Making Minty Mojitos
At last–it’s warm outside again! I’ve been craving summer cocktails even though it hasn’t felt much like summer in the last month. So now that it’s finally heating up, I need to stock up on simple syrups. If you like to make cocktails, or even mocktails, simple syrup is a must-have ingredient. We use it [...]
Baking with Kids: Applesauce Muffins
I’ve been on a bit of a muffin kick lately, thanks to the weird weather. I suggested them in desperation one day when it was raining (again!) and we needed some warmth. Turns out, though, that muffins are great to bake with my daughter. She gets to stir, it’s an educational activity, and we both [...]
Blood, Bones & Butter
My birthday present to myself this year was a copy of Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by recent James Beard award-winning chef Gabrielle Hamilton. Then my food-themed book group decided to read it for our next discussion. Problem was, I plowed through the story so quickly, it was a [...]
Irish Quick Bread
A few weeks ago, I won an Irish-inspired recipe contest with my vegetarian Cottage Garden Pie. I ended up with a gorgeous cookbook, the James Beard Award-winner The Country Cooking of Ireland and about 8 pounds of Kerrygold cheese and butter! To thank Amber, who ran the contest on her blog, I invited her and [...]
Guinea Pig Kids: Trying New Things
Want something green in your life? Try pistachio-sage pesto to hold you until summer arrives.
Rose Petals Join Meyer Lemon Marmalade
Four and a half years ago I was introduced to the Meyer lemon. Their lower acid and sweeter juice spoke to my sweet tooth. This year I’ve taken on making them into marmalade. After I met Meyer lemons, the former Sacramento area “Hidden Kitchen” shared their homemade Crema di (Meyer)Limoncello and Meyer lemon vinaigrette with [...]
How Now Drunken Cow?
Just a quick post during Sacramento Beer Week to plug the Drunken Cow! I don’t remember ever calling an ice cream float a brown cow, but apparently people do (or did? Was this diner lingo?). So in honor of that, I’ve decided that ice cream floating in beer is a drunken cow. While this idea [...]
Chermoula My Pesto
Ever flip through a cookbook and find lots of things you’d like to make? Or a magazine? Or a blog? I found chermoula doing this, a North African marinade and sauce. Chermoula is similar to a pesto in that it comes in lots of varieties- Ann just shared her spinach pesto recipe. It’s pungent in [...]
When Your Kid Only Wants Pasta
This week, I thought I’d talk about the horror of many an omnivorous parent: What do you do when your kid only wants to eat pasta? I like pasta so much that I used to wish I was Italian when I was little, but I try not to carbo load every day. Coming up with [...]
Quince Slices You’ll Love
Quince is definitely not the easiest fruit to work with but if you’re willing to put some effort into it, it’s worth the eating reward. I’m finding I like this darn hard fruit more and more. I keep getting grocery bags full of seasonal fruit from various friends and just got one with the largest [...]
