The sports bar in the neighborhood is quickly becoming my favorite local place, not only because they seem to quite often play hits from the mid-90s, which annoyed me to no end during the era itself but now make me nostalgic for the time when everybody was forced to hear the same songs, but also…

It was hot enough all weekend that it felt unhealthy and hazardous to be outside when the sun was out. There was a breeze, which was also hot. An eggplant was ready in the garden and I knew that roasting it would not be an option, so I settled on a salad of fried eggplant…

Finally there was one tomato in the garden that looked very ripe and hadn’t been ripped into by an unknown creature. Without thinking about it, all the tomatoes I planted this year were huge beefsteaks, which probably isn’t the best choice for either flavor or looks. I made a salsa, using three tomatoes and a…

Brownies two ways. The brownie was supposed to have been invented by Bertha Palmer of the Palmer House in Chicago, who passed it out as a dainty treat for the ladies before the Columbian Exposition. I have eaten the Palmer House brownie, which has nuts on top and is served with ice cream and chocolate…

Slices of chorizo with crackers for lunch, and a peach. I stayed late at work and picked up breakfast tacos with scrambled eggs, cheese, and ground chorizo. (Photo: Sitges, Catalonia.) >> August 11 << August 9

I’m always in search of the best option for when you just need to feel full and don’t have time to think about what you’re eating. Whatever I have needs to be tasty, but not distracting, such as tonight when we went to a meeting after work and Viet got me a container of pasta…

Wrinkled potatoes. This is a recipe from the Canary Islands, bringing you part of the way from the food of Spain to the Caribbean. The simple preparation yields a distinctive result: Boil potatoes in water with a tablespoon of sea salt for every two pounds of potatoes; wait until the water has entirely evaporated; then…

We had dinner guests, a family of four, and I harvested peppers from the garden. Until then I hadn’t realized how many different varieties of pepper I had growing (bell pepper, poblano, jalapeño, and a sweet variety the color of a shriveled space alien), and I omitted the two hot peppers before adding the rest…

It was a perfect weekend in August. I made coffee cake in the morning and spent the afternoon reading More Than This by Patrick Ness, a dystopian YA novel that could easily become a movie someday. We watched swimming and ordered Korean from Seoul Food, where they had a special bowl that combined sweet potato…

I dreamed about election night, certainly not for the last time, and woke up thinking we had elected Ronald Reagan president and he was 102 years old. After work we were watching the opening ceremonies at Duplex Diner and I knew from memory that the only safe choice for me to order would be spaghetti…

Stopped with coworkers for a tanqueray and tonic at Rocket Bar, a place I last visited about six years ago with a separate group of coworkers, and which has remained exactly the same. There is a lot to admire in the way they cater to the basic needs of early 20-somethings without pretending to be…

They pulled us out of work for a brief celebration to commemorate a year in our building, and I had chips from District Taco with a red salsa that was jam-textured and pleasantly fiery, hot enough that it makes you feel exhausted while your taste buds try to catch up. For dinner I put together…