Butterfly snacking on a flower (everything eats)
Nearly 500 feet above sea level on a sweltering Big Sur summer afternoon, a swallowtail butterfly dips its slender, curved proboscis into the sweet nectar of a purple lantana. So lovely and wonderful.
Biking the Silver Strand
I’d heard there was biking on Coronado. I took this as a personal challenge; there’s nothing more I love than than wandering down a new street or trail. There’s a thrill of discovery in experiencing a new piece of the world first-hand, the...
Who figured out a beaver’s behind tastes like raspberry?
This is not urban myth: castoreum, the product of the anal glands of the beaver, is used in some food products with the FDA’s blessing. Here’s the lowdown.
Greens gone wild
Winter’s untended and forgotten greens, gone wild in the overgrown vegetable bed.
Dolphin feeding frenzy in the Sea of Cortez (everything eats)
Hundreds of bottle nose dolphins dive for Sunday brunch in the Sea of Cortez. Check out a few photos:
Peanut butter and jellyfish a la mer
The beach is really a reflection of the ocean’s current events. I didn’t know this before I had the chance to live here, walking on the sand with the pup and Kids each evening. Here’s some of what we find:
Ancient Aztec superfood!
Note: I wrote this blog post back in November of 2011, before chia is as ubiquitous an ingredient as it is today. My amusement at the time seems, well, quaint today! I saw this yesterday walking down the bread aisle yesterday and actually did laugh out loud. Other...
How to stuff a wild zucchini
The zucchini have gone completely wild this year. It didn’t start out that way; they were actually slow to grow. I planted the 4″ starts the second week of May; by the third week of June they’d barely doubled in size. So I worked a handful of Dr....
Vacation photos and lunch
It’s happened a couple of time this summer that we’ve been hanging out on rocks in the Big Sur River gorge, or kayaking in the harbor surrounded by diving pelicans, and I’ve been caught with an uncharged camera battery. I’ve grown accustomed to...
Battle skunk
It’s 3AM and the puppy got sprayed by a skunk. Looks like grandma and grandma won’t be coming over for brunch after all. Here’s what happened . . .
First fruit
Tons of rock. Yards of soil. Comparing the relative values of heirloom seeds vs. organic starts. Six trips to the nursery to puzzle together a jigsaw of drip irrigation. Finally my garden fantasies are starting to bear fruit.
Welcome to my skillet!
I'm Maggie, a food-loving, curiosity-seeking, nature-loving mom. I'm here serving up bite-sized recipes, raves, and reviews about food and family, food and culture, food and the environment, and food and travel. Thanks for stopping by!