Produce 
Be Kale My Heart
Kale plants in the backyard are a show all winter long. Hardy and steadfast, they dominate a big patch of the winter garden, and lately they’ve turned seasonal warmth and light into effervescent new leaves – garden sirens beckoning me to look, to photograph and to eat. Be kale my heart may be a frivolous [...]
Shop Your Pantry & Freezer
Last week while my car was being repaired, I was forced to think about my all-too-often impulse to “run to the grocery store” to pick up something for dinner. Run meaning, of course, drive. I’m sorry to say that it took me not having my car to look at the food I already had and [...]
Versatile Vegetable Soup
Groundhog’s Day yesterday and Imbolc mean we’re halfway to spring. There are wee signs in the garden – the earliest flowers unfolding, and rhubarb gallantly punching hot pink nubs and crinkled neon leaves through its own mulch.
Still, it’s winter and the hardiest vegetables rule. A steaming pot of homemade soup is winter’s snooze on a [...]
Back to Our Roots, Roast ‘em
Now’s the time to roast any vegetable, and I think I mean any vegetable. If there’s an exception I don’t know what it is. Maybe lettuce. Warm up the house, kick up the flavor, which caramelization via high-heat roasting accomplishes (the Maillard Reaction), and dinner, maybe two, is halfway done. It’s an efficient way to [...]
Put Some Fire in Your Belly: Kimchi
Making your own kimchi isn’t as hard as it sounds and you may find it’s just what’s needed as an antidote to the winter doldrums. I figure just about everybody could use a spicy little kick-in-the-pants right about now. Kimchi will spice up any meal and at the same time gives your digestion and immunity [...]
Shallots step up to the plate
All winter long there’s a bag of shallots in the pantry, periodically refreshed with more from the Farmers Market. Pipitone Farms provided these beauties, and PCC has shallots from Rent’s Due Ranch. Loyal and sturdy characters, they’re bit part players, chopped up finely for salad dressings, sautéed with butter to dress up all kinds [...]
Grateful for Brussels Sprouts
I hated them with a purple passion, now I love them with a purple passion. I’m in awe of their form and function, the dignity with which the plant stands there looking ready for a stroll down the red carpet.
Whispers of magenta, green and dusky purple, mysterious languid leaves hovering protectively around florets at [...]
2 Simple Sides: Shrooms & Squash
Those of us who have chosen to prepare a local meal for our Northwest Thanksgiving feast have lots of side dish options to choose from. When it comes to sides, there are so many possibilities, I try to reign my imagination in and go for something simple that can be mostly prepared ahead of time. [...]
Roast It!
Apples, cauliflower, tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplant, cranberries . . . you name it, you can probably roast it. Starting with this applesauce.
My roasting memories involve a chunk of meat on Sundays with a pile of vegetables that were conveniently roasted along side. The word roast was synonymous with the meat so I grew up assuming that [...]
What’s Hot? Roasted Peppers
Roasted peppers are my latest obsession at the farmers market — Billy’s roasted peppers. They’re only going to be there for a couple more weeks, but they’re simple to freeze to use later. The wonderfully smoky aroma that fills the market when they’re roasting gets me every time. One whiff of that and I’m [...]
