Gluten Free and Low Carb—perfect for summer!  You can put nearly anything in a lettuce leaf and it provides a handy shell to hold the flavors.  I often am looking for edible vehicles that can deliver the punch line and in the summer lettuce leaves are a refreshing meal-holding-husk.  But they can be a little messy so watch out for those after-Memorial-Day white pants.    . Fillings can be as simple or complex as you want to create.  A vegan alternative to bacon could be

  Sour cream–it’s the perfect dip starter: a bit tart, a bit creamy, and it ‘plays well with others‘, merging and melding with most herbs or flavors.  Lightly fermented dairy similar to crème fraîche but is more tangy and often made with less fat…I say yes.  If you’re feeling the need for more scrumptious fats in your cream, try this little method of a non-cultured sour cream:   Quick Sour Cream:  pour 1 cup heavy whipping cream into a bowl and add 1 teaspoon (or a little

  The Creative Entrepreneur by Lisa Sonora Beam “A Do-It-Yourself Visual Guidebook for Making Business Ideas Real”   My friend Frances introduced this book to a small group of us and it became incredible art therapy for us all.  Lisa has created a method of writing a business plan that is unlike anything you’ve done…it’s fun, creative, messy, deep, challenging, rewarding.  Get to the game plan, yes, but the path is an incredible journey…   She writes: “The Creative Entrepreneur offers a dynamic left/right brain

  While we were in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in February we ate lunch at a little place called Steep Creek Cafe (and White Cap Kayak Trips) in the Ironwood and I seem to recall we licked out the bowl that this dip was served in.  Having only the three ingredients listed in the title to go on, I came home and ran with it making a slightly different rendition that is very green and not half bad. Is it hummus?  Is it pesto?  Is

  Despite the occasional April snowstorm our landscape is about to explode into electric GREEN.  It’s been patiently waiting and waiting and the time is nigh.  Later this week I’ll plant my onion sets for green onions —I keep harvesting the shoots throughout the spring and the bulbs keep producing more.  But I rely on others with more space for growing the asparagus, especially since I don’t know where the secret ditch patches are around these hills.   A few

  This past weekend was the annual sisters get-together, and though we ate heartily and well…I have no photos or recipes from it to share with you.   We were totally undocumented! We spent our days and nights eating, joking, laughing, nibbling, shopping, imbibing, laughing some more, and sharing (but not much sleeping), and life was good.  Returning to our day-to-day lives is never easy and as we each travel homeward the melancholy can seep in.  This brought to my

  This was a Comfort Meal in the deli, a bowlful of both Brothy and Filling.   It’s another soup with the tangy buttermilk-secret-ingredient, added at the end when the soup has cooled slightly (so it won’t curdle) and with the addition of a little baking soda to reduce the acidity (so it won’t curdle). The baking soda trick can also be used is to make beans more easily (and quietly) digestible.       Tamari is a great addition

  Question: What does one eat when coming home after weeks on a ski sabbatical? Answer: Whatever is in the house because the catering has not yet begun and we blew our wad for the winter.  I think it’s time to revisit pintos and Pinto Fuul because my sister fed it to us on our way home, and since then I’ve been utilizing my big bag of pintos making various versions of it.  Today it was with feta cheese, yesterday

    Croquettes enable you to eat mashed potatoes with one hand and no fork. Isn’t that what everyone has been asking for?   Last week we found ourselves driving home in the midst of another blizzard, perfectly bookending the trip with driving north in the snowstorm at the beginning.  I suppose we did yearn for the snow to come with us and prolong our skiing affair…and this was another reminder to be careful what we ask for!  Countless times

  The 2014 American Birkebeiner ski marathon will forever be known as the Death March (not literally, no one died during it). Eighteen inches of snow Thursday night before Saturday’s race wreaked havoc for organizers, groomers, plowers, travelers, volunteers, and everyone else in the area—even a 4-wheel drive 4Runner struggles with a foot and a half of wet sticky frozen water!  Eighteen inches of snow also created a soft and punishingly slow course (despite the careful grooming), and this meant