~ wellness, wonder, words ~
Blue skies are back and the sun is sitting a little higher. Light is filtering in broken color through the lemons and cherry flowers and I’m watching a bunch of honey bees floating between pink petals, their sharp buzzing no match for the orchestral arrival of the birds (did you know that songbirds have two sets of vocal cords – humans have one – which allows them to produce two different sounds simultaneously? No wonder they can belt out a tune)….
Making all your salt & vinegar dreams come true.
As far back as I can remember, I was sneaking olives and pickles out of my parents’ fridge and drinking the juice (the grand prize), with hands barely big enough to manage the jar. …
Food photo tip #27: be sure to shoot on a full stomach otherwise you’ll probably eat the dish before you get the perfect shot.
No truer words have ever been written. …
I keep a binder of recipes. I started it about 25 years ago before the age of the internet and never stopped adding to it. It holds some of my favorite stuff — handwritten recipes from my mother-in-law, articles written by Joe Schwarcz (food chemist) that my Mom saved for me from the Montreal Gazette, gardening diagrams made by my father-in-law and a bunch of four-leaf clovers gathered by my youngest over the years (I can still see him running full tilt towards me with cupped hands in the kitchen of our Ottawa home).
Of course much of my life is now cataloged on the web, stored in some soulless cloud, but that’s not my preferred resting place. I like paper, always have, and every time I open the pages of my now tattered, gravy spattered binder, it brings me back to some of the people and memories I love most. …
It’s not easy pulling off a major PR breakthrough when you happen to look remarkably like the human brain (especially when you’re an edible).
But the humble cauliflower has done just that. …
We expected to be on the road (and the soccer pitch) a good chunk of the weekend but when a change in circumstance gave rise to a free Saturday at home, my husband hit the yard and I started putzing in the kitchen. A nest-worthy day if ever there was, the cool drizzly weather helped seed my meanderings into an eight hour session of baking and cooking.
I started with two different batches of flourless peanut butter cookies (yes, I’m on a bit of a quest), made and photographed this savory quinoa pie and then moved on to play with a grain-free version of chicken piccata (so good!). …
With the notable exception of making 125 jars of strawberry jam for our wedding guests some 20 years ago and the occasional flirtation with infused oils, my adventures in canning, curing, pickling and preserving (beyond freezing) have been rather restrained.
And yet there is everything to love about this age-old practice. Sensible, economical and the ideal way to enjoy food captured at the peak of freshness throughout the year, notably during off-season. Plus, you get to think of yourself as a real home cook à la pioneer woman when you’re sterilizing bottles. …
Imagine soft succulent morsels of butternut squash braised in the warming spices of ginger, turmeric, chili & cumin and tucked into a bed of tzatziki-style sauce and you will have an inkling of the culinary pleasure that is Kadoo Boranee.
This Afghan style braised butternut squash is quite simply the most memorable dish I’ve eaten in the past couple of years and my new favorite way to enjoy seasonal squash.
My husband and I discovered it at this restaurant when we were celebrating our 19th year wedding anniversary this past summer. If you’re ever visiting the beautiful Santa Cruz area, I highly recommend it for its outstanding food, friendly and attentive service, intimate courtyard and proximate views. …
The best part about the limited variety of produce found at my neighborhood Safeway is that it requires me to make the occasional trip to Whole Foods. (I say occasional because no matter how narrow a mission I set out on, my grocery bill is anything but lean by the time I walk out the door).
On this particular visit, the first display that caught my attention was a stunning pyramid of blood oranges. California grown and still very much in season, their soft orange skin streaked with red blush appeared like little globes of sunlight beckoning me to take them home. Some neighboring golden beets, freshly pulled from the spring soil, decided to hitch a ride and jumped into my basket too. …
If you follow Inspired Edibles on Facebook, you may have caught a sneak peek of the inspiration for this post.
This past weekend, our new neighbors delighted us with the most welcome housewarming gifts.
An array of garden delights including: little gem lettuce (soft and buttery), firm and crunchy cucumber, fragrant basil and the sweetest, freshest tomatoes we’ve ever tasted! The tomatoes were so good in fact that we ate the first few solo and unseasoned, swooning over every bite (sometimes it’s the simple things…). We then went on to enjoy the ingredients in sandwiches, with drizzled balsamic and in a tossed salad that evening.
Since the givings were so generous, I had plenty of tomatoes leftover and wanted to make the best of them while they were still in their prime. I had the idea of rounding up some of the best of the late summer harvest and presenting it in these zucchini boats. Open faced melt style.
If you haven’t tasted baked zucchini yet, you’re in for a treat! Soft, savory and full of comfort, you could almost (almost) mistake these stuffed lovelies for pizza ~ and, bonus, they deliver a better long term investment.
This a very simple recipe that involves baking the zucchinis with olive oil and sea salt and then filling them with black beans and veggies and a sprinkling of cheese (of course, you can use whatever toppings you like).
We enjoyed these molten zucchini boats with a side of quinoa and a tossed green salad. A light and delicious vegetarian summer meal the whole family enjoyed.
Directions:Heat oven to 350 F
