On Monday January 10th, my wife complained of not feeling too well. With the recent weather changes, along with heavy winds, we disregarded it as possible allergies.  Aches, coughing, stuffy nose, stuff like that. You know, allergies, but without any sneezing. There was one strange anomaly that along with it though: The space on her left arm where she recently received her vaccination was inflamed and itchy. She went to work on that Monday and then Tuesday, as did I, but for our one day off together, which are normally Wednesdays, she opted to just take it easy and let the ick run its cou ..read more

The Tucson Homeskillet WILL be back. Its been too long. Way too long. The heady sleep of a pandemic, losing jobs, hiding, and trying to just figure it all out has settled into a need to get back to what it all was. What I was. And what it needs to be. Stay tuned! Still need some help getting this site looking good and operating properly but…Metal Mark has woken up. It was a needful rest. Now let’s get back to work ..read more

Welcome to Blue Willow One of the first places I was lucky to visit and eat in Tucson when I moved here from the bay area in 2006 was Blue Willow. It was a heady early February day, the weather was near perfect and the reason I moved to this odd desert hamlet in the first place just wanted a comfortable patio and a familiar meal. That reason would later become my wife. The initial experience resonates with me to this day for a variety of moments. Mostly, the food was great. I ordered the huevos rancheros, a long time breakfast staple for me, and they were amazing. The soon to be wife had her f ..read more

This is going to be the first in a series all about bars and restaurants that have reopened in a time when a lot of bars and restaurants are still choosing to stay closed. The swath of the Covid-19 / coronavirus pandemic fright forced closed most food and beverage establishments on March 17th of this year. At 8pm, on frikkin’ St. Patrick’s Day, drinks had to be taken away, plates were removed from tables, lights had to be turned off and doors locked. At first, the original response to the outbreak was to be about two weeks…which became another two weeks…then another. Neighborhood food and dri ..read more

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SAACA and I go way back. Well, not like ‘back in the day’ high school or college era way back but at least 5 years or so. If not more. Even before I landed the gig contributing to the Weekly, which got me in a lot of fancy fiestas, they were kind enough to help a goofy guy like me with an even goofier food blog out by letting me attend some of their sponsored events. This helped me out by getting some bigger content up on the Homeskillet, outside of me trying out a new dive bar or eating from some ramshackled taco cart located in a dusty plot somewhere. So a big cheers to them. SAACA (Southern ..read more

In 2006 I had just moved to Tucson from San Francisco and was looking for a job. My wife got the word out and without even knowing who I was Lindy offered me a job cooking at his original spot on 4th Avenue. It was a mighty might gesture from a mighty mighty man, but as luck would have it I landed that dinosaur museum job managing the place…which shut down like over a year later. A few years later I took on his “OMFG” burger challenge, the same one that landed Lindy a TV spot on that show Man vs. Food, and it nearly killed me. When my wife got me home after, I just laid on the living room floo ..read more

A word of caution and advice!: Do not publicize you getting a new job via social media before you have signed all the proper paper work, passed every background check and have actually completed a full shift. Trust me here. I wont bore you with the “I’ve been without a day job since February” bit again so I’ll just jump into it. A local beverage company was looking for someone to make the rounds across Tucson and clean the beer lines for various bars, restaurants and so forth on their roster. I applied. Sounds easy enough. Sort of up my alley as far as being a food writer goes and that I have ..read more

If I’m writing about a place or a person, my goal is to never make the blog about me. Like, at all. In this intro though…I’m gonna make it a bit about me for a sec. If you don’t mind. I’ll keep it brief. I promise. This article should have been written months ago. Months. But I only just recently got to it knowing that I wanted to do my part in showcasing the amazing efforts of the Flores family, who own the series of Charro restaurants across Arizona: El Charro, Charro Steak, Charro Del Rey and now Charro Vida, which is a plant focused concept that opened up earlier this year to wide yieldin ..read more

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