Surviving salad season

Surviving salad season

If you have a CSA share, a garden, or both (if you’ve lost your mind like me), you may be eyeballing your harvest and asking yourself, “What the hell am I going to do with all this lettuce?!” Even though just three short months ago we dreamed of the tender green leaves of arugula, spinach, […]

Kombucha

Kombucha

Kombucha was a “thing” before it achieved superfood status, gave hipsters another reason to carry drinks around in Ball jars, and provided a convenient out for Lindsay Lohan to say she wasn’t hitting the bottle again. This mysterious fermented tea first surfaced in China around 200 BC, made its way to Japan where mothers would […]

Throwback Thursday Kitchen 2014 – show up

Throwback Thursday Kitchen 2014 – show up

Dilly beans. Canned tomatoes. Homemade yogurt. Raw milk butter. Ginger green tea kombucha. Duck jerky. Sauerkraut. Herb-infused vinegars and teas. I make them. You eat them when I make them. You want to make them at your house. So you should. Introducing the Throwback Thursday Kitchen series, a chance to show up for a hands-on, […]

Add a little heat

Add a little heat

Red chili flakes are one of those spices that I tend to reach for more than I realize. A few shakes go into soups, pasta sauces, egg bakes, chutneys, pizza – you get the idea. This year I tried making my own batch of chili flakes using dried red peppers from my garden and my […]

Massaging kale

Massaging kale

Alright, why are we kneading leafy greens? That’s crazy talk. Once you’ve sampled massaged kale, though, it won’t sound that crazy. The basic premise is this: instead of cooking the kale, which leeches its water-soluble nutrients and can lead to a seriously smushy, limp mess, we use acid, salt, and our hands to soften the […]

Corn that has been popped

Corn that has been popped

I have had a popcorn problem for a long time. By problem, I mean two things. 1) I love it, and it’s my go-to snack whenever I’m not really hungry, just craving savory flavors and need something to mindlessly pick at while doing a task that makes me sit my ass in a chair for […]

Nana’s bread and butter pickles

Nana’s bread and butter pickles

This is the recipe that launched my canning and pickling problem over ten years ago – the thin, sweet-sour slices of cucumber, onion, and pepper flecked with mustard seed that my grandma served with ham salad sandwiches and in neat little piles on the holiday relish trays. It was her mom’s recipe – my nana. […]

’Kraut & Lacto Pickles

’Kraut & Lacto Pickles

Some things are just so simple they’re kind of hard to believe. Learning their secrets leaves you hanging – that’s it? Really? There has to be something missing…Of all things, finding out about the magic behind sauerkraut was like that for me. My grandma, who has a tendency to get rid of things she doesn’t […]

A big cook

A big cook

Every week my kitchen gets taken over by what I call “a big cook.” That is, I turn on some music, pour a glass of wine, and make a whole bunch of dishes at the same time. The concept occurred to me about seven years ago when my husband and I found ourselves buying more restaurant lunches and dinners as our workdays grew longer at the advertising agency, which got expensive and unhealthy pretty quickly. I’d rush home late from work to try and make dinner and the next day’s lunches, then find myself sitting down to dinner at 10 p.m.

Taste tests: discovering new foods

Taste tests: discovering new foods

Do you remember the first time you tasted something that had you instantly hooked? Or, sometimes more viscerally, the first time you tasted something that was the worst thing you ever put in your mouth? My first “holy crap, this is amazing” taste moment was raw oysters. I got a job as an oyster shucker […]

Learn it, love it, pass it on

Learn it, love it, pass it on

Don’t be afraid. Cooking is a friendly auntie, inviting you into her kitchen and giving you permission to play as you will. Take her up on the offer. Short of 1) burning something to a crisp and setting off all the smoke alarms in your house; 2) ignoring common sense and sickening your guests with […]

Rockville Market Farm: A winter squash wonderland

Rockville Market Farm: A winter squash wonderland

This article originally appeared in the winter 2009 issue of Edible Green Mountain magazine.  Winter squash is a demure vegetable whose lure isn’t as bawdy as a screaming red tomato or as fragile as the crisp spring pea. Their hard skins in dark, pine needle green, sunset crimson, and striated gold protect squash’s treasured flesh […]