making life delicious blog
Chow fun is a classic Chinese noodle dish often served with beef. The fresh rice noodles (ho fun) typically used are very wide and sliced into strips before cooking, but I’ve never seen them in our local international groceries, so I substitute L or XL bahn pho (dry Vietnamese rice noodles). Though not authentic, it’s [...]
The final weekend of Mardi Gras is approaching, which means Pancake Day (aka Pancake Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday) is next week. In our home one would think that it’s Pancake Day just about every Sunday morning since that’s our weekly ritual, though these pancakes were born on a snowy weekday morning this winter when [...]
Some kind of Mexican food is on our menu every week, whether it’s tacos, enchiladas, fajitas, soup, whatever. It’s a meal our boys always look forward to, especially if there’s guacamole, too. We always have beans on the side, black beans being our favorite. We spice them up with onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin, chipotle [...]
One of the side benefits of a good summer growing season is preserving the extras to bring out when there are huge mounds of snow on the ground and summer feels very far away. Last summer we lucked out and harvested lots of bell peppers in red, yellow, and green as well as quite a [...]
When I think of ham I’m reminded of how my mother and grandmothers added a leftover ham bone and chunks of ham to a pot of beans for flavor. The saltiness of the meat infuses a simple water broth with a flavor and aroma that reminds me of my grandmothers’ kitchens, and so every time [...]
One of my favorite childhood lunch memories was sitting down to a bowl of hot tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. It was simple, not fussy; canned soup and plain white sandwich bread with American cheese, but I grew up with the notion that this was the perfect lunch on a cold day.
Today I start a new series on the blog, something that we thought would fit perfectly with our cooking philosophy. Today is my first day to participate in The Kids Cook Monday, a program sponsored by Johns Hopkins, Columbia University, and Syracuse University that encourages families to cook together by getting the kids in the [...]
That cold snap we had last week really messed with my internal calendar. Even though the wall calendar still said September, my body was thinking November and that set off all kinds of cravings for hot comfort food. I had curry on the brain because along with soup, it’s one of the first things I [...]
Towards the end of April into the early part of May, Mexican food takes center stage in our home for Cinco de Mayo. We think about all our favorite dishes and try out new things, but it’s always a little awkward with the way the seasons work because in my mind Mexican food goes hand-in-hand [...]
Though the days are getting warmer and the summer daylilies have just started to bloom, I still feel the urge to pull out the slow cooker on cool spring mornings. When most of our days are swirling with activity, it gives me a sense of accomplishment to get a meal going in the slow cooker. [...]
It's spring in the U.S. and the following foods may be in season in your area:
artichokes, fennel, fiddleheads, radishes, broccoli, rhubarb, kale, cresses, spinach, spring lettuces, chard, cabbages, chives, cilantro, collards, tatsoi, mustard greens, spring onions, asparagus, rosemary, wild garlic, ramps, strawberries, blueberries, cherries
Eat fresh seasonal produce to stay healthy and help your food budget.Learn more about seasonal and sustainable cooking at Sustainable Table - In the Kitchen.
