It’s funny how tastes change — when I was a kid, I used to hate wild rice (I thought of it as “funny rice,” and I don’t mean funny in a good way), but now it’s one of my favorites. Granted, what we see called “wild” rice is actually a cultivated variety grown in California; [...]
It’s officially fall: the pears are falling off of the trees. (Especially when you have gusting winds like we’ve been having lately.) One of my friends has so many pears lying on the ground underneath her tree that she keeps giving me more and more — she can’t bear to see any wasted. Wish I [...]
When I was a kid, I couldn’t stand cabbage — it tasted like old shoes and smelled even worse when it was cooking. But lately I’ve started using cabbage in my dishes, and I’m realizing that the whole trick to enjoying cabbage is to cook it gently. When you do, it retains its pleasing crunch [...]
Continue reading about Creamy Winter Chowder & Crunchy Winter Cabbage
What do kasha and buckwheat have in common? They’re both triangular, gluten-free seeds that are treated as grains, and they’re both used to make everything from pancakes to pilaf. The only difference between them — and it’s a big one, flavor-wise — is that kasha is roasted buckwheat. I used to think I wasn’t keen [...]
Now that summer is on the way, I’m thinking about gardening and veggies and mounds of fresh produce. It’s still a little bit chilly out, though, so I’m also still enjoying warm dishes hot off the stove. In keeping with the winter-to-spring transition, this Vegetable Medley Stew is a cross-seasonal dish — it’s warm and [...]
While we tend to pair pasta and beans in soup (pasta e fagioli, anyone?), we usually don’t serve them in a dry environment…but why not? Sprouted-grain pastas are now widely available, and they make a hearty counterpoint to whatever bean strikes your fancy. White or black, hot or cold…beans are a flavorful, inexpensive source of [...]
“The young sow wild oats; the old sow sage,” goes the adage. Arabians associated sage with immortality while the Romans called it salva, or in Latin, to “heal” or “save.” (Hence, the modern-day word “salvation.”) There are hundreds of varieties of sage, ranging from the purple-flowered common sage to the more exotic varieties like pineapple [...]
