By popular demand, last night I carefully documented the process of chopping and cooking the rainbow chard I received this week. “But PastaQueen,” you might say. “Those don’t look like your hands.” And I would say, “You think I don’t know the back of my hands like the back of my hand?” But I would also agree that, yes, those are not my hands. After feeling somewhat intimidated by staring at the chard on the bottom shelf of my fridge for several days, I decided to hand this project off to an expert, namely my mother.

As my mother commented last night, she has greatly neglected my culinary education. She grew up in a small town in southern Indiana where they had a vegetable garden in the back yard. Eventually her parents bought their own farm and the vegetable patch grew to be larger than the house. Because of this, she came to be very experienced in the art of washing and properly chopping vegetables, not to mention canning, peeling, and other lost art forms. So [...]

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I can’t give you a life you love, but I might give you a book after the jump.

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All right, y’all, the Farm Fresh Delivery peeps sent me some rainbow chard and dill fenouil this week. I only know that they sent me rainbow chard and dill fenouil because that’s what the labels say on these odd, green, leafy plants. If someone had asked me to name 100 vegetables last week, I would not have listed either rainbow chard or dill fenouil because I had never heard of them before. Any suggestions on how to prepare these veggies are welcome. I would especially appreciate any warnings, like if the fuzzy ends of the dill fenouil are poisonous or if the rainbow chard only turns rainbow colored when it’s gone rancid. Thanks!

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Learn more about Jennette’s rosettes when she reviews Igigi’s L’Amourette dress.

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I went to a party in Wisconsin last weekend. Yes, Wisconsin. They know how to drink there, and they put cheese sticks in their alcoholic beverages, at least in the mornings.

It was fun to escape into a bubble universe for the weekend and live in a land where everyone is happy to see you and there is much dancing and revelry and ass-squeezing. (I’m looking at you, jenfu.) I am a bit disappointed no one flashed me or made out with me, and the raw food restaurant made my face so splotchy that it caused my fellow diners to frantically search for an antihistamine, but overall it was a high time. It was a place where my only responsibility was to make sure my bus buddy wasn’t left at the laser tag arena.

But now I am back in my day-to-day life and there are many responsibilities, like scheduling a conference call and picking up a friend from the mechanic and finishing a client’s site. It is tempting to contemplate a life where every week was [...]

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