Pomegranate: possibly the most delicious fruit ever. Surely the most tedious fruit ever. Separating all those seeds from the extensive, bitter membranes that intersperse the delicious seeds of the pom is a herculean task. I have developed a pretty decent hold-sections-of-pom-over-the-sink-and-scrape-the-seeds-off-with-my-teeth technique, and even manage to eat this seasonal winter fruit without getting horror-movie-esque levels…
Cooking
Split Pea Soup with Bacon (or, How To Eat Well For Almost No Money)
“It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and…
Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips and Bourbon
Let’s talk about how pumpkin flavors are forced into everything at this time of year. I know this isn’t a universal feeling, but I kinda run screaming from pumpkin spiced lattes, pumpkin ale, pumpkin yogurt, pumpkin pie flavored vodka (blech) and many of the “pumpkin spice” type commercial products that hit the shelves in October…
Plum Jamtini Cocktail – Pass The Ice, Pass The Shaker!
My friend Theresa is the Co-Executive Producer of Growing A Greener World, a fantastic TV show about all things gardening. She’s also a wicked good urban homesteader, master canner, great writer (check out her personal blog), and a super nice person. Theresa knows I have a soft spot for combining jam with booze (strawberry jam margarita, anyone?), so…
Homemade DIY Whole Wheat Waffle Mix
If I give my kids carte blanche to pick breakfast, as I often do on the weekends, they want waffles. It never fails. Waffles are one of those foods people seem impressed by. If you are used to thinking of waffles as something that comes from a yellow box in the freezer aisle, those little…
Lamb Blade Chops with Apricot Halves and Salt Preserved Lemon
This is a simple one-skillet dish disguised as a fancy-pants chef-type meal. The deception works because we’re using slightly more exotic pantry ingredients like salt-preserved lemons and apricot halves in syrup. The salted lemons, apricots and warm spices meld together into a Moroccan-influenced sweet and sour sauce that rocks with the lamb blade chops. If you don’t…
Fast Marinated Chickpea and Parsley Salad
At the Northwest Flower and Garden Show recipe demo I did yesterday I inadvertently shafted my vegetarian friends by focusing on some pretty carnivorous recipes. So, I made a video showing how home canned chickpeas can be transformed into this super fast vegetarian entree salad in just a few minutes. Watch It! Make It! Marinated Chickpea Salad Ingredients…
Stir-fry of Pickled Green Beans with Ground Pork
This Chinese inspired skillet stir-fry gets its distinctive flavor from the sour pickled green beans. These are beans that have been traditionally brine pickled through lacto-fermentation, rather than quick pickled with vinegar. Any fairly sturdy sour pickled vegetable will work very well in a dish like this. I adore lacto-fermented turnips with beef and chili…
Three Sisters in Seattle Chili
The thing about this chili is, you pretty much just open up a bunch of jars and simmer. So on a difficulty scale of 1 to 10, 1 being “Boil Water” and 10 being “The Food They Invent at Moto” this chili is maybe a 2, and that’s only if you need to rummage around for a…
Magically Fast and Easy Homemade Mayonnaise
Of all the things I demo’d yesterday at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, nothing – nothing – rocked people’s socks like my favorite technique for making excellent homemade mayo in a hurry, using a mason jar and an immersion blender. This is the simplest mayo method I’ve ever tried, and I’m consistently happy with…
Sunchoke Soup with Hazelnuts
This recipe is from the Eating Local in the Depth of Winter recipe demo and presentation I gave at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. Thank you so much to everyone who came out to learn just how delicious it can be to eat from your garden, even in the “low time.” To view all…
Skillet Cauliflower with Curry
This recipe is from the Eating Local in the Depth of Winter recipe demo and presentation I gave at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. Thank you so much to everyone who came out to learn just how delicious it can be to eat from your garden, even in the “low time.” To view all…