So, Matthew, how’s the book going?

Fine, thanks for asking. As you can probably tell, I don’t want to talk about it much until it’s done. I’d rather not wear out its welcome before it’s actually, y’know, published.

But I do have to mention this. My friends and former Seattleites Anita and Cameron over at Married with Dinner are testing some recipes for me. I sent them my recipe for beer-braised short ribs with wheat berries, and I’m glad I did, because they made it with 100 percent local (to the Bay Area) ingredients, they made it look much better than it ever looks at my house, and they called it an “unpublished masterpiece.” Check it out!

I’m not just horn-tooting, though. When I forwarded their post to Laurie, she said, “That’s nice, but when are you going to make the pot pie?” Chicken pot pie with cheddar biscuit crust did sound pretty terrific. So I made it for dinner tonight. It was great, and I can explain the reason for its greatness in one word: parsnips. I mean, I enjoyed the biscuit topping, made with leaf lard and two kinds of cheese, but the parsnips were a brilliant touch. Potatoes would have made for a really boring dish. And you can get top-quality parsnips this time of year; ours were from Willie Green’s.

The pie was so good, it’s practically a published masterpiece.