Western Inspiration

While on our recent 9-day excursion in the West, I discovered I have a deep love for chile rellenos.  It really shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me. I mean, I love cheese, I love spicy things and everyone loves something fried now and then.  It never once occurred to me to order one…

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Saskatoon Jam

Okay, okay, it’s jam season and you’re probably sick of hearing about it already with all of the strawberry jam posts. I’ll be brief on this one. When we first bought our house, we had no idea what a gem we had in the courtyard patio. It wasn’t until a dear friend was over for…

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Variations on a Classic

So yeah, we made lots of jam this weekend.  21 lbs of strawberries yielded twice that number of pint jars–in addition to several other strawberry items.   More on that later… What the heck would a person do with 42 jars of jam, you ask?  Well, we’re still working that one out, but my impulsiveness…

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Strawbeastie Jam!

Strawberries… lovely strawberries.  I grew up making strawberry jam every summer with mom.  It’s what taught me how to preserve–and how to avoid getting burned in the kitchen!  Every June, we used to pile into the van, load up with sunscreen and be sent out into the fields like little workers. I remember eating a…

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San Francisco (in plants)

For my birthday, my husband and I decided to head to San Francisco for an extended weekend. Here’s a quick roundup of the trip in pictures–of plants. San Francisco sits in a rather temperate, yet roughly windblown area of the country so all manner of plants do well there, given the appropriate shelter.  I’m sure…

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Springtime Risotto with Leeks, Lemon & Peas

When life gives you lemons, why not make risotto? Like I mentioned in a recent post, certain dishes refer to a cooking method or technique rather than an actual dish.  Such is the way with risotto.  Basically, with a risotto you sauté some aromatics, lightly toast a grain (most often rice) and slowly stir in…

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How to Prepare Leeks

To prepare the leeks, I rinse them well, chop off all of the dark green (usually right where the leaves separate from the stalk) and the bottom 1/2″ of the root end.  Now, slice them once from end to end.  Lay flat side on the cutting board and cut into 1/2″ wide half-moon shapes.  Set…

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Rhubarb Cocktail with OYO Vodka

I saw some fresh Rhubarb at the grocery store last week.  Having never cooked with it, I decided to seek out some recipes for inspiration and ran into this one and thought, “Why not?” Ingredients:

Poisson en Papillote

One of my favorite things to do is entertain, filling the seats around our table with good friends enjoying whatever anyone puts on it.  Now that we have a proper table–visible in the header at the top of the page–we’ll definitely be doing more of it! So, when I wanted to try a new method…

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And So It Begins…

Today, I enter the blog-o-sphere where I’m sharing things I find intriguing, delicious and worth the binary code. Random ideas of what may come: life happenings  –  trips, occasions, celebrations and whatever comes this way recipes  –  the good, bad, healthy, decadent, vegatarian, carnivorous, GF, DF, low-salt and certainly some involving EtOH ramblings  –  my background, current…

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