Mangoes and sticky rice – oh how my heart swoons! After a heated meal of Thai food – heightened by the bright flavors of kaffir lime, lemongrass and painfully hot chili peppers – nothing soothes the palate quite like a warm bowl of gently sweet and slightly salty mangoes and sticky rice. I like to [...]
Recipe: Spiced Apple Sauce with Red Wine
May 18, 2010 By 10 Comments
Spiced Apple Sauce, with its smooth texture and gentle, warm flavors, has made it to our kitchen table frequently in the last few months as we use up overwintered apples in preparation for the coming harvest. Stewed in red wine and spices, the apples take on a lovely rosy color and a mild sweetness. Like [...]
Recipe: Spiced Kombucha Vinaigrette
April 22, 2010 By 17 Comments
Kombucha vinaigrette, may seem like an unusual take on the classic combination of olive oil and balsamic or red wine vinegar, but, when complemented by the unique flavors of clove and allspice it can become a nourishing, if unique dressing for any salad. I find it pairs particularly well with the sweetness of beets, apples, pears and nuts. Reminiscent of apple cider vinegar in combination with club soda, kombucha offers a unique flavor that is growing in popularity as more and more natural foods enthusiasts learn to cherish the beverage – a sweetened tea that undergoes a unique fermentation process through the use of a mother or symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast.
Blackberry Sorbet
March 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Blackberry sorbet, with its deep, rich purple and its striking, mouth-puckering tartness, makes for a beautiful finish to a nourishing supper. And while some families may prefer to balance their tartness with a touch of honey, we prefer to serve this blackberry sorbet without added sweetener so the full flavor of the berries, including their [...]
Probiotic Apple & Beetroot Relish
January 6, 2010 By 36 Comments
Beetroot relish – savory, sweet and spiced with with cloves and star anise – nuzzles its way onto our supper plates every winter. A near-perfect side to pan-fried pork chops seasoned with sage or to a classic roast beef, beetroot relish provides an intensity of flavor coupled with nourishing micronutrients including vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. [...]
Mandarin & Cranberry Relish
November 23, 2009 By 10 Comments
Friday afternoon, a heavy box brimming with satsuma mandarins courtesy of Chaffin Family Orchards greeted me at the post office. I’d anticipated their arrival all week – eager for something fresh and vibrant after a month when no other fresh fruit was available from our CSA but for apples. These beautiful mandarins [...]
Home-cured Olives: Moroccan Style
November 9, 2009 By 18 Comments
Home-cured olives – seasoned with chilies, lemon and North African spices – have finally made their way into our kitchen, and happily so. Not too long ago, we received a beautiful box of freshly harvested, green-ripe barouni olives from Chaffin Family Orchards out of California. Since then we’ve patiently waited and waited [...]
Cherry & Vanilla Bean Sorbet
November 3, 2009 By 6 Comments
Cherry sorbet – potent in all its sweet-tart iciness – evokes memories summer. I anxiously await their arrival: Will this be a good cherry year? Did the orchards suffer any late freezes? When, oh when, will they be ready for market? They usually make their appearance in late June when of our farmers [...]
Make it Better: Strawberry Milk Shakes
October 23, 2009 By 19 Comments
Treats are on my mind this week! It must be the lack of goodies on our Food Stamp Challenge that has me digging through old posts-in-progress looking for tasty, nourishing treats like sprouted grain doughnuts. Like every good American, I have a penchant for cheeseburgers, french fries and milkshakes but fast food shakes filled [...]
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