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A tomato/cucumber salad on the side is a nice accompaniment
Back when I was a lot younger, and a lot poorer, I lived in Boulder Colorado. I was just beginning to explore “natural” foods and products (Boulder is a great place for this; there were two natural food stores within waking distance to my house). While I wasn’t a vegetarian (and likely never will be) I did start to experiment with eating more vegetarian dishes. And not having a lot of cash, I used to go to the public library and read Vegetarian Times (VT) magazine when I was looking for ideas. If I saw a recipe I liked, I’d plunk down my dime and make a copy. Read the rest of this entry »
As I have mentioned here several times, I was not a very adventuresome eater for the first part of my life. One of the “no way” foods was avocado. Then I discovered Super Taqueria on 10th street in downtown San Jose California when I was in my early 20’s. A grab and go Mexican place that I walked by every day for a year before I was brave enough to go in, and then only because someone I trusted recommended it. Read the rest of this entry »
The last of my mother-in-law’s red potatoes, grown this year, and a Yukon Gold as well. The skins on both were a bit worse for wear, and so the potatoes ended up mostly peeled.
Years ago I took a class taught under the nutrition department at San Jose State University. The professor was really just a foodie (an expression that likely hadn’t been invented yet) and the class turned out to be a grown up version of home ec, where we explored different ethnic cuisines both across the US and world-wide. For the final, we wrote up and prepared for the class a dish that represented our own ethnic heritage. It was one of the best classes I took during my first stint in college.
I have a bit of a love hate relationship with Christmas. On the one hand, I understand the feeling of belonging, joy and contentment everyone is striving for, and at times, have experienced them myself. But the mish-mash of obligation, sentimentality, rampant consumerism, outright greed and a religious story I simply do not buy into (no offence meant to those who do) often leaves me understanding what Scrooge meant by “bah, humbug”.
What I DO love, of course, is the cooking. Nothing like a great pot of soup on the stove and cookies baking in the oven to make me feel all warm and snug and allow me to share my love with others in, what to me, is a genuine way. One of my favorite holiday traditions is drinking wassail, which really just means a hot mulled cider of some sort. Read the rest of this entry »
This is NOT all of them – but most of them are in here somewhere.
I have a lot of herbs and spices. A lot. At one point, in an attempt to get all of the little bulk bags organized many years ago, I ordered glass jars from Penzeys spice company, and made spread sheet labels for all of the jars. (That may seem a little extreme, but I’m a terrible speller, and this allowed me to spell check everything. Is Rosemary with one R or two? You get the idea.) I had 75 labels! I think when I was teaching myself to cook, buying a new herb or spice made me feel all grown up and sophisticated. I
Years ago, I was able to visit the island of Grenada, and see an actual nutmeg tree. This is what the spice looks like on the tree, before the hull breaks open to reveal the nut inside.
remember buying some mace for a recipe, and then having it sit in a cupboard for years until I realized it was related to nutmeg, and I could just substitute it in until I had used it up. I’ve never bought that one again. Read the rest of this entry »
This old nest box, measuring about 12 x 18 inches, was the perfect bean planter
I love it when a plan comes together! Arriving in the Spokane area in early June, there really wasn’t much I could do garden wise (which is pretty much a crisis for me). But I wanted to had to plant a few things. What, besides tomatoes (which is everyone’s answer), did I really love from my garden? And what did I really want to be organically grown? Green beans! (Green beans used to be on the Environmental Working Group’s list of the Dirty Dozen produce items, in terms of pesticide contamination – now they are #16.) Read the rest of this entry »
Stuffed Zucchini. Yum!
I love recipes that use up what I already have on hand. So when a friend sent me her mother’s stuffed zucchini recipe, how could I resist?
Zucchini, as everyone knows who either has a garden or knows a gardener, is in season right now. (Ever heard that old Garrison Keillor joke about not leaving your windows down in your car this time of year, or you will come back and find a bag of zucchini in the back seat?) I had purchased three good-sized zucchini from a local farmers market last week with this recipe in mind. They were a great price because of the size. Read the rest of this entry »
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