If you visit my e-kitchen on a regular basis, you know that when I like an ingredient, I tend to use it a lot. The only thing better than having plenty of [insert favorite ingredient here] on hand is getting creative with it! Recasting a favorite is also a delicious way to love your leftovers [...]
If you’re in the mood for an unadorned artichoke, nothing beats a freshly steamed one, but if you want to make a dish featuring artichokes as the main ingredient, the canned route suddenly gets a whole lot more appealing. To make this savory baked custard — which is fantastic for either breakfast or lunch — [...]
Continue reading about A Heart(y) Breakfast, Artichoke Style
If you have a bit of spare time and a sacrificial kitchen towel*, making a baked potato cake — which can be turned into the world’s tastiest hash browns if you have leftovers! — is a fun way to prepare potatoes. All you need is butter, salt and pepper, and baking/starchy potatoes. (As opposed to [...]
Sometimes recipes develop out of necessity. This dip, for example, happened because I was out of chickpeas. (Not sure if there’s been a massive chickpea crop failure or Metro Detroit is in a chickpea feeding frenzy right now, but lately I’ve had a heckuva time finding my favorite brand of canned chickpeas!) I was out [...]
It’s Monday, it’s lunchtime, and you’re lunch-less and hungry. Odds are, you’re stuck going to the nearest faux-healthy restaurant. (Ever looked at the ingredients in a Panera sandwich? If you print out what’s in the Turkey Artichoke Panini, it’ll take up almost a full 8 1/2″ x 11″ page. But hey, I guess that’s better [...]
Yes, when I get on a kick, I get on a kick. My current one is tiny plantains. They’re so cute! And so handily single-portion-sized. (Note: I mean “tiny plantains” as a descriptive term — you’ll find them under guises such as “manzano bananas” and “burro bananas” and any other official label attached to short, [...]
Continue reading about Plantains, Kiwis, and Other Tropical Treats
It’s nearly New Year’s Eve, and chances are you’re looking for a tasty and quick appetizer to serve your guests. One of my recent favorites involves just three ingredients: chickpeas, berbere or chili powder, and extra-virgin olive oil. That plus 15 minutes of occasionally shaking a pan will get you deliciously unique bite-sized appetizers to [...]
When you think of a banana, chances are you think of a Cavendish banana: yellow, curved and long, typically eaten when sweet and soft. But there are hundreds of varieties of bananas — albeit from one genetic source that has been replanted from cuttings for thousands of years — that range from small to large [...]
As their name implies, this classic appetizer can be devilishly delicious or hellishly horrid. It all depends on the quality of the three main ingredients: the pickles, the mustard, and most importantly the eggs. I also prefer to make deviled eggs sans mayonnaise or with homemade mayonnaise — the jiggly white stuff you buy in [...]
A lot of us are used to thinking of cucumbers as a summer veggie — especially when they’re growing like mad in our gardens and we’re trying to figure out who we can foist them onto — but I think cucumbers are the perfect winter veggie: they’re crisp and versatile and have long been popular [...]
