Pico de Gallo

If you grow tomatoes, you likely make your own salsa. It’s one of the quickest, tastiest ways to consume those round, red orbs at their peak of ripeness. In our house, it’s also one of the few ways my kids actually eat tomatoes. It doesn’t matter the size or type of your tomato, the more varieties, theContinue reading “Pico de Gallo”

Tzatziki Sauce

This Greek sauce is a must-make for our house, especially in mid-summer when the number of cucumbers coming off the vines means we’ve got to get creative in how to eat them. We slather it over falafel, serve it alongside tabbouli, sometimes even pour it atop a salad or a tomato sandwich. And when we do make tzatziki in winter, it’s like sneaking aContinue reading “Tzatziki Sauce”

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”

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”

Balsamic Vinaigrette

I’m a huge salad fan — I build them with spinach, beets, lentils, you name it. But the piece that really pulls all those fresh veggies together is the perfect dressing. For a mix of spinach and sprouts and strawberries and pecans, I have long enjoyed this Poppy Seed Dressing. Then I remembered how well balsamic vinegarContinue reading “Balsamic Vinaigrette”

Cranberry Orange Sauce

I made my first-ever cranberry sauce a few Thanksgivings ago. I have to admit, I was pretty smitten. These days, it’s not hard to find whole, fresh cranberries at many stores. But if fresh aren’t available, frozen whole cranberries will work too. I have tinkered endlessly with this recipe, trying to find the perfect balanceContinue reading “Cranberry Orange Sauce”

Sweet and Sour Sauce

Condiments are the key to whipping up a healthful, from-scratch meal. Having homemade mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, jam, Asian peanut sauce or salad dressing in the fridge makes grain bowls, pasta, cookies and pork more nutritious — and more delicious. Often those same sauces purchased from the grocery store are full of sugars or other unpronounceableContinue reading “Sweet and Sour Sauce”

End-of-Season Cilantro Pesto

Like so many of my recipes, this one begins in the garden. First came an incredible stand of cilantro, the best we’ve ever grown, still going strong in October. Predictions of a frost sent me scrambling to snip and save and give away. I just couldn’t let this gorgeous green go to waste. But IContinue reading “End-of-Season Cilantro Pesto”

Crab Cakes with Hot Pepper Aioli

I know, I know. Everybody’s got their own favorite crab cakes, whether from a restaurant or a secret recipe they make at home. It’s like barbecue, right? It just tastes wrong if you mess with those familiar flavors. So I — not so much of a seafood girl myself — am certainly not here toContinue reading “Crab Cakes with Hot Pepper Aioli”

Simple Slow Cooker Applesauce

This recipe couldn’t be easier. But you wouldn’t believe how many people ooh and ahh over homemade applesauce. It’s so different from anything you pour from a jar. Following these steps will give you a sauce that lets the many, lovely flavors of apples truly shine — the cinnamon only works to bring out theContinue reading “Simple Slow Cooker Applesauce”