Lisa on May 20th, 2013

This dish came about for two reasons: I had a hankering for a whole-grain, gluten-free crouton alternative, and I couldn’t find grape tomatoes at the produce market. (Sadly, it’s too early in the season for them to be plentiful in my garden. But I’m looking forward to those little flavor bombs growing a few feet [...]

Continue reading about Ten Minutes and You’ve Got Lunch!

Lisa on May 13th, 2013

It’s hard to say whether the current status quo is due to an onslaught of commercials featuring kids eating carrots while playing in valleys or whether Americans have a group-mind when it comes to dressings, but one thing is clear: Ranch is just about everybody’s favorite dressing. I love the concept, too — you can’t [...]

Continue reading about Taking Back an American Classic

Lisa on May 8th, 2013

Few culinary traditions labor under as great a misconception as sushi does. Yes, most sushi is served with raw ingredients. Sushi, however, does not mean raw fish. (Although I think sushi made with raw fish is utterly lovely.) Sushi simply refers to a mode of preparation, namely to serve raw or cooked seafood or veggies with vinegared short-grain rice. [...]

Continue reading about Uncanned and Unbelievably Delicious

Lisa on May 1st, 2013

Eat, don’t spray! No need to buy fancy spring specials at the market when your lawn is full of free, fresh greens and herbs. I’m talking dandelion greens, purslane, and wood sorrel; wild alliums like chives, ramps, and scapes. Instead of spraying Roundup and contaminating our water supply — when it rains, all those herbicides, [...]

Continue reading about The “Eat, Don’t Spray!” Meal Idea

Lisa on April 29th, 2013

It warms the cockels of my qualitarian heart to see more and more farmers selling real meat at farmers’ markets. Produce is a wonderful thing, but real meat — that would be meat from animals that actually graze, mill around outside enjoying themselves, and generally live the way they’ve evolved to live — is much [...]

Continue reading about Chorizo, Cilantro & Celery

Lisa on April 22nd, 2013

Finally! Spring is here! Once more, ’tis the season of colorful veggies. And fresh-cooked whole grains to complement those lovely vegetables. Millet, amaranth, quinoa, even steel-cut oats are great candidates for savory suppers. Or how about a member of the rice family? Brown, black, red, and purple are all as delicious as they are visually [...]

Continue reading about Spring Thyme At Last!

If you’ve never had prosciutto di Parma — that’s imported prosciutto from Parma, Italy — give it a try. While domestic prosciutto offers a faint taste of the faintly smoky, deeply savory, and lightly cured flavor so intrinsic to good prosciutto, the real deal offers a much richer, more pronounced taste. Yes, the good stuff [...]

Continue reading about The Beauty of Combining Cured Ham with Roasted Squash

Lisa on March 27th, 2013

As much as I adore raw food (no grains means no gluten — yay!) and especially the dehydrated main courses like meatball subs and falafel wraps, I’m not wild about the typical dehydration period of anywhere from 12 to 20 hours. That’s too much planning and waiting even for me. Plus, although dehydrators run at [...]

Continue reading about Sometimes Rules Are Meant To Be Broken

Lisa on March 20th, 2013

If you happened to catch me on the local Fox morning show this week, you probably saw me cooking with coffee in the station’s studio kitchen. One of the recipes I made was coffee-spiked pozole. Yep, I said coffee. It goes beyond the cup! I created this recipe because I wanted to infuse this traditional Mexican [...]

Continue reading about Hominy Heaven

Lisa on March 15th, 2013

When I do culinary talks, I often hand out a sheet I call “The Art of Refrigerator Triage.” It’s about letting your refrigerator make your dinner-making decisions for you so that the pressure is off both you and your wallet — if you make use of what you already have while it’s still fresh and [...]

Continue reading about Pumpkin + Peas + Pasta = Yum!