Notes From The Hearth
Cooking, recipes, and the table.
This begins in the kitchen, but it’s not really about recipes.
Most of these entries start with something simple—a meal to cook, something to bring, something to figure out. Sometimes it’s inspired by a place, sometimes by what’s on hand, sometimes just by the need to put something together for other people.
The work happens in the doing. Adjusting as you go. Changing a step. Trying something different the next time. What holds at home might not hold somewhere else. Ingredients shift. Timing changes. The result is rarely fixed.
Some dishes come together quickly. Others take a few passes. A version that works becomes the starting point for the next one. Over time, they become something that fits—shaped as much by the process as the original idea.
Like the rest of these notes, this isn’t about getting it exactly right. It’s about working something through until it makes sense in your own hands.
This section is part of an ongoing set of notes built through practice.
It holds entries over time—meals, attempts, adjustments, and things learned along the way.
What’s here changes. What works gets carried forward.
The structure is here. The work fills it in.
Entries collect here over time.
Beef & Noodles of Confluence
The slow, low love was the same
Smoked chuck prepared two ways in a blended ancho-guajillo chile-barbacoa sauce, finished with lime and tossed with wide pappardelle.
Meyer Lemon–Black Garlic Red Shrimp Orecchiette with Asparagus
Sweet shrimp, deep savor, and lemon to pull it together.
A store-inspired pasta of sweet red shrimp and charred asparagus over dashi-sauced orecchiette with black garlic, Meyer lemon, and butter.
Bourbon Berry Cheesecake Cup
Bourbon, berries, crunch, and a crisp little shell.
Individual baked cheesecake cups with bourbon-maple blueberries and blackberries, orange, toasted nuts, and a crisp tortilla shell.
Neo-Nordic Rye
Dark, patient, and built to deepen overnight.
A dark, coffee-scented sourdough rye loaf built around a hot rye scald, malt, cocoa, and a long cooling rest before slicing.
Everyday Sourdough
A simple loaf, a steady companion.
The CBH68 house sourdough: a two-loaf, naturally leavened white bread with an overnight cold retard and a hot covered bake.
Hot-Honey Canchánchara Highball
Rum, lime, heat, and a long cold finish.
A tall rum-and-lime Canchánchara variation sweetened with hot-honey syrup and lengthened with ginger beer.
Mango-Cucumber Quick Pickle
Cool, bright, sweet, sharp, and just a little hot.
A bright, lightly Korean-influenced quick pickle of cucumber, mango, scallion, chile, lime, rice vinegar, and sesame.
Blistered Green Beans & Shishito Peppers
Blistered fast, finished bright.
Green beans and shishitos blistered on a ripping-hot flattop, then finished with garlic, lime, black pepper, and flaky salt.
