We’ve lived through tumultuous days over the last year. Thankfully, life seems to be slowly coming up to speed. That said, I’m still not feeling myself, struggling to find my ‘new normal.’ Add in many gray days filled with much-needed rain, and that means I’m craving comfort food. Comfort food is the stuff we shouldn’t eat…
Grains, Beans & Legumes
Lovely Legumes: Black Eyed Peas
Restaurants come and go, with many factors determining success. But when a long-time, popular spot closes, it’s a huge loss to a community, partly because of lost culinary traditions. This post is about one place, but I’m sure its story will resonate with many. My husband recently told me about black eyed peas he enjoyed at Old…
Lovely Legumes: Chickpea Sliders
Recently, two announcements in the culinary world created a buzz. The popular recipe site, Epicurious, said it would no longer post new beef recipes, and Eleven Madison Park, a prestigious restaurant in New York, said it would offer a vegan-only menu when it reopens. Apparently, they want to be part of the solution toward a…
Lovely Legumes: Lentil & Kale Salad
Legumes are in the vegetable family, with common members being chickpeas, black/red/kidney beans, green beans, black-eyed peas, soybeans and lentils. They’re called ‘powerhouse foods,’ with lentils being especially well-regarded. Nutrition-wise, lentils are an excellent source of protein, loaded with potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron and fiber, and a great resource for vegetarians, or folks sensitive to gluten. They’re…
Feed Your Feelings: Chard, Beans & Tomatoes
I’ve heard we only use about 10% of our brains, so I researched to see if it’s true. Many smart people agree, but one neuroscientist is determined to debunk the theory (Scientific American). He says that while resting, we probably use only 10% of our brain’s capacity, but we actually use all parts of our brain…
White Beans with Pancetta
Temperatures dipped in Florida this week, so I opened the windows and started making soup, cookies and casseroles, because I love having something in the oven or simmering on the stove when cool weather arrives. I also dug through cookbooks for inspiration and found a recipe in Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home: A Cookbook…
Veggie Fried Rice
When I was a kid, going out for Chinese food was a big deal. Back then, there wasn’t a Chinese restaurant on every block, but in the suburbs of Boston, we knew where to go, and after 40 years I still remember the aromas that greeted us at the China Plaza. The place was decked…
Almond-Cranberry Granola
Remember years ago when granola was the stuff eaten only by Birkenstock-wearing, long-haired, herbal tea-drinking folks, or those uber-healthy mountain climbers? They all seemed to really like the stuff that looked like bird food to the rest of us. But, in reality, those healthy specimens were onto something back then, and granola has now (rightly)…
Stuffed Portobello with Tarragon Crumbs
Prior to the mid-1990s, the concept of Portobello mushrooms on our home dinner plates was pretty much nonexistent. We really only heard about these Italian-imported, fancy mushrooms from waiters describing the ingredients in our dishes at high-end restaurants, or we may have spotted them in natural food stores but had no idea what to do…
Chickpeas and Pasta
This week I dusted off M.F.K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf. It was published in 1942 and opens with a quote from American humanist Charlotte Perkins (Stetson) Gilman: “There’s a whining at the threshold, There’s a scratching at the floor. To work! To work! In Heaven’s name! The wolf is at the door!” It…
My Favorite Hummus
Many years ago my husband and I owned a marina store on the Intercoastal Waterway, where boats pulled in for fuel, bait, beer and snacks. Here’s a rendering he created of that sweet, little place: I never imagined owning a business like this, but an opportunity presented itself, and we thought it would be a…
Sweet Potatoes with Chipotle Cream
It seems like the humble sweet potato (or yam) is on just about every Thanksgiving table. Who would have thought that a root vegetable with origins dating back roughly 5,000 years would still be so revered? If you’ve ever grown them yourself, you know how fun it is! This marks my second year and my…