Lisa on October 21st, 2011

Pan-frying a filet of fish is easy, but pan-frying little smelts is even easier. Talk about the ultimate fish for a fish and chips meal! Just dip each smelt into a dusting of your choice and sautée in butter or ghee for about five minutes. Done. And the nearly-bite-sized smelt are much less expensive than [...]

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Lisa on August 24th, 2011

Sweet corn, savory herbs, juicy tomatoes — what more could you want? Summer brings out the best on our plates. (Summer also means that my refrigerator tends to be a bit bare since a lot of my future meals are anchored to my garden dirt.) And now that we’re — sniff! — at the tail [...]

Continue reading about Guaranteed Summer Hits: Sweet Corn & Fresh Herbs

Lisa on August 22nd, 2011

This post is a two-for-one deal: it’s a continuation and an introduction! The continuation is the part where you make darned tasty use of your leftover high-quality, no-mess, baked bacon from the previous recipe. The introduction part is to let you know about brown rice maifun noodles. I stumbled across them at Westborn lately and [...]

Continue reading about You Say Vermicelli, I Say Maifun

Lisa on July 15th, 2011

It’s official: summertime just ain’t summertime unless I have a pesto posting. Or two or three, seeing as I can’t think of a yummier dish to make with my favorite herb! (Although non-classic herbs like cilantro and dill also make great pesto; try pairing the former with almonds and the latter with walnuts.) At this [...]

Continue reading about A Smoother, Nuttier Pesto

Lisa on October 25th, 2010

If you’ve ever had a garden, wanted a garden, or just had an empty windowsill begging to be populated, you probably already know that most herbs are ridiculously easy to grow.  Just make sure they’re well-watered — poke your finger into the dirt to see if it feels dry and needing water or if it’s [...]

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Lisa on July 12th, 2010

Herbal bouquets are a great way to dress up your windowsills and your meals.  (Beverages, too!)  Most herbs are sturdy plants that will last a week or more in a vase, especially if you refresh them with cool water every day.  And the best part about having herbs close at hand is that you’re more [...]

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Lisa on September 2nd, 2009

An egg is a nearly-perfect food, replete in vitamins and minerals (except Vitamin C) and with more accessible protein than a steak.  It’s comes in convenient packaging and can be eaten in every conceivable way — baked, hard-boiled, scrambled, souffléd, pan-fried, poached, even raw (although the latter is only advisable if you’re on a first-name [...]

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Lisa on June 8th, 2009

Windowsills are a great place to grow kitchen herbs and sprouts.  If you have an unobstructed east- or west-facing window, whatever you choose to plant will have a very happy home; if you give your plant some toothsome kitchen scraps, it’ll have an even happier home.  (In my case, whenever I use eggs, I add [...]

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Lisa on July 23rd, 2008

Herbs and spices have been used for millenia for culinary, medical, cosmetic, and religious purposes.  Spices have been actively traded on an international level ever since 2,000 B.C.E., when Arab traders brought back pepper, cloves, nutmegs, and other delicacies from the famed Spice Islands (the Molucca islands off the coast of Indonesia).  In the 1400s, [...]

Continue reading about Herbs and Spices: Introduction