Judy Rodgers died Monday. Unless you are a chef, or a follower of the food world, or live in San Francisco, this probably means nothing to you. Why should it? People die every day. If we mourned for every person we’ve never known we would be paralyzed. But Chef Rodger’s passing means something to me….
Dish
Easy Skillet Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Oh, poor maligned Mr. Brussels Sprout. Seems like he gets pulled out every year as a Thanksgiving side and then is forgotten the rest of the year. Can’t you just imagine him in a group therapy session for one-day-only vegetables? Brussels would take the floor: “Hey guys. Yeah, well, it’s gotten a little bit better…
Drunken Pie Crust: The Secret To Great Pie
Other dishes are quintessential on the Thanksgiving table, sure: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes. I consider Brussels sprouts essential, and some kind of cranberry preserve that has never seen a can must grace the table, too. But pie – oh boy, that’s where the buck stops, isn’t it? Pumpkin pie is a classic, but apple and…
Romaine Salad with Sweet Potatoes and Tangy Blue Cheese Dressing
This salad came about, as so many things in my kitchen do, because I was looking to use up some leftovers. For dinner a night or two before I made this salad I had roasted several sweet potatoes in their skins and served them simple and plain, with butter and salt passed at the table….
Beyond PB&J: Easy Sauces To Use Your Preserves
Pantry full of jam? Yeah…me too. And while I like a good jam thumbprint shortbread cookie as much as the next person, there’s only so much sweet I can take, you know? (Okay, that’s is a lie, but at least 19 times out of 20 I do not actually scoop homemade jam into my mouth…
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…