I just love making salads and this one is really full of flavor. I had some savoy cabbage and fresh herbs in the fridge that just spoke to me, and the dressing is easy to make and tasty. I usually buy lots of lemons when they are on sale and juice and zest them and freeze the juice in 1 T in an ice cube tray and put the zest in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid in the freezer. It keeps really well for a few months, and I get really creative using lemon juice or zest in lots of things.
This salad is an exception to my rule, “never put dressing on a salad that you won’t eat all in one day”. This salad can stand up in the fridge to the dressing for three days. The trick is don’t use too much dressing. Just coat the salad. It’s still tasty and keeps so well. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Community, cooking, cooking wisdom, Food, Frugality, Learning, Recipe, Recipes, Teaching
Let me tell you about a wonderful cookbook that I recently got and have been cooking out of for a few weeks. It’s “Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy” based on her cooking show on PBS. The book is a collection of recipes from the regions of Italy with lots of stories about the wine, cheese and pasta making that is wonderful about this beautiful country. Flavorful, hearty and umami! We used some chard and mesclun growing in our raised beds hanging on from last year along with some lovely green kale from this year. Tasty! Prep time is not too long and cooking time is altogether maybe 20 minutes. Lidia made her own eggless pasta called strangozzi which is flat and 3/8″ wide, but we found a nice eggless spaghetti at Pastaworks in Portland that was just delicious! We had this with a baguette rubbed with garlic and brushed with olive oil toasted and some cherry red and yellow tomatoes sliced and drizzled with EVOO and fresh lemon juice. You really don’t need anything else. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Community, cooking, cooking wisdom, Food, Frugality, Learning, Recipe, Recipes, Teaching
Once upon a time there was a chicken pot pie that lived in the 50′s in frozen dinner land in America. It was salty and sugary and pasty and got less and less appealing and more and more frankenfood as the decades passed by.
I got a hankering for a pot pie to my liking, so here is a dandy, vegetarian, easy, spectacular, spectacular dish!
Tags: Community, cooking, cooking wisdom, Food, Frugality, Learning, Recipe, Teaching
These cabbage rolls were yummy! They really were green and still a little raw and toothsome. It’s really interesting that I have an idea (like making cabbage rolls) then, everywhere I look on the intertubes is a recipe! Most of the recipes called for meat or fake meat (which I really, really don’t like). I decided on this grain, veggie, herby recipe that I have made in one form or another for eggrolls, pot stickers and empanadas. The technique for rolling is the same as for an eggroll…keep it tight! Read the rest of this entry »
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This soup was really easy to put together and tasted so wonderful. The adjustments to the seasoning sauces is the key. Find your perfect combination and you will be happy. Notice that there is no salt or pepper here? You may put it on the table along with some seasoning sauce and fish sauce! Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Community, cooking, cooking wisdom, Food, Frugality, Learning, Recipe, Recipes, Teaching
I have been making this version of black eyed pea soup for years. It is easy and so delicious. It is vegetarian and gets even better if you make it ahead. One thing you need to know about beans in general…the longer you keep them, the longer you need to soak them. Beans keep for a loooong time! 
You need to keep that in mind when you soak and cook the sweet little pods! I love having my jars and tins of beans that I can cook even if they are three years in the pantry. They are still useable and still wonderful to eat. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: cooking, cooking wisdom, Food, Frugality, Learning, Recipe, Recipes, Teaching
We had a great day yesterday. We cooked for 9: prime rib, gravy, yorkshire pudding, roasted potatoes, horseradish sauce, Wassail, and friends brought pickled asparagus, broccoli and rice, lots of appetizers and English trifle for dessert. It was a wonderful time with friends. The dishes are still to do and the kitchen needs cleaning, but I love cooking for my friends.
Yorkshire Pudding smothered in brown gravy was originally created to “fill you up” before eating the itty bitty piece of meat (protein) you’d get very occasionally. Sometimes it was the only thing you would get to eat, especially the children. It was usually cooked over an open hearth underneath the meat to catch the fat drippings in a square or rectangle pan. Yorkshire pudding seems hard to do, but, if you take it one step at a time, it’s dead easy. And, it is sooooo decadent, crispy and golden on the outside and soft and tasty on the inside.
Hey, some roasted potatoes, peas, carrots and veggie gravy and you have a very satisfying dinner! Oh, the hole that is formed in the middle is to hold the gravy!
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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! This is a lovely present from Sweetie’s girls. It smells divine on our table. I found this wonderful dish at Epicurious and the preserved lemons at various sites, then Mark Bittman brought it in focus, and I did my thing on both. The Couscous is still wonderful cold or warm two weeks later. And the lemons – WOW! I have been using them on any and everything! Read the rest of this entry »
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This recipe is excellent for using up the root vegetables in your pantry and crisper. I bought 5 lbs. of green beans at their peak last September and washed and tipped them, then blanched them in boiling water for 1 minute and plunged them in ice water to stop the cooking. Then put them in a colander to drain, and place them separately on a cookie sheet and freeze them for 24 hours. Double bag in two ziploc bags and place in the freezer. They really stay fresh and separate! This meal all goes together in less than an hour. A good dinner on a cold night. You could add some chopped or minced or roasted garlic to either the roasted vegetables or the green beans depending on what you are looking for. ENJOY! Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Community, cooking, cooking wisdom, Food, Frugality, Learning, Recipe, Recipes, Teaching
This was a really spectacular cake to take to our Thanksgiving gathering! I modified my Fresh Apple Cake and it worked! Read the rest of this entry »
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