams of out-of-season produce from far-flung lands at any major supermarket. The CSA puts food in front of you and says, “This is dinner. Make the most of it.” Read more
Ten Feet Tall and Bulletproof at the Potluck
Tue 15 Dec 2020 - Filed under: Free Stuff to Read, cooking, LCRW 30, Nicole Kimberling| Posted by: Gavin
This is LCRW Cooking Columnist Nicole Kimberling’s fourth column for LCRW and was originally published in LCRW 30. (It’s a different world, the past.)
If in your lifetime you ever make any friends, join any organizations, or have any children, chances are you will be required to attend a potluck. Part minefield, part gladiatorial arena, this bring-a-dish event is a place where home cooks test their recipes against the heartless democracy of fellow eaters. At the end of the meal, you do not want the leaden and congealed uneaten casserole that you brought sitting there as evidence of your culinary failure.
But if this has happened to you, console yourself—not all shunned offerings are the result of bad cooking. Even chefs fail when they forget to consider where they are and what they are supposed to be doing. Here are some guidelines that may help.
How to Seduce a Vegetarian
Wed 25 Jul 2018 - Filed under: Free Stuff to Read, cooking, LCRW 29, Nicole Kimberling| Posted by: Gavin
This is LCRW Cooking Columnist Nicole Kimberling’s third column for LCRW and was originally published in LCRW 29. Check out the first, Sending All Your Love—In the Form of Brownies Through the Mail, and the second, Feeding Strays.
Step One: Find Likely Candidate
In years past, finding a vegetarian to seduce was more difficult than it is today. Back when vegetarianism existed mainly as a symptom of some sort of religion, a VILF-hunter could go weeks, even years, without making contact with a likely target.
Fortunately, today things are different. Now, even straight men can be found abstaining from plate-loads of surf, turf and sky. So pick a non-meat eater that you like the look of and invite him or her to hang out sometime, like at a park or something. Choose a venue that allows you to bring your own food. This is key because to claim the love of vegetarians you must prove that you can, and will, feed them.
With vegetarians so varied and bountiful, one would think that ensnaring one for a night, or perhaps even a lifetime of passion would be easy.
This is not so.
For the vegetarian is, by nature, likely to be choosy and have what we in the world of professional cooking call, “standards.” You might have to try a few different leads before one takes the bait. In this case the bait will be a cold sandwich, which you will prepare and then present to your vegetarian, proving that you have the goods to make him or her happy.
Feeding Strays
Tue 19 Jul 2016 - Filed under: Free Stuff to Read, cooking, LCRW 28, Nicole Kimberling| Posted by: Gavin
This is LCRW Cooking Columnist Nicole Kimberling’s second column for LCRW and was originally published in LCRW 28. Read the first column here.
By the time most people reach their thirties, they will perceive the obligation to occasionally provide nourishment to at least one child. Perhaps this child is your own. Or maybe it is the child of a friend who is in the hospital producing an additional child. Or the child could turn out be some neighborhood stray who guilelessly shows up on the porch at lunchtime every Sunday clutching a well-worn fork.
I do not pretend to know how to feed little children. Insofar as I’ve observed they exist entirely on ketchup, macaroni and cheese and meat. My experience lies in feeding the vacuum-mouthed, black hole of caloric consumption commonly called the adolescent.
Many cooks staring into the yawning, lightless chasm of the fourteen-year-old mouth will simply buckle under the pressure and call out for pizza. And I don’t blame them. It’s hard to look into that limitless void of hunger and not feel so inadequate to the task at hand that professional assistance is required. I offer a different, cheaper, healthier solution: Beans & Rice.
Sending All Your Love—In the Form of Brownies Through the Mail
Tue 20 Oct 2015 - Filed under: Free Stuff to Read, cooking, LCRW 27, Nicole Kimberling| Posted by: Gavin
This column is the first Nicole Kimberling wrote for us and was originally published in LCRW 27. As new issues come out we will keep adding columns and at some point there will be enough for a book!
Equipment: cupcake tin & baking liners, waxed paper, plastic wrap, rigid shipping container, packing material, packing tape, pen, a piece of cardboard big enough for ten cupcake-sized brownies to sit on, oven, timing device, mixing bowl, measuring cups and spoons, cooling rack, a little cash, hands, and at least some love to spare for another.
Time: Approximately three hours total, plus travel time. Actual labor time: 30 minutes.
Step Zero: Read whole recipe. Read more