The Bloom — food

Anybody who knows me knows I firmly believe that coffee is as essential to life as we know it as air, water, and the latest Elena Ferrante novel. It’s what my world calls a key ingredient.  But why isn’t coffee ever an actual ingredient? You know, as in something you cook with instead of just drink, happy though those occasions always are? I was wondering about this out loud with a friend of mine who’s sort of a chef and a bit of a foodie, and she set me straight—coffee can be used in the kitchen and not just in...

We don’t get much in the way of fall where I hang my own board, which is okay because it means we also don’t get much in the way of winter. But I still envy the cozy vibe that crisp days and chilly nights bring in other places. So I make soup. No, I don’t have a fire to curl up with while I sip it, but the comfort of a steaming bowl on what passes for a chilly evening in these parts is a rite of seasonal passage that, for me anyway, offers a taste of a different place...

The hunt for the healthiest possible me continues. And so far that quest is taking place at the salad bar. Because it’s farmer's market season, and salads are fresh. Salads are cheap. Salads are quick. But I gotta say… eat enough of them and salads are boring. The usual lettuce-tomato-onion-carrot-cucumber routine wilts quick. And while I know it’s about the best thing I can feed my body, my other less helpful self is screaming for something—anything—to break up the monotony. Forget dressings—that’s caloric fluff wrapped in a fat bomb. Croutons are carb cubes. And though I love those crispy little-fried...

They always said breakfast was the most important meal of the day if you want to be healthy. Then they always sat me down to a plate of food that totally wasn’t—cheese-stuffed omelets, grease-stuffed meats, butter-soaked toast, and a pile of fried potatoes the size of a Mini Cooper. You could rock that plate for sure. But I don’t think you’d win any wellness awards. A lifetime of smoothies, steel-cut oats, yogurt bowls, and fruit plates later, I’m still looking for the better breakfast, and I think I finally found it. Two words: Breakfast salad. It’s a counterintuitive contradiction in...