Happy New Year, everybody! I thought I’d start off 2012 by breaking an established culinary tradition: pizza toppings. Don’t get me wrong — I love mushroom and (pastured) pepperoni as much as the next guy — but I also enjoy venturing into off-the-spun-dough territory. I first had Thunfisch (tuna fish) pizza in Germany and have [...]
Seeing as the Big Day is nearly here and everyone is rushing around like mad to get their holiday errands done, I thought I’d post a get-done-quick recipe that you can whip up to impress your guests (or yourself). The ingredients range from non-perishable to not-too-perishable and are simple enough to keep on hand. After [...]
Cold weather = a great time for hot soup. (And hot chocolate!) Hot soup with a Caribbean flair is an even better way to ignore the outdoor chill. I was lucky to have tinned conch on hand when I decided to warm up my evening with hot Caribbean soup, but you could just as easily [...]
It’s a shame that spinach steals so much of the dark-greens spotlight, because lots of other greens are just as tasty. Don’t get me wrong — I love spinach! But I also adore collards (especially when made Ethiopian style) and mustard greens (perfect when you want naturally sharp and spicy greens) and turnip greens (a [...]
Although popular conception would have you believe that the vaunted Mediterranean diet mostly consists of olive oil and vegetables, in reality, it also involves a lot of pastured eggs and dairy. What self-respecting Greek would be without her feta cheese? Or halloumi or kasseri? Then there’s the whole extra-thick, double-strained yogurt that has caught on [...]
Continue reading about Mediterranean Meals: More Than Just Olives
About a year ago, I attended a potluck with some very unique culinary contributions. Probably the most unique of them all was a bowl of what I’d assumed were whole-wheat noodles tossed with alfredo sauce. Darn, I remember thinking. Guess I gotta avoid that — it’s definitely a mess of gluten. I proceeded to happily [...]
Continue reading about They’re Crunchy and They’re Noodle-y…and They’re Kelp!
Unrefined oils are a deliciously wonderful thing. They can also be difficult to find even when you know what you want. Fortunately, though, extra-virgin olive oil is in just about every grocery store aisle nowadays, and many non-chain stores and health-oriented stores — read: not Wal-Mart, Costco, Meijer or Kroger’s — also stock unrefined peanut [...]
Now that summer is in full swing and we have zucchini and greens and herbs growing everywhere they can (found random cilantro in my garden yesterday!), it makes sense to combine these in-season favorites to create an easy summer meal. Adding pecans and raisins to this dish gives you nutty-sweet kick + crunch, and using [...]
Continue reading about Having Scrabble for Dinner (a Q & Z Dish)
In my continuing quest to see what else I can do with goat yogurt (so far there’s been ice cream, and stay tuned for muffins!), I decided to see what I could do with goat yogurt in the soup world. Pairing the tangy yogurt with the bright acidity of tomatoes turned out to be a [...]
Although “sweet” and “savory” have become separate worlds in today’s American restaurants and home kitchens, in many cultures they’re freely combined: Thai salads with papaya and beef, the Hawaiian penchant for cooking pineapple with pork, Polynesian dishes featuring mango and shrimp. Even European cooks used to blur the sweet/savory boundaries at will. (Hence the tradition [...]
Continue reading about Enjoying Hot Dogs in a Medieval Kind of Way
