Category Archives: food

Creamed pearl onions.

Posted on November 26, 2015 by cheapskateintellectual

Since y’all seemed to like the talked-through bacon and brussels sprouts recipe, here’s one more: creamed pearl onions, a Thanksgiving and Christmas classic from holidays at home that has won new converts up here, where it’s going to a friend’s … Continue reading →

Posted in food, gratitude, home, seasons | Leave a comment

Bacon and Brussels sprouts.

Posted on November 25, 2015 by cheapskateintellectual

Next time you want a quick, warm, good winter supper — or a dish for Thanksgiving — especially if you are a Southerner in the Upper Midwest, here’s what you do: Go out in your garden and break off some … Continue reading →

Posted in body, food, gardening, gratitude, seasons, self-reliance | Leave a comment

If that don’t beet all…

Posted on October 22, 2014 by cheapskateintellectual

Benjamin Franklin once remarked, “Experience is a dear school, but a fool will learn in no other.”  Put another way, knowledge can be expensive, but a little pain can make it stick.   Put a third way, I will never again … Continue reading →

Posted in animals, attention, food, gardening, self-reliance | Leave a comment

New life, in waiting.

Posted on April 20, 2014 by cheapskateintellectual

For the last few weeks of what’s been a brutally long winter, this was what I saw when I opened my bottom cabinet: thronging vines springing toward the light they’d been seeking in the dark, on their own, whether I … Continue reading →

Posted in food, gardening, resilience, seasons | Leave a comment

The pleasures of okra.

Posted on August 28, 2013 by cheapskateintellectual

If I had a dollar for every time somebody, emboldened by my Southern accent, asked me a question about okra — “What is that?” when they see it growing (once somebody asked, “Is that marijuana?”), or “How do you cook … Continue reading →

Posted in attention, food, gardening, gratitude, the past, the South | 8 Comments

First cherries!

Posted on July 1, 2013 by cheapskateintellectual

The Mesabi cherry tree I planted last year is bearing its first cherries this year — only a handful so far, but each one tender and delicious!

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Evanescence on a plate: spring pasta.

Posted on June 11, 2013 by cheapskateintellectual

The raw ingredients of a simple, overwhelmingly delicious and seasonal spring dinner last week: asparagus, morel mushrooms, and ramps (or wild leeks, which have a delicate, indescribably oniony taste), with perhaps a few cherry tomatoes in for color.  Chop and … Continue reading →

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The pleasure of collards.

Posted on November 3, 2012 by cheapskateintellectual

As the days shorten and daylight “savings” time – what a name! – is about to make oncoming winter even more official, I come in from canvassing for my chosen presidential candidate and turn to the stalwarts still waiting patiently … Continue reading →

Posted in food, gardening, gratitude, the South | Leave a comment

Bittersweet.

Posted on October 18, 2012 by cheapskateintellectual

You pull up to the little grocery store in a distinguished area of a small west-Georgia river city, near the country club and a ladies dress shop named after a Confederate novel.  There are beautiful old homes here, and old … Continue reading →

Posted in community, food, the past, the South | 6 Comments

Moving home: (re)thinking the organic South.

Posted on October 9, 2012 by cheapskateintellectual

Sometimes I think “home” in my mobile life has become less a specific place than a kind of place where certain conditions obtain — the sense of comfort, practicality, and freedom that comes from being able to move around on … Continue reading →

Posted in community, conservation, food, gratitude, politics, resilience, self-reliance, the South | 6 Comments