My daughter crushing broiled scallops My wife was traveling for work recently, so I was solo-parenting our two children for a couple of days.  Arts and crafts, hide and seek, the mall, and Disney Junior can only go so far with toddlers, especially in the dead of winter.  Luckily, my parents were kind enough to have us over for a casual pizza night, providing me a little respite.  It takes a village, right?  As we often do, my mom and I found ourselves talking about restaurants, cooking, and my favorite, old family recipes.  We got so deep into conversation th ..read more

I've eaten thousands of Oysters, killed thousands more, but until this past Sunday, I had only shucked, slurped, and savored.  However, thanks to the Pickleweed Community Oyster Farm and Luc Chamberland, I am now a proud Oyster farmer.  Well, as much as an individual who goes apple-picking for a day is an apple farmer, I suppose.  But we did plant our own Oysters and now have the chance, nay, responsibility of going back up to Tomales Bay every month or so and checking in on their progress. The farming we're doing is pretty straight forward, almost anachronistic, at least once ..read more

I spent almost thirty minutes the other day watching my 3-year-old peacefully organize and categorize his dinosaur toys.  Green with green, blue with blue, big with big, small with small.  It was shocking, as the kid rarely sits still for more than five minutes, and that's only while eating chicken nuggets.  Once all set up, he proceeded to show them off.  With some Toddler-ese translation, I realized he was explaining all the different features and attributes of the dinosaurs.  "These have big, sharp teeth."  "This one has a long tail."  "Check this one out ..read more

In getting to know the Philadelphia seafood scene, I've admittedly been a bit of a fish out of water. "Wooder" or "wudder" might be more appropriate, for those of you familiar with the local dialect.  Living a solid 45 minutes outside of the city, and having two fingerlings of my own, has made it challenging to dissect the true culinary bounty of Philadelphia.  A real shame as there are so many oceanic offerings, deep-sea delights, and even a nautically-focused renaissance of sorts.  Don't worry, Father's Day is quickly approaching.  New barbecue set or whiskey stones ..read more

I don't care for Black History Month.  Just hear me out.  Denoting a specific month where we single out the contributions of any community, in any capacity, will forever keep those contributions separate and marginalized.  I agree with the sentiments and foundations, but we can all see the execution, or lack there of, has not lead to equitable representation.  Lumping all these figures together under one banner for a short 28 days is also a disservice to their individual merits, and often excludes commendable others.  Both the accomplishments and tribulations of Africa ..read more

With my first year officially in the suburbs complete, I can comfortably admit I've gone full-on domesticated dad.  Weekly trips to Ace Hardware, YouTube videos on light fixture installation, and hours scouring the internets for the best soil and mulch mixtures.  Tom and Patti at our local garden center even feel like my new best friends.  The creepy algorithmic content trackers have definitely noticed, too.  Every third Instagram post I see is "you may qualify for free solar panels" or "check out this new BBQ kit, only $49.99."  It really hit me the other day when I a ..read more

My family and I took a weekend trip up to Boston recently for the missus' 15th year college reunion.  I've never been the reunion type.  Tony Soprano said it best - "...'remember when' is the lowest form of conversation."  What else can you talk about with someone you occasionally played beer pong with or sat next to in Intro to Western Civ?  They also seem like shameless networking and bragging sessions.  The amount you hear - "So, what do you do?" - is brutal.  "I'm a lead attorney and vice president for DLA Piper."  "In finance right now, but working ..read more

As you may have noticed from the new header, I moved this past summer from the Bay Area to the suburbs of Philadelphia, where I grew up.  Quite the transition from the trendy, hipster streets of Oakland and San Francisco to the pastoral, colonial themed ways of Willistown Township, Pennsylvania.  I'm pretty excited for the perks of suburban living: bigger home, backyard, tool shed, tree house, tire swing.  But I'd be lying if I said I don't miss the bustling food scenes of urban areas.  Don't get me wrong, there are lots of quality restaurants and markets in the suburbs, an ..read more

As a kid, I always looked forward to Fridays during Lent.  Strange, as there's nothing especially glamorous about Lent.  In fact, it's quite the opposite.  Being raised Irish Catholic, Lent was meant to be a solemn time of discipline, self-reflection, and sacrifice in preparation for Jesus' crucifixion on Good Friday.  Not exactly uplifting or exciting.  However, part of that sacrifice was abstaining from meat on Fridays.  And, growing up in relative privilege, that meant every Friday for 40 days we were having one of two things for dinner - cheese pizza or, as I ..read more

Seafood sausages have been on my mind for a long time.  I talked about them way back in a 2017 post when I made Oyster Chicharrones.  Cooking seafood at home is still something I feel is pretty foreign to many Americans.  Sure, salmon and crab cakes make the occasional appearance, but we seem to be more comfortable with pot roasts and spaghetti bolognese rather than stuffed squid or salt crusted whole fish.  There has been incredible progress in chefs making traditional and identifiable dishes with a fishy twist.  Josh Niland of Fish Butchery is definitely most no ..read more