Beet and Black Bean Burgers

When your kids are begging you to make veggie burgers from nutritional powerhouses like beets and black beans, you know you’ve landed on a keeper of a recipe. I have made tofu burgers and grain burgers, bought frozen veggie patties from the grocery store and certainly ordered my share of non-meat restaurant burgers over theContinue reading “Beet and Black Bean Burgers”

Asian Cucumber Salad

I have made some version of this salad for many years. Its cool cucumbers and cilantro mix perfectly with the heat of the pepper flakes, the sweet of the ginger and the crunch of the peanuts. There are lots of variations of this dish out there. This recipe is my take, combining all my favorite flavors. HopeContinue reading “Asian Cucumber Salad”

Cucumber Peach Salsa

I love salsa. Spicy, sweet, chilled, home-canned, tomatillo, classic, yes and yes! So when the season is spilling over with cucumbers and peaches, well, they should become salsa too. You might have seen recipes that feature mango as the swap for classic tomatoes, but mangoes don’t grow on the mountainside in these parts. So peachesContinue reading “Cucumber Peach Salsa”

Savory Summer Crepes

When I think of crepes, chocolate, jam and a generous dollop of whipped cream leap to mind. You, too? Well, let’s walk away from that image and consider how delicious a batch of thin, savory pancakes would be with some pan-roasted mushrooms, a handful of fresh garden herbs and spoon or two of creamy chèvre. Drooling yet? I thoughtContinue reading “Savory Summer Crepes”

Huevos Rancheros

This is truly less a recipe and more a set of assembly instructions, but it does feel helpful to have a guide as I meal plan or rally myself to get dinner on the table on a busy weeknight. So here goes. My best instructions for how to turn this simple, nutritious meal into aContinue reading “Huevos Rancheros”

Warm Raspberry Sauce

We’ve had a beautiful bounty of raspberries for a few years now. They begin to ripen just as our strawberries are petering out, giving us a month more of fruit for our granola and our pound cake and our salads. And, if we harvest more than we feel like eating on any given day, there’sContinue reading “Warm Raspberry Sauce”

Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms

As summer veggies begin to appear in the garden, there’s a decadent treat you might overlook: the flowers on your zucchini plants. These fragile beauties are a tasty delicacy, a little sweet, with a silky mouth-feel. If you’re growing zucchini, simply keep your eye out for blossoms as they appear on your plant. If youContinue reading “Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms”

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry season can’t go by without my making at least one batch of strawberry shortcake. There’s just something magical about the perfect combination of sweet-ish biscuit, homemade cream and the natural deliciousness of strawberries at their peak. Over the years I’ve used a patchwork of recipes to pull together this dish. My favorite whipped creamContinue reading “Strawberry Shortcake”

Vegetarian Spring Rolls

Gardens and farmers markets are bursting with greens (like lettuce, Swiss chard, arugula and spinach), fresh herbs (like mint, parsley, cilantro and chives), and other salad veggies (like carrots and radishes and snow peas). Which makes right about now the perfect time to wrap up some Vegetarian Spring Rolls. These beautiful and delicious rolls pack a nutritiousContinue reading “Vegetarian Spring Rolls”

You’ve Got a Friend in Her

Helen Ellis’s latest book of essays is sure to make you smile Helen Ellis is writing for me. A woman in my late 40s/early 50s. Someone who stares in the mirror and wonders: Is my hair grayer than it was yesterday? Did my cheeks always have those ridges at the bottom? No, I do notContinue reading “You’ve Got a Friend in Her”