For me, summertime in the Pacific NW is a time to celebrate the bounty of fruits and veggies. This is the time of year when beautiful fruit and veggies from local farms, farmers markets and our own gardens are abundant. Continue reading Summer Salad of 2018
Category Archives: Veg
borrowed books result in celery root salad
I’ve started pilfering my friend’s many cookbooks. You see, she’s quite the cookbook collector, but claims to rarely cook, which I know is not true. However, since she made this claim, I happily grabbed a number of her cookbooks to peruse and borrow indefinitely. One in particular is a beautiful book by ex Chez Pannisse alum David Lebovitz, who now resides in Paris, and whose cookbook now lives on my bookshelf. Continue reading borrowed books result in celery root salad
tasty n alder’s radicchio salad
If you live in Portland and like food, chances are you’ve dined at one of the restaurants in chef John Gorham’s portfolio of awesomeness. I first learned of Tasty n Sons in Bon Appetit magazine when I lived in the Bay Area. A few years ago when I was visiting in Portland from the Bay Area, I insisted that a group of my friends and I wait in the excruciatingly long weekend brunch line at Tasty n Sons. I really dislike waiting in line for food, and usually draw the line at an hour wait. However, my rule of no waiting for food seems to get thrown out the window when it comes to John Gorham’s restaurants. Continue reading tasty n alder’s radicchio salad
creamy but no cream?
I have a friend who is a self described Pinterest addict. She has told me that her evening routine after she puts her two boys to bed, involves scrolling through and pinning recipes, crafts and redecorating ideas on Pinterest. Because of this addiction, my friend has found a bunch of great recipes, a few of which she has passed along to me. Continue reading creamy but no cream?
tomatillos in the house
I spotted a pile of beautiful tomatillos at my local farmers market last week, and decided to give them a try. I remembered running across a recipe for tomatillo jam a while back and saved it, with the thought that someday I would make it. This is what happens with a lot of my recipes and best intentions. They get filed away, and when I’m at the store or farmers market, I see an ingredient that jogs my memory, I go home and spend a ridiculous amount of time searching for the filed away recipe. Not the greatest system. Luckily, I found this particular recipe with not a huge amount of effort. And so my first experience with tomatillos commenced. Continue reading tomatillos in the house
spring soup
It’s spring in the Pacific NW, and that means garlic scape is having its short run at local grocery stores and farmers markets. Garlic scape, or green garlic, are the flower stalks of garlic plants. When I lived in Portland the first time around, I used to look forward to their very short season. I would simply steam them and eat the stalks like asparagus. Continue reading spring soup
knife-wielding children and tofu
I have a friend who shares the same name as my husband. Both first and last name. Confusing? Sometimes. Hilarious? Definitely. I’ve accidentally tagged them incorrectly on Facebook and I have a note in my phone differentiating the two so I won’t embarrass myself with an inappropriate text to the one who’s not my husband. Continue reading knife-wielding children and tofu
the soup of ages
I recently returned from a trip to NYC. As always, it was an amazing time filled with friends, food, music and more food. The city is made for food-obsessed people like myself. Craving pastrami at 2 a.m. or Korean BBQ at 3 a.m.? No problem, NYC has it, and it’s open. You really can access anything your heart desires at any time. Food on demand. Continue reading the soup of ages
learning chinese cooking from the best: eggplant salad
My mother-in-law is notoriously hard to nail down in the kitchen. And by that I mean she doesn’t measure or document any of her recipes. I asked her a while ago to make her eggplant salad so I could trail her around the kitchen with camera, pen and paper and finally capture one of my favorites from her repertoire. Continue reading learning chinese cooking from the best: eggplant salad
the zucchini problem
I remember when I was little my parents would grumble about the amount of zucchini that wildly multiplied in our garden. Our zucchini was extremely difficult to pawn off to friends, because it seemed that everyone who had a garden—and most people we knew did— had an abundance of the stuff. You see, the green torpedo-shaped veggies multiply easily and are hard to kill off. It’s the type of ubiquitous squash that keeps on producing, and comes back as a volunteer plant next year, whether you intend to have it in your garden or not. Let’s just say we ate a lot of zucchini during the months of August and September, when squash season is at its peak in the Pacific Northwest. Continue reading the zucchini problem
planks and sticks 