Local for Lunch: Welcoming Spring

Salads took center stage for my Spring class at The Roanoke Co-op. We built salads filled with grains and proteins, interesting textures and flavors — and as much local as I could muster. We topped them with a choice of Ginger Sesame Dressing or Poppy Seed Dressing. Then we paired all those leafy greens with aContinue reading “Local for Lunch: Welcoming Spring”

Brown Sugar and Spice Banana Bread

I have tried so many banana bread recipes over the years. After all, every family needs a go-to recipe for what to do with those bananas after they’ve sprouted brown spots and no one will touch them. But I always come back to this one, from The Moosewood Cookbook. I have tweaked and omitted andContinue reading “Brown Sugar and Spice Banana Bread”

Easier Than Quiche Quinoa Egg Bake

Quiche is comfort food for me and this one-step-easier dish makes a favorite dinner a little more possible on a busy night. The quinoa makes this meal gluten-free, as well. So, if eggs and cheese and spinach are calling your name, time to stir this up and enjoy! Serves 6 Ingredients 1/2 Tbsp. butter 1/2Continue reading “Easier Than Quiche Quinoa Egg Bake”

Stacking Up a Satisfying Salad

If someone asked my favorite course of a meal, I would, without a moment’s hesitation, tell them: Salad. Not bread, not dessert, not a thick juicy piece of meat. Not even soups or sandwiches or vegetable sides. Nope. It’s salad. I love how fresh and raw most of salad’s ingredients are. I love that soContinue reading “Stacking Up a Satisfying Salad”

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”

Cast Iron Skillet Spatchcocked Chicken

Some time in the last year or so, the concept of spatchcocking your chicken or turkey (think of butterflying a pork chop) has taken off. Why? Just like the Instapot craze, spatchcocking turns whole food ingredients into dinner in a fraction of the time more tried and true methods take. In the case of spatchcocking, it’s easierContinue reading “Cast Iron Skillet Spatchcocked Chicken”

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”

Surprisingly Good Corn Soufflé

Recently, I was staring down a bag of corn I’d blanched and frozen the summer before. And seeing as how the hens were laying like crazy, I reached back in my memory to a dish my mom used to make. She called it Corn Pudding. It had eggs and corn and onions and butter and milk. AndContinue reading “Surprisingly Good Corn Soufflé”

Ginger Sesame Dressing

It’s a rare bottled salad dressing that makes it into our house. But we certainly eat our share of lettuce — and spinach and carrots and sprouts. So variety is key. This dressing has an Asian flair; I love it atop salads served alongside fish and chicken. It’s especially good with a base of greens and rawContinue reading “Ginger Sesame Dressing”

Grow With Me

I did not grow up in a garden. I was raised in the suburbs and largely fed from grocery store shelves. Though my father hailed from a nearby dairy farm and his parents still lived on the family land, I have next to no childhood memories of helping anyone dig or plant or harvest. It’sContinue reading “Grow With Me”