Boxty Cakes

Boxty Cakes

  An Irish potato pancake just in time for St. Patrick’s day. These are hearty buddies for any kind of meal and a great way to use your leftover mashed potatoes. The basic idea is to mix mashed potatoes with grated raw potatoes and an egg, but 

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

  A crust should be both a snack by itself as well as a vehicle to transport delicious toppings to your salivating mouth.  I’ve known of recipes using cauliflower for various crusts but had never tried it until recently.  This recipe has no grain but 

Potato Rutabaga Gratin

Potato Rutabaga Gratin

 .   Bully at the front door! Pisten Bully, that is.  Eric Anderson on an early morning grooming ride and clearing a path for us after the heavy snowfall.  I can’t resist showing a few more pics from Coleen Sullins of our stay in the 

Pumpkin French Toast

Pumpkin French Toast

  Photos from the Mars Rover? Microscopic view of caterpillar skin? The inside of volcano Popocatépetl in Mexico? Satellite images of erosion in Death Valley? A Fire Lizard?         ….or extremely curious skin from my baked squash with light shining through it. 

Roasted Maple Squash

Roasted Maple Squash

  Is this not one of the most beautiful of Maple Syrup images?  Crystalline and glittery, maybe I could wear it as a necklace.  Bees would like me.  This crystal sat around for many weeks waiting for me to take a photo and it remained 

Balsamic Brussel Sprouts with Grapes

Balsamic Brussel Sprouts with Grapes

  Definitely one of the Star Trek outer space variety of vegetables. Tiny cabbage-like heads on stalks, these at the Farmers Market have had their giant leaves removed.  Usually Brussel sprouts are harvested after a frost which sweetens these cruciferous buddies.  Years when I have grown them 

Kale, Apple and Almond Salad by Pascale Beale

Kale, Apple and Almond Salad by Pascale Beale

  Happy Birthday to this blog—4 years and post #200!! Thanks for participating in this experiment with me!  I am not one who is naturally drawn to measuring or documenting so this has been quite a practice of observation and attempts to translate foods into something others might enjoy or 

Yam Puree with Chipotle

Yam Puree with Chipotle

.   My friend Annette made this up years ago, served it at a potluck, and little did she know that I would promptly take her idea and run with it for the next fifteen years.  It’s simple, delicious, and the perfect combination of sweet-spicy-tangy-creamy and 

Za’atar Carrots

Za’atar Carrots

  Za’atar is a delicious and versatile condiment originating in the fertile crescent of the Middle East.  It generally is made from oregano, sesame seeds and salt, and variations may include other herbs like sumac, savory, cumin, coriander, fennel or caraway.  Like so many regional condiments or sauces, 

Picadillo Stuffed Peppers

Picadillo Stuffed Peppers

  Picadillo is a traditional Spanish and Latin American dish that one could call a ‘hash’.  Ground meat, olives, dried fruit, and veggies sautéed together and served with rice or in tacos.  How handy is that?  A way to use your regional ingredients in a delicious one-dish wonder 

Lemongrass Pork Patties

Lemongrass Pork Patties

    How do you learn about a culture?  Travel to the region and wander around indulging in street food. Street-vendor food in Mexico like the carne asada tacos in Hermosillo and churros in Tepic shaped some of my greatest food memories ever and have influenced my food choices my 

Herbed Fruit

Herbed Fruit

  Is ‘herb’ a verb? It is now.     I was recently asked to provide some desserts for a party in late September, a request I usually decline because I’m not baking-inclined, but they wanted the entire event to be gluten free so my empathetic 

Black Bean Salad

Black Bean Salad

  First a little blast of color from local edible flowers.     These are a pile of late summer flowers grown by my friends at Canoe Creek Produce that I used as garnish on salads and an appetizer for a wedding a couple of weeks ago.  I 

Tomato Dill Salad

Tomato Dill Salad

    Purple lisianthus from the Canoe Creek Produce at the Farmer’s Market.  I hear they’re difficult to grow because they are slow to germinate, but it is so worth the wait.  I’ve found myself sitting and just staring at them over the last week and a 

Summer Relish

Summer Relish

  It’s amazing to eat produce when it is still warm from the sun.   These ingredients of summer that I’m finding in my garden or the Farmer’s Market—cucumbers, tomatoes, cilantro, onion—there is just nothing like fresh and connected to the vine or the soil sometime in the 

Yellow Pepper Pesto

Yellow Pepper Pesto

  Colorful tasty vegetables or herbs ground into a paste…’pesto’ is a loosely used term.  The word pesto comes from the Italian word ‘pestare’ meaning to pound or crush.  Texture has such an impact on the way we perceive and taste a dish, and crushing or pureeing helps create a 

Avocado Strawberry Salad

Avocado Strawberry Salad

    NOLA a.k.a. the Rebirth City. I’m traveling with friends this week to New Orleans and Bay St. Louis, visiting friends and eating delectable dinners everywhere we go.  Not much time for words so I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.         

Asparagus Kale Salad

Asparagus Kale Salad

  It’s Spring and there is no getting away from recipes about spinach, kale, eggs, nettles, peas and asparagus…so just get used to it.  Embrace the green.  Green is good.  There’s a lot of green activity going on right now by that greenifying chlorophyll, absorbing the blue and red 

Western Indian Spinach

Western Indian Spinach

  Tis the month of spinach and greenery and our livers are thanking us for being drawn to these deep rich colors then serving them up for dinner.  Right now the local spinach is delicate and young, you barely need to add anything.   A side 

Cabbage Parsnip Slaw

Cabbage Parsnip Slaw

  Many gardeners in these cold climates overwinter their parsnips in the ground, letting the back-and-forth thawing-and-cooling spring weather sweeten their starches into sugars.  So when little else is local in early April of the upper Midwest…parsnips can be found.   Related and similar to carrots (they look like an albino carrot),