About
About Anne Livingston (Abridged)
I view the world through food-colored glasses. I love to grow it, cook it, eat it, photograph it, and talk about it. With over three decades of cooking and kitchen experiments under my belt, I have much to say and much more to learn. I would love to “geek out” with you about food, and I cater small parties. Thank you for visiting!
Contact me at anne (At) bringtoboil {dot] com]
Why “Bring to Boil”?
Recipes crack me up. I love that a recipe is allowed to toss out pesky articles such as “a” or ”the” – such as a terse “Put pot on burner and bring to boil.”
Who started this? It’s brilliant. I am going to guess that it began in order to deliver information to you quickly–your hand’s already in the chicken cavity, you forgot what to do next, and you don’t have time to chat. Or maybe recipe language pared down because people were trying to cram involved instructions on those teeny little notecards. In order to get away with this clipped style and still be considered grammatically correct, apparently you just need to be consistent with yourself.
If you look over my recipes, though, you’ll find that I have yet to commit to one or the other. Do I chuck out the articles and be a lean, mean, recipe-making machine? It can be helpful to glean information efficiently. Or do I adhere to standards of English grammar? Those articles make recipes longer by a few words, but these extra words create the subtle and pleasant sense that we have all the time in the world to read recipes at our leisure, as if we’re drinking coffee in the kitchen together while we cook. It’s a tough choice– one I’m not prepared to make just now.
Whichever I eventually commit to, “Bring to Boil” reminds me that recipes–and cooking–always have the potential to make us laugh. And “Bring to Boil” also epitomizes my love of recipes and their ability to reach out across miles and generations to communicate how you made That Dish. Someone loves this. Write recipe down and call friend to share. Serve immediately.
About Anne Livingston (Unabridged/History)
“Food! That’s my favorite dish!” This was the joke I quoted from some cartoon when I was a kid. Experimenting with Tang cakes in my Betty Crocker oven when I was six, then later cooking Eggs Benedict and pie crusts before I was 10, I have always adored food and daydreamed about what I would cook next. I read cookbooks and raided my mom’s and stepmom’s recipes, poring over the secrets of their delicious dishes. A couple of my childhood heroes were my mom’s friends who owned a restaurant. They told me repeatedly and vehemently not to start a restaurant, and I dutifully followed their instructions. By the way, that restaurant is still running strong today, after almost 40 years.
Meanwhile, through childhood I moved from Texas to Oklahoma and then finally settled here in Seattle, to attend University of Washington. During college I lived in Italy to study Italian literature and film, and in the end I learned even more about Italian cuisine and cooking. Ultimately I earned a BA in Comparative Literature with an emphasis in Italian (cooking?).
With my degree under my belt, I floated into a series of jobs that reflected my interests but did not feel like landing points. I worked for a catering company, a French bakery at Pike Place Market, and then found myself working as a children’s portrait photographer. Realizing that I enjoyed the kids as much as the photography, I decided to pursue teaching. While volunteering at a school to learn more about teaching before grad school, I also worked at a photo processing shop so I could develop my photos for a discount. During this time I also discovered how to cook with almost no money, how to use cinnamon as a secret ingredient in chili, and how to infuse mystery into a sauce with tarragon. Then when I finally earned a Master in Teaching, I taught English, social studies, and math at a wonderful all-girls’ school for many years.
I have many interests, ranging from swing dancing to painting to feng shui, but my constant has always been cooking. Through my different jobs and creative pursuits, I was still always reading cookbooks before going to bed and continuing to cook and experiment with food almost every day.
When I was swing dancing I joined a competitive dance team, where I was placed with a dance partner, whom I then befriended, fell in love with, and married. Michael is the love of my life and I love to cook for—and with—him. I may be creative, but he’s the most efficient cook in the house. The first dish he cooked for me was Swedish Meatballs.
A few summers ago we were lucky to do a house swap with a family in Spain, and spent the summer living in Granada, traveling around to places like Sevilla, Madrid, and Barcelona. That summer was the first time I really blogged, and it turns out I mostly wanted to blog about Spanish cuisine, which was what I was “studying” and cooking all that summer. It was also here that we decided that we were ready to turn our two-person family into three.
He and I now have a spicy-meatball toddler named Rosalie. She is taking the world by storm and is, like me and Michael, a tremendously skilled eater. Her favorite food is cottage cheese, but she does try my kalamata olives and actively enjoys chevre. I swear to you that she brings me cookbooks so that I will go through the pages with her and look at all the pictures. “Oooh!” I exclaim. “That’s Osso Buco! Mmm…strawberries. Wow. Is that a hazelnut tart?”
Now I am home with Rosalie and using my free moments to continue to learn everything I can about food, while also documenting experiments, discoveries, and techniques that have emerged from over 30 years of cooking and eating. I’ve got a lot to say and a lot to learn. Thank you for visiting and reading!