Clockwise from top left: Taboulleh Juice, Kiwi-Chard, Golden Rule, Cucumber Mojito, Heart Beet This has been a very difficult autumn. Actually, it was a pretty rough summer too. As you know if you read my mid-July post on congee, I’ve been having trouble swallowing all year. Much longer than that, actually, but this year it’s gotten…
Slow-Braised Green Beans with Tomato
We’ve been done a disservice by the cult of al dente vegetables. While there’s no doubt that many vegetables are at their best very lightly cooked – all types of peas spring to mind – the idea that every veggie is at its best steamed for 30 seconds is as misguided as the thought that…
Pasta with Marcella Hazan’s Simple Tomato-Butter Sauce
This is not going to be my most original post, because it seems like every food blogger has, at some point, posted Marcella Hazan’s recipe for tomato-butter sauce. It’s not hard to see why, even before you taste it: It has three ingredients. You throw them in a pan and let them simmer. If it’s…
Fluffy Lemon-Blueberry Cottage Cheese Pancakes
I have never been a fan of blueberries. I know many people love them, but I almost always find them disappointing. Their color is so vivid, their shiny roundness so tempting, but then you bite into one and… meh. Most blueberries taste to me like they’ve been diluted. What flavor there is, is nice, but…
Grill-Roasted Summer Tomato Soup
Things continue to go really well in my garden, at least as far as tomatoes go. (Squash is a different matter – my plants were ravaged by squash bugs and had to be torn out.) This is the first year I’ve had enough tomatoes to share with my neighbors. And enough to try recipes that…
Recovery Food: Simple Congee with Vegetables
This blog is about good times – delicious food, breezy work, sharing with the ones you love. Happy, simple times. But food and eating are not simple. They are complicated by all sorts of things – social pressures, money issues, environmental concerns (local vs organic, anyone?), and all manner of health concerns ranging from managing…
Sweet-Hot Black Pepper Tofu
Back around Christmas I fell in love with the cookbook Plenty at my favorite local beautiful-things store, Hey Jhonny. (Yes, it’s meant to be spelled that way.) I was desperate to own the beautiful, pillowy-covered, extravagantly photographed object. But I didn’t know if it was a good cookbook, and besides, I was supposed to be shopping…
Ricotta-Stuffed Fried Squash Blossoms
This is the culmination of a dream. I don’t even remember where it is that I once tasted a battered, fried zucchini blossom. But ever since, I’ve wanted to make them myself. They’re so elegant, so unexpected, even kind of crazy. I mean, we do eat flowers – broccoli, for instance, or artichokes – but…
Sweet and Tangy Plum Frozen Yogurt with Lemon
Well, friends, there’s no denying it – summer is here. And though that means great things for my garden, I find it less friendly to me personally. I hate to be hot, I hate to sweat… so, let’s face it, I’m not a huge fan of summer. But the season has its upsides, and one…
Baby Lettuce Salad with Lemon and Olive Oil
When I was a kid, “salad” meant one thing to me: iceberg lettuce drenched in fluorescent orange Kraft Creamy French Dressing. Catalina, a red French and my mother’s favorite, would do in a pinch, or maybe Italian. But I was devoted to the slightly chemical tang of my orange dressing. In restaurants, before choosing between…