[Jump to Recipe] I am a sucker for old cookbooks. Well not just cookbooks, also old gardening, house, picture, or etiquette books too; any book that contains old knowledge. Anytime I go to a garage or estate sale I always make a b-line to the shelves. I picked up The French Chef in Private American Families by Xavier Raskin, published in 1922, in a used book store a couple years ago for $10 and I am so happy I did….
[Jump to Recipe] The menu for Thanksgiving at my parent’s house has been the same for as long as I can remember. It was always a huge spread, cooked up by my mom: turkey, gravy, anadama bread stuffing, butternut squash puree, mashed potatoes, green beans in some form, fruit salad, and cornbread. I had a special ritual in how I ate Thanksgiving dinner – I start with the butternut squash -> turkey with cranberry sauce and gravy -> stuffing ->…
[Jump to Shiso Vinaigrette Recipe] [Jump to Late Summer Salad Recipe] I love any recipe that allows me to use small amounts of different ingredients that I wouldn’t be able to make a full dish on their own. Bonus points if I can wipe the dish up quickly. Salads fall in this category. They are a great way to combine all sorts of produce in one delicious dish. For this late summer salad I combined small amounts of late summer…
*If you like, pin, comment, whatever to this post you are acknowledging that you are legally allowed to drink alcohol in whatever country you inhabit!* I updated the pictures for this post in August 2018 but the recipe is still the same as it was in 2016! [Jump to Shiso Simple Syrup Recipe] [Jump to Drink Recipe] I used to be a bartender between college and graduate school. It taught me three things: 1. I am not a late night person,…
[Jump to Recipe] Teriyaki chicken bowls are one of my go to dinners when I have company and I need something fast, easy, and have no idea what people like to eat. My recipe was modeled off of those teriyaki places you find in the mall food courts: coated chicken with cabbage and carrots over rice. Simple, but delicious, and I can make the components separately to satisfy the pickiest of eaters. Plus cabbage and carrots are veggies that last a…
[Jump to Recipe] [Jump to Thai Tea Variation] I have never been in a town with so many apple trees. It seems like people choose to plant them as “ornamental” trees and that is pretty cool. The only small issue (and it is pretty small, also no pun intended) is that the apples aren’t quite crabapples but also not quite eating apples. I did not want to let all these small apples falling all over the neighborhood go to waste…
[Jump to Recipe] Happy National Chocolate Chip Cookie day! But really who needs an excuse to make chocolate chip cookies? This post began about a month ago as I set out to make a chocolate chip cookie that was not super sweet, decently healthy, used my extra sourdough starter, and kept its shape pretty well. In other words, the perfect hiking and biking snack! The previous batches of cookies I had not photographed the process, just the end product. Rookie…
[Jump to Recipe] The CSA has broadened my cooking horizons immensely. I get excited about certain produce I never thought would excite me before. The produce that falls in this category are greens of plants you usually don’t see in the produce section of the grocery store: cauliflower, broccoli, radish, turnip, and carrot greens. I don’t remember ever seeing carrot tops growing up. I must have, my mom planted carrots a few times, but I really only remember the topless ones…
[Jump to Recipe] It was the first CSA (community supported agriculture) of the year from Isabelle Farms yesterday (2 weeks ago, I didn’t get this post out before vacation, sorry!) and I could not be more excited. Joining a CSA really appeals to me for many reasons: It is organic; I feel part of the community participating in it and love driving to the farm and picking up the produce. This one I don’t actually have to work on the…
[Jump to Recipe] About two months ago my husband and I decided to add more vegetables to our diet. We were already pretty good but felt we needed to jumpstart it. And thus, we joined the green smoothie craze! Morning smoothies are not a new thing for me. My mom has made them, for as far as I can remember, every morning of my entire life. I always marveled, in both a good and a bad way, at what she could…