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”

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”

Crispy Curry Fish

We are trying to eat more fish these days — for those good Omega-3s and to shake up the humdrum that can set in at the table. This recipe is tasty and doable and may stretch your palate — in a good way. The curry means it pairs nicely with a pot of rice, aContinue reading “Crispy Curry Fish”

Fermented Carrots, Three Ways

Fermented food is getting its due these days, with more and more research showing the health benefits of eating probiotic and lacto-fermented foods. What does that mean, exactly? Well, that all your parents’ worries about keeping the food in the fridge and making sure mold never made an appearance in the kitchen were a miteContinue reading “Fermented Carrots, Three Ways”

Chicken Wings With Honey Yogurt Sauce

Wings are fun, festive, quick to make and delicious. Perfect as apps before your holiday party or as a simple dinner paired with mashed potatoes and salad. When my family last bought a batch of local chicken, we picked up six fresh whole chickens and cut them into parts before we froze them — ziplockContinue reading “Chicken Wings With Honey Yogurt Sauce”

Avocado Cilantro Lime Dressing

When the lettuce is tender and the pea shoots are popping through the soil, the chives have appeared out of nowhere and the cilantro is inching upward, there is nothing better than snipping a bit of this and chopping a bit of that until there’s a plate full of goodness waiting for the right dressing to pullContinue reading “Avocado Cilantro Lime Dressing”

Kale: It’s What’s for Dinner

It is kale season in our garden. I mean big time. We often have a little stand that grows throughout the fall and might stay strong in a mild winter. But spring is when the kale takes off. Which, of course, means it’s kale season at our table. This is not a beloved season at the dinnerContinue reading “Kale: It’s What’s for Dinner”

Slow Cooker Shredded Pork With Cilantro-Ginger Sauce

Most years, we buy a local half hog in the spring and another in the fall. We place the butchered, vacuum-packed cuts — thick, uncured bacon, flavorful sausage, tender pork chops — in our deep freeze and we plan our meals around this meat until it runs out. Which means we sometimes have to getContinue reading “Slow Cooker Shredded Pork With Cilantro-Ginger Sauce”

Thai Butternut Squash Soup

I’ve tried many butternut soups over the years. There’s a three-sisters version, a Mexican variety, those that pair winter squash and apples. But my favorite, the recipe I’m searching for every fall, is one that heightens the sweetness of the squash and pairs it with the Trinity of Thai cooking — fish sauce (made of anchovies andContinue reading “Thai Butternut Squash Soup”

A Midsummer Night’s Meal

Let’s pretend I have all the time in the world to create sumptuous feasts. And all the resources in the world to gather up the tastiest ingredients. In this fiction, I wave my wand and on the table every night fantastical, incredibly delicious multi-course meals appear. My reality, of course, is quite different. Cooking is hard, time-consumingContinue reading “A Midsummer Night’s Meal”