the kitchen table

Last night I met my friend Lisa for dinner at the Kitchen Table in Richmond, and I was not sorry. The food was delicious, the company wonderful, the air scented slightly with manure from the farm next door. And when I drove home at 9:15, there was still light in the sky. A perfect evening, really.

My dinner: A roasted-herb polenta cake with sauteed baby beet greens, beets, and feta cheese. The entree's fluffy hat is made of microgreens from Half Pint.


Lisa's dinner: Scallops or some shizz.

Dessert: Southern chocolate cake, whatever that means, with cherry ice cream and zinfandel cherries.

if wishes were eggs on toast, every day at lunch i'd be a millionaire who had finished writing her novel

Instead of a cloud bl*g, GFD may turn into an egg-on-toast website. Soon I will have to start dressing up my eggs on toast with clown noses or funny hats to keep you interested.


Today my egg on toast was supplemented with Doe's Leap caprella; please note that I showed an unusual amount of restraint and only ate a third of it.


Given all the freakish things I've been reading about agriculture and food in this country, I'm happy to say my egg was laid on a nearby farm, my bread was baked at a local bakery, and the milk for that cheese came from a Vermont goat.

For dessert, however, I'll be indulging in a little piece of international rat-poop chocolate.

things i wish i'd never learned but feel compelled to share with you

This piece of disturbing news almost made me throw out the bar of dark chocolate from which I feed daily. Apparently some entomologist went off half-cocked on NPR's Fresh Air last week and announced that chocolate and preground coffee are full of roach parts. (Someone should kill that guy, or at least slash his tires, but since I cannot leave the house without caffeine and such bad news requires the comfort of dark chocolate to carry on, I will not be able to assassinate or stalk him; I'm counting on one of the seven of you to show a little more fortitude.)

Since then various internet people have noted that a certain amount of "insect filth," among other things, is permitted by the FDA in our food. And if you go to this FDA website (which, frankly, I do not recommend), you'll notice that the Food & Drug Administration also has no problem with a certain amount of "mammalian excreta" (most of the spices in your cupboard) and rodent filth (my precious chocolate) and maggots (canned tomatoes).

Don't kill this messenger, my friends, and please don't slash her tires, either. Instead consider growing some cacao beans in your backyard garden and making her a bar of localvore, rodent-filth-free chocolate before she loses the will to go on or decides that a couple of rat hairs a day never hurt anyone; I'm not sure which is worse.