For the past year, we have been dining with friends every Friday night. Alternating hosting with being guests, we compete not with each other but for the great dining experiences enjoyed together. Highlights have included a low country crawfish boil, the $5 Julia Child dinner, 18-hour braised pork, and the kid favorite, chicken and...
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Remember last week when I picked strawberries and toured Bird’s Farm? The bok choy and tatsoi in the high tunnel were too beautiful for me to resist. Rich in Vitamin A and C, these greens are tasty ways to supplement your diet. They are mild in flavor, sweeter than kale or mustard greens, and...
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Nothing says spring like firing up the grill, eating local asparagus, enjoying herbs from the garden, and reveling in the wonder of the egg. Combine them all in this grilled asparagus chimichurri recipe and the season bursts forth from your fork. Chimichurri is an Argentinian herb sauce typically made with chopped fresh parsley, oregano,...
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One of the little games I play in the kitchen is to challenge myself to minimize the number of dishes I use. I also like to prepare recipes in the fewest steps possible. Last week, I reworked my regular cornbread routine to lose one dish, one step, and several minutes of cooking time. I...
Read more →Do you ever prepare a tired ingredient in a new way? The other day we cooked Ohio bison burgers and wanted a ‘fry’ without potatoes. Riffing off the roasted root vegetables on Lil’s plate at Senate, Alex cut up some parsnips into very thin wedges. He arranged them in a single layer on a...
Read more →Chocolate is a classic Valentine’s gift. It’s a special decadent treat that nearly everyone loves. But there are problems with modern chocolate manufacturing: it often exploits the land and native peoples. Also, many big name companies use artifical flavorings and additives. Treat your love like a king or queen and seek out fair trade,...
Read more →The urge to make scones hit me in early January. I wanted a perfect-for-me scone: not greasy, not overly sweet, full of whole ingredients, and easy to pull together in the morning before breakfast. I made many batches of scones and finally came up with this recipe. Alas, Alex doesn’t think they are scones....
Read more →Earlier this week, we were slated to bring a soup to family dinner with Alex’s parents. I spied our last local pie pumpkin languishing on the counter and thought of squash soup. I typically make winter squash soup by oven roasting the squash, sautéing onions and garlic in oil, and then pureeing everything together....
Read more →I don’t know what I was thinking when I signed on to the International Blogger Cookie Exchange 2011. My family eats sweets slowly; cookies, brownies and the like often become stale before we eat a whole batch. I am so grinch-like that I don’t even have a Christmas cookie tradition. But I did sign...
Read more →The eleventh Charcutepalooza challenge is curing. Alex and I have cured and dried many meats including saucisson sec, fermented chorizo, and coppa. I asked my daughter Lillian to complete this challenge with me. She’s been around hanging meat for most of her life. Curing requires minimal skill and can be left for days at...
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