Please don’t look at my spinach.
It’s embarrassing. I got this beautiful, fresh spinach in my farm share box and I let it linger in my fridge too long. It’s definitely not bad, but it’s not picture worthy. It’s tired spinach. Continue reading
Category Archives: Other
Artichoke, Spinach, and Ricotta Pie
Filed under Breakfast, Gluten Free, Other
Homemade Ricotta
For those of you who are thinking that you would never make homemade ricotta, and that I’m just going overboard in the other direction after giving you this tube-dough abomination…. you may be right. About the going in the other direction thing, not that you can’t make homemade ricotta. The first time I made this, it was as kind of a fun experiment. Then I realized how easy it was, and how unbelievably delicious the resulting ricotta was, and it became serious business. Why does nobody talk about how easy it is to make your own cheese?! I feel like I’ve been cheated, like I’ve wasted some of the best cheese-making years of my life! I’m practically a cheese-making spinster, if you will. Continue reading
Filed under Gluten Free, Other
David Lebovitz’s Herb Rub
Every year, I tell myself that instead of heading out to the mall, or knocking out half my Christmas wish list on Amazon, I’m going to spend my time making delicious homemade gifts for my family and friends. And every year, I start with good intentions. But truth be told, said gifts never quite materialize under the tree on Christmas Eve, for a variety of reasons. The first reason being that I constantly overestimate the amount of free time I have around the holidays. Sure,even though a day of baking, candy making, and canning sounds delightful and would take care of lots of hard-to-shop-for people, a whole day to commit to being in the kitchen can be few and far between in December. Then there is the second reason: things I make tend to “disappear” long before December 25th. This is especially true of candy, even when hidden in the freezer. Then, there are the myriad of other reasons: I get concerned about people with food allergies, I become anxious about the freshness of coconut macaroons if kept in a decorative tin, etc, etc, etc. Continue reading
Filed under Gluten Free, Other
Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good
Now, I know that I’ve been quite the delinquent lately. For this, I apologize. But you didn’t think I’d let the week before Thanksgiving go by without so much as a peep, did you? There are too many fabulous food-related things to talk about this week, too many recipes that would be just perfect to contribute to Thanksgiving dinner this year, too many opportunities to indulge in fantasies having to do with things like maple-flavored whipped cream and deep-fried turkey and cinnamon-laced something-or-other.
I don’t know about you, but Thanksgiving at our house always consists of the exact same dishes. Same turkey. Same stuffing. Same vegetables. This is in no way a bad thing. In fact, that’s kind of how I like my Thanksgiving dinner. These are dishes that have been honed over the past 25 years, until they are now at the point where they are about as perfect as can be. I don’t want to imagine a Thanksgiving without my dad’s broccoli cheese rice casserole, or my grandma’s cranberry relish. Thanksgiving would be somehow less Thanksgiving-y without them. Continue reading
Filed under Other, Side Dish, Vegetables
Fresh Basil Pesto
Seems I’ve been so distracted going on and on about the waning summer months that I almost forgot about one of the absolute best things about the end of summer… the bounty that comes from my teeny tiny little garden. Sure, there are hardships that come along with all of this produce. For instance, I swear I would never even look at a zucchini again if it weren’t for a certain recipe that I will share with you in the next few days. (Trust me, it’s worth the wait.) And, as much as I love tomatoes, there is only so much salsa, tomato sauce, and tomato sandwiches that one small family of two people and pooch can consume. It’s a rough life, guys.
But the one thing that I can never get enough of from my garden is basil. Sure, it helps with all those tomatoes- you know, for the marinara sauce, the caprese salad- but in my mind, the real purpose of growing tons of basil lies in one magnificent little word: PESTO. Continue reading
Filed under Gluten Free, Other, Pasta
