Happy Halloween weekend! We love celebrating All Hallow’s Eve with sweet treats and things that take away the chill from walking around the neighborhood in the cold weather. After your tricks and treats this holiday, warm up with this salted caramel hot cider while you enjoy a spooky movie.
Happy haunts! Continue reading “celebrate: halloween” »
It’s week two in our apple series, and what’s more typical of apples than a pie? Or rather a tart. This is my favorite way to have apples and crispy sweet pastry crust. Sometimes I even prefer it over the traditional apple pie, tented with crust and oozing with syrup. Both, however, are my absolute favorite fall dessert when paired with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Continue reading “recipe: apple tart” »
The first day of autumn arrived and all of a sudden it’s winter with snow covering the mountains around us! Gotta love Utah weather.. A few weeks ago I picked up a half bushel of my favorite honey crisp apples. They’re sweet, a little tart, and they have the best crunch. October is all about apples in our home, and a few end of summer peaches, but we’re going to focus on the smooth, crispy red fruit of autumn.
For the next few weeks, I will be sharing some of my favorite recipes highlighting apples. We’re kicking it all off with some fun facts and recipes all about apples, keep reading to find out more! Continue reading “in season: apples” »
My sister in law gave me a large harvest of tomatillos to “do something” with. They were beautiful, and purple! I decided to make a salsa, because I didn’t want to take the chance of cooking the color out of them. This salsa recipe broils the tomatillos, cooking just enough to soften, but they keep their incredible color. It’d be a great way to use the last of your summer tomatillo harvests.
broiled tomatillo salsa
from gourmet
purple tomatillos, peeled and washed
a few cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
2 – 3 jalapenos
half a sweet onion
a handful of cilantro
juice of a lime (about 1 Tablespoon)
salt, to taste
If your tomatillos are not ripe, let them sit for a couple days with their skins on until they ripen.
In a baking tray, layer the tomatillos, garlic and jalapenos out. Drizzle with olive oil and mix around making sure everything is coated. Place directly under the broiler, and broil until the tomatillos pop. Don’t let them completely burn, but they should char a little. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
Remove the stem ends and seeds from the jalapenos (leave the seeds in if you want a very hot salsa). Combine everything (tomatillos, roasted garlic, jalapenos, the onion half, cilantro, and lime juice) into a blender and blend until smooth. Add salt to taste. Store in a sealed jar in the fridge.
This salsa will jell up a little after it sits for a while. If this happens, add a little water and mix it around before serving.
I have been looking for as many ways as I can to use up our tomato supply. We don’t even have a tomato plant and I can’t seem to make a dent in our mountain of red, yellow and green. This easy salsa recipe is super fresh, and perfect with so many dishes and vegetables (even celery sticks). It would be really neat to make it using separate colored tomatoes, then swirling them together for a multi-colored bowl of salsa. Continue reading “recipe: summer salsa” »
Sprouting grains, seeds, and groats is easy, although it does require a little bit of know-how and patience as you wait for the seeds to grow. I have loved eating sprouts in sandwiches and salads, and the health benefits are undeniable. They’re superfoods, packed with nutrition and energy. I love to eat sprouts, but I’m not continually growing them, and I don’t own a fancy sprouter. I do, however, have a glass jar and some fabric that work just fine for when I do have the desire to sprout every now and then.
Here’s how I sprout buckwheat. Continue reading “how to sprout buckwheat groats” »
Ruth Reichl discovered that “food could be a way of making sense of the world. . . . If you watched people as they ate, you could find out who they were” from Tender to the Bone.
I have always been fascinated by books that discuss food, specifically non-fiction, although cookbooks are a definite favorite. Whether they’re memoirs, centered around the science of food, food history, or even spiritual food beliefs, call me a nerd, but I love learning how food affects us, sculpts cultures and individuals, and dictates so much of our lives and memories. I just recently read (finally) Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of food life. I learned a lot and felt inspired while I was reading it and even more so when I finished. I even canned peaches for the first time because of it! A couple books I have on my list to read include Salt: A world history by Mark Kurlansky and The Gastronomical Me by M.F.K. Fisher.
How about you? Do you like food writing (magazines included)?
What food book have you read lately? What about your to-read list?
Need some recipes to use up that summer squash? We have been eating a lot of zucchini and pattypan squash in the forms of ratatouille, cakes, fritters, and cookies. This version is is a whole wheat cookie, gently sweet with a little spice. Continue reading “recipe: summer squash oatmeal cookies” »
We rarely turn the oven on in the summertime, and I love eating peaches raw. But there are times when I want them baked with spices and paired with a glass of cold (almond) milk. Here’s a recipe for peach küchen, a german cake notorious for large slices of fruit gently placed atop the cake before baking. As it bakes the fruit settles and come out of the oven enveloped in a sweet pillow of crumb and sugar. Continue reading “recipe: peach küchen” »
It’s that time of year again! Local peaches are being harvested from your neighborhood orchards and can be seen (and bought) at roadside stands, farmer’s markets, and even a local grocer. We love eating them fresh, with juice dripping down our arms and chins. Nothing better than a Utah peach in August.
Keep reading to learn some fun facts about these delicious fruit.. Continue reading “in season: peaches” »
