Lisa on January 9th, 2012

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 [...]

Continue reading about Last-Minute Lunches

Lisa on December 5th, 2011

‘Tis the season to take a little extra time with your baked goods. Not that biscotti takes a ridiculously long time to make, but the title alone — “twice-baked” in Italian — does set the stage for a few more moments to be spent rearranging baking sheets and dealing with dough. Think of biscotti as [...]

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Lisa on November 23rd, 2011

I don’t have many fancy gadgets in the kitchen — sous-vide cooking and flavored foams just seem like too much work to me — but I consider my ice cream maker to be an indispensable culinary aid. Ditto for my blender. If you have those two kitchen helpers, making ice cream becomes ridiculously easy. Not [...]

Continue reading about Cranberries, Both Sweet & Savory

Lisa on November 18th, 2011

We cut them up and then toss them to the curb uneaten, we use them as home decor, we even make containers and musical instruments out of them…but we don’t eat very many of them. I’m talking about squash. Poor, overlooked squash. It’s relatively easy to prepare — assuming that you have a sharp and [...]

Continue reading about Misconceptions Squashed

Lisa on August 31st, 2011

‘Tis the season to seek out lush summer melons and enjoy them any which way you can. Right now, cantaloupes, watermelons, honeydews, crenshaws — even lesser-known melons like piel de sapo, or “toad skin” — are crowding the produce bins. You can trim away the hard rinds, then chop the flesh and add it to [...]

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Lisa on April 27th, 2011

What to do when a friend gives you the gift of perfectly sweet honeydew?  It depends how quickly you want to enjoy it!  I thought about blending it with coconut milk and honey to make ice cream, but then I decided that I didn’t want to wait for the ice cream maker to do its [...]

Continue reading about Spicy Smoothies & Sweet Melons

Lisa on February 21st, 2011

It’s always fun to discover new ways of using an established ingredient, like toasting almonds before using them (they’ll have a much deeper, nuttier flavor) or running sucanat through a coffee grinder to get a more natural form of powdered sugar (which you can use in chiffon cakes and meringues and icings exactly the same [...]

Continue reading about Toasting & Baking in a Tropical Kind of Way

Lisa on August 6th, 2010

Traditional fats are one of the building blocks of food: they carry flavor, they provide a creamy taste and texture, and they have more nutrients per gram than their cousins carbohydrates and proteins.  (When I say “traditional” fats, I mean fats from whole foods — both plant and animal — not man-made, refined fats that [...]

Continue reading about Of Macadamia Nuts, Salad Dressings & Oil Labels

Lisa on December 7th, 2008

Does anyone else have fond memories of going to the mall as a kid and getting an Orange Julius? That used to be my favorite treat. Twenty years ago, you could find Orange Julius mixes in packets at the grocery store, too. All you had to do was add milk and blend it. Here’s an [...]

Continue reading about All Hail Julius !