Author: Ben Starr
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The Tale of the Little Bird and the Silent Statue
I wrote this little story many years ago, after being captivated by the children’s stories of Oscar Wilde. Just like his allegories, this not really a story for kids. It’s a story for the adults who read them aloud to kids. I decided to share it with you today in honor of my neighbor, Sharon. …
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Mind-Boggling Life-Altering Earth-Shattering Mac and Cheese
It’s everyone’s favorite food. And I confess, I even get excited about eating a fake-orange bowl of the artificial stuff from the box or at a restaurant. Who doesn’t like macaroni and cheese? The problem is that we get accustomed to this impossibly-creamy texture that we get served at chain restaurants, which contain processed cheese…
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Burning Man 2012: The Burn
After almost a full week of preparation and travel, we land in the Burning Man line. Burning Man takes place on the Black Rock Desert Playa…a vast dry lake bed in one of the most remote parts of the mainland US. You leave the pavement several miles north of the tiny village of Gerlach, Nevada,…
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Burning Man 2012: The Pilgrimage
If you’ve been following me since my season of MasterChef aired last summer, you know how fanatical I am about the Burning Man festival. Trying to describe this event is practically impossible. Each summer 60,000 people from all over the world assemble on a dry desert lake bed in northern Nevada and build a city…
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Homemade Sriracha (fermented red pepper sauce)
If you have a garden, like me, and have more than a couple of pepper plants, chances are in the early fall you’re INUNDATED with so many chiles that you can’t give them away fast enough. What on EARTH do you do when you’ve got pounds of hot peppers? If you’re me, you preserve them…
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1-Hour No-Knead Yeast Dinner Rolls
Bread. It can be a problem with dinner, because sometimes you just don’t have 4-5 hours to prep contemporary yeast bread or roll recipes. You all know that I prefer to use long, slow fermentations with my yeast breads to produce incredible flavor and crust. But that requires me to start the bread the day…