I love vintage cookbooks. They’re filled with insight about the world at publish date; reflect available ingredients; and showcase the evolution of packaged goods designed to make life easier. Of course, there were ‘winning’ recipes, like gelatin filled with hot dogs, and things covered in cheese sauce – here’s a fun article I found to…
Vegetables & Sides
Meat Alternatives: Polenta & Mushrooms
A man goes to the doctor with a carrot in one ear, a stick of celery in the other and a mushroom up his nose. “Doctor,” he says, “I’m in terrible shape. What can I do?” And the doctor says, “You need to start eating more sensibly.” (Not sure of the source, but it’s one of…
Meat Alternatives: Veggie Galette
While it’s not officially Fall (September 22 is the big day), nor are we having temperatures anywhere close to cool in southwest Florida, today’s post is Fall-ish AND it’s meatless. I like meatless dishes that are satisfying, full of flavor and relatively easy to pull together, and today’s recipe hits on all three. You might…
Bowls of Happiness: Creamy Corn
Summer corn – the golden creation of Mother Nature, designed for pure joy. There’s nothing like picnic-table dinners designed for nibbling ears of corn, biting into grilled hotdogs, or scooping up forkfuls of creamy potato salad. I miss the Butter & Sugar corn I used to find at roadside stands in New England, but sometimes, here…
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…
Marinated Eggplant with Orzo
Eggplant. Love it? Hate it? Feelings about this funny-looking vegetable seem to be all over the board. If you love it, you happily gobble up garlicky Baba Ganoush or Caponata; you savor creamy Moussaka or veggie-filled Ratatouille; and you adore eggplant Parmesan. . . But if you’re not a fan, you may object to its…
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…
Mushroom & Leek Galette
If you don’t like mushrooms, you may want to move on from this post, because it’s all about the delicious fungi, and I simply cannot hide my adoration for them! But if you decide to keep reading, that would really be great 🙂 In my effort to reduce meat intake, I’ve been poring through vegetable-forward…
Muffin Tin Herbed Potato Stacks
Have you heard of “COVID Cooking Fatigue”? You may not have heard about it, but I bet you’re feeling it! That’s because many of us these days are preparing 3 meals a day at home, 7 days a week. I don’t know about you, but it seems like whenever one meal is finished, I’m already…
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…
Roasted Radishes with Butter & Chives
Buying veggies directly from a farm is just plain fun. Many farms even utilize a Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSA) model in which you purchase a membership, and the farm, in turn, supplies you with a box of veggies each week (and sometimes it’s a surprise what’s in there). It’s a great partnership because you support…