"Scrolling through design blogs and flipping through my go-to furniture glossies, I noticed a trend: natural pieces of wood being used as furniture, especially tree stump side tables. I love bringing the outside indoors–so ,of course, my wheels were spinning. My mind went to one place: I can do that for a fraction of the price with just a few items from The Home Depot. The result was this perky little side table that actually did get people talking at a recent dinner party."

READ THE STEP-BY-STEP. 

For Edible Queens, one of the gorgeous, local food magazines from Edible Publications, I toured the bakeries of Flushing, a Chinese nexus in New York City. From egg custards to sweet bean mooncakes, I came, I sampled, I wrote.

"You may have come to expect certain things from Flushing's Chinatown, like a piquant bowl of hand-stretched noodles or Xinjiang's smoky chicken-on-a-stick, served amidst the crowds and din. What many people haven't saved mental room for is dessert." 

READ THE WHOLE, SUGARY PIECE

A cook and author in Norcross, the turf that I cover as editor of Norcross.Patch.com, wrote, shot and styled the "Big Green Egg Cookbook" right in the historic area. Her food journey was filled with serendipitous twists.

"The other night, Sara Levy decided to have an 'easy' dinner: Cream of onion soup with caramelized onions to start, Cornish hens with a tarragon sauce and roasted Brussels sprouts.

Levy, a self-taught chef and former kitchen manager for southern cooking icon Nathalie Dupree, is author of the 'Big Green Egg Cookbook.' The book is a tome that explores the myriad options for cooking with the smoker and grill that has a cult following. Last summer 50,000 copies were printed when it hit the shelves. And it was devised, cooked and photographed in her historic Norcross home." READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE. 

When I lived in an area that is blessed with secret Japanese spots and taco shacks with cult followings, how could I have stop myself from documenting them? Here is a recap of Ethnic Eats, possibly the favorite thing I did as editor of Norcross.Patch.com:

Local Thai Spot is Spice Right

Shoya Izakaya: The Art of the Japanese Pub

Sublime Vegetarian Indian, At a Food Court

Underground Japanese, In Glorious Simplicity

Thai Star Shines

Under Chandeliers, A Happy Valley of Dim Sum

Pho Sure: Yany Express

A Salvadorian Eatery That's All of Dessert First

A father and son with musical ties play in Norcross on the same night--in different locations. 

"For Steve—and Nick—McElroy it all started with a Christmas present about 40 years ago: a 12-string Yamaha acoustic guitar. By both of their accounts, it is a beast with a massive dreadnought body and rich tones that emanate from the depths. 'It is like a telephone pole with wires on it,' said Steve, 'If you can play that guitar, you can play anything.'” READ THE WHOLE THING HERE.

In Brooklyn, I did a review of the fantastic Bed-Stuy fusion spot Umi Nom for the Local, a New York Times experiment in community journalism. Check it out: 

"I admit to being put off by the idea of fusion cuisine. Call it the 'master of none' principle — the possibility of getting Italian-spiced calamari sushi that is neither Italian nor Japanese, but trapped in some parsley-flavored dead zone. (Also see: taco pizza, curry egg rolls.) But I was wholly proven wrong after eating at Umi Nom again and again. It has become my favorite Asian spot in the city — for Filipino, Thai and Vietnamese, all at once." READ THE WHOLE REVIEW AT THE LOCAL

"If there's one word that kept popping in my head to on my recent trip to Yosemite, it was 'temple.' Chiseled, handsome granite rock formations--the largest monoliths in the world--jut out of the pristine forest, frigid waterfalls from recently melted snow trickling down the warmed rocks playfully. Not far from that sacred valley are some of the largest, oldest trees in the world, Giant Sequoias. If you are looking for a way to teach your kids to respect nature's temple, just take them to Yosemite. SEE THE WHOLE SLIDE SHOW!

In this, my graduate thesis, I examine the city the raised me as it tries to redefine itself in a younger, postracial and urban way. The examination leads me to three very different neighborhoods that embody the changes taking place in Atlanta. And this is the short version...

"Slow brunch at a chipper Grant Park café frames what the new urban Atlanta can be. The crowded work of local artists beams warm colors on the room, cartoonish sketches and strong, chunky close-ups. The server tilts friendly toward silly, complaining that the soy sausage shipment is late and sticking her head out the open front door to call down the cracked sidewalk for the delivery truck. Neighbors roll in on bikes to order eggs scrambled with veggies and fontina cheese but stay to talk music after their orders ding in the window. It is young and neighborly. It’s diverse, cultured and street-smart."

Photo credit: Burn Away via Creative Commons

In an epic motorcycle trip, I learn about the Vietnam that meanders far from the tourist traps, teaching me much about the scars of war and how they heal.

"Coming off an Easy Riders adventure is not unlike coming off a drug. The pushy sales tactics and cat calling of locals in the tourist ghetto of Hoi An grate your nerves. Everything compares against the unforgetable real thing: the easy smile of a chiseled women carrying a superhuman load of bamboo in a handwoven basket-cum-backpack over a ramshackle bridge, children attacking you with exploratory fingers that pinch to check if you are real, setting around a comforting stove with brighteyed hilltribe people who laugh heartily at just your presence. The Easy Rider’s close encounters with Vietnam make the tourist trudge on Highway 1 a hard comedown." READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE.