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 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 6th, 2013

Although I’m not a raw foodist per se, I love raw cuisine. It’s innovative, incredibly fresh, and — assuming there’s no dehydrating involved — quick and easy. Not having to turn on a source of heat also appeals to my thrifty side. And now that I have a Vitamix, it’s a lot easier to grind [...]

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Lisa on February 27th, 2013

Chocolate figs come in lots of variations: fresh figs, dried figs, figs soaked in booze, unadorned figs. And there’s the chocolate component: dark, really dark, ultra-dark. (I guess you could use milk chocolate, but the bitterness of dark chocolate contrasts beautifully with the sweetness of figs. Also, dark chocolate sets better than milk chocolate does.) [...]

Continue reading about Figs + Chocolate = Easy, Elegant Dessert

Lisa on February 18th, 2013

Even though green salads are more of a summer dish, sometimes I find myself hankering for salads even more in the winter months, when the days are chilly and overcast. Thank goodness for greenhouse greens! In the winter, I’ll happily devour greens from someone else’s gardens. Markets often stock pre-washed organic greens of all types: [...]

Continue reading about DIY Stylish Salad Dressing with Figs

Lisa on February 1st, 2013

When I’m on an ingredient roll, I like to use it every which way I can. That’s why last week I wrote about mesquite-dusted popcorn and this week I’m writing about mesquite-infused banana bread. The caramel aspect of the mesquite combined with the natural sweetness of the bananas means that you only need 1/4 cup [...]

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Lisa on November 26th, 2012

If you’re in the mood for chestnuts but don’t have an open fire for roasting them, try using your oven instead! Chestnuts are inexpensive at this time of year, plus they’re fun to roast and peel. Since they’re more starchy than your average nut, roasted chestnuts can be used as you would use cooked grains [...]

Continue reading about Elegant & Simple One-Ingredient Appetizers

If there were a culinary awards category for The Coolest-Looking Vegetable When Sliced, lotus roots would win hands-down. If there were a category called The Vegetable That Looks Most Like Victorian Lace, the multi-holed lotus root would win that, too. All you need to do to make show-stopping chips with this humble root is to [...]

Continue reading about Impress Your Friends with Asian-Inspired Homemade Chips

Lisa on September 26th, 2012

If you want to enjoy an unadorned fish filet, it’s best to choose wild salmon or tuna — they have so much innate flavor that it would be a shame to not let it shine through. But if you’d like to dredge a fish filet in crumbs or flour and add a few spices to [...]

Continue reading about Spices, Oatmeal & Fish

Lisa on September 10th, 2012

As a kid, the only time I saw hominy was during the school-sponsored canned food drives. I guessed that no one else knew what to do with canned hominy, either, which was why it was the first item to be donated. Since then, I’ve gotten much more familiar with hominy, relishing it in everything from [...]

Continue reading about Giant Corn, Pozole, and Other Tasty Oddities