May 20, 2012
It’s the time of year that it’s hard to pin me down. I’m outside. Busy in the backyard, planting, weeding, sitting, contemplating. I just want to be outside. Watching for the return of Chestnut. Seeing if we have any new baby rabbits in the yard. I just find so much peace there, that you’re hard pressed to get a post out of me. I have better things to do.
Because of this I was there, in the backyard, when the peonies bloomed this year. They are my absolute favorite flower: profuse, heavy blooms; heady fragrance. I turned the confetti of abundant petals into syrup. I did this last year, but not as adroitly.
Marry to this that I went strawberry picking with friends last week. And 17 pounds picked meant there was certain to be some jamming. Did there happen to be some master pastry chefs along? Why yes, there were. (Thanks, B.) So I asked them how to incorporate my peony syrup into the jam that was sure to follow all that picking. Add the syrup at the last minute, they said, to keep all the flower essence. But of course.
Ten cups of strawberries
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Posted in Canning, Columbus, Family, Flowers, Friends, Local Foods, Music, Ohio, Peony, Pistacia Vera, Seasonal, Strawberries, Summer |
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March 28, 2012
I returned home after a lengthy trip to Texas to find spring had sprung: the daffodils were spent and the ferns unfurling. Nestled amongst said ferns on the shady side of the porch were dandelions, just emerged, with slender leaves and nary a flower in sight.
Which of course meant they are at their peak for eating.
Tonight’s dinner involved a return to cooking with a risotto. Included were the fruits of my garden weeding – young dandelion leaves – and broad beans, another early spring arrival.
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Posted in Columbus, Cooking Tips, Foraging, Music, Ohio, Recipes, Rice, Risotto, Seasonal, Spring, Vegetarian |
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March 20, 2012
Even a cocktail can be local and seasonal. Especially if it has lovely ruby red grapefruit juice in it along with a super smooth locally distilled vodka, in this case Savvy, out of Austin. The recipe: grapefruit juice and vodka in a two to one ratio. A splash of grenadine. Stir. Pour over ice. Superb.
Playlist included Look at Miss Ohio, covered by Miranda Lambert.
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Posted in Alcohol, Citrus, Cocktails, Drink Local, Drinks Cabinet, Grapefruit, Music, Recipes, San Antonio, Savvy Vodka, Seasonal |
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February 13, 2012
This is hardly even a post about cooking.
It’s a post about what what to do when you want to help. When things happen in life and I feel like I want to hug and cry and help, I cook.
And often, because I feel such a connection with meals, the thing to be cooked just comes to me. This time it was the humble stuffed cabbage.
When I was little, stuffed cabbage was a comforting dish that my mom would make on Sundays. When I was newly married and a fish out of water in New Jersey, it was the dish my mother-in-law and I connected over at Paul’s Diner in Mountain Lakes. Turns out, she loved it, just like I did. She grew up with her mother making them, as well as serendipitously being at a diner on the rare day the kitchen made them. In Texas we don’t have much of a diner culture, but I really grew to love this aspect of New Jersey.
As she explained it, every diner had its own schedule of when things were made and you kind of needed to be a regular to figure it all out. We happened to be there on a Monday, during lunch and we both decided saw and decided immediately that we’d have the cabbage. She grew up with cabbage rolls being served with copious amounts of mashed potatoes.
This was not something my mother did.
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Posted in Beef, Cabbage, Family, Flying J Farm, Rice, Seasonal |
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February 1, 2012
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Playlist included Mr. Sun, by Kina Granis.
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Posted in Flying J Farm, Foraging, Local Foods, Maple Syrup, Music, Ohio, Seasonal, Winter |
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December 23, 2011
We’ve been making these in my family as long as I can remember. Even when Momma’s old cookie cutter was almost broken in half, we – but perhaps more kindly she – still managed to turn out dozens upon dozens of these intricate, almond-y cookies.
Fast forward to the age of the internet and a quick Google search can help you turn up just about anything. Even a replacement (or three – one for her, one for me and one for my sister) for a thirty-year old cookie mold. The Merry Christmas set has this mold in it.
So start a tradition in your house with these. Charming as well as tasty, they are entirely worth all the effort.
Playlist included Little Saint Nick, by She and Him.
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Posted in Baking, Christmas, Cookies, Family, Holidays, Kid Friendly Fare, Seasonal, Winter |
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December 7, 2011
Tonight’s dinner wasn’t really planned, per se.
And lately I’ve been trying to formulate a way to express just how meals come together at our house. Because I think it’s kind of important. Cooking is a part of almost all that I do. But not in an intrusive, takes-up-all-my-time kind of thing. It’s easy. I keep saying that because I think everyone can look at how they use their time and fill in a spare five or ten minutes with a few small tasks that really elevate meals into something special. Even if a portion of it is takeaway from a grocery store.
Yesterday I picked up some crab cakes from Fresh Market (December is buy one get one free salmon fillets and crab cakes on Tuesdays). And I knew that I had a good piece of butternut squash in the fridge. A whole roasted pie pumpkin from over the weekend was in there, too.
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Posted in Basics, Butternut Squash, Chicken, Music, Pumpkin, Recipes, Seasonal, Soup |
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It’s the time of year that it’s hard to pin me down. I’m outside. Busy in the backyard, planting, weeding, sitting, contemplating. I just want to be outside. Watching for the return of Chestnut. Seeing if we have any new baby rabbits in the yard. I just find so much peace there, that you’re hard pressed to get a post out of me. I have better things to do.
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