Once or twice a year, I lead a tour of of 8-10 people through Salt Lake City’s ethnic food markets. We visit stores that are down the street, but feel worlds away in familiarity, comfort, and experience.
Category: Fruits & Vegetables
Food, What a Pleasure + A Meditation
I love food. I also love fabric, flower gardens, sunsets and brilliant paintings – mostly abstract and ethnic. There’s just something about the colors, textures, and boldness that draw me in. And when scents and flavors are part of the equation, I’m just sensorily overcome. Sometimes I cook merely to eat. Other times, it’s about…
Roasted Garlic Marinara Sauce and 5 Ways to Use It
It started out as soup. It decided it wanted to be sauce. Tomatoes are starting to come in in many places and you maybe, just maybe, are about to have more than you can eat. If Roma’s happen to be on your list, here is a great way to put them to work that can…
Easy Meals for a Solo Retreat
Packing it away is what I’ve been doing well of late…eating more than I should of things I shouldn’t. So, when I took off recently, I decided to only pack good eats. The Grocery List For four days of solo meals, here’s what I packed: 1 pound of ground bison A package of king trumpet…
Japanese Mushrooms: Sauteed King Trumpet Mushrooms and Greens with Soft-boiled Egg
I love mushrooms. I love their unique flavor and texture, and even how they are grown.Recently, I discovered that my favorite Asian grocery store is carrying some amazing Japanese-variety mushrooms – King Trumpet (AKA King Oyster), white and brown beech (AKA Shimeji – pictured below), and Maitake mushrooms. And, I’ve been eating them like crazy ever…
Persimmons: Adding color to wintery days
It’s been unseasonably warm in Salt Lake so far this winter…I was able to go out without so much as a sweater until this week. The snow fall has me yearning for a summery day. Until that day comes, in-season pomegranates and persimmons are the perfect way to punctuate my days with color. We do have native…
Muhammara – The Red Pepper, Pomegranate, and Walnut Triple Threat!
Middle Eastern dips and sauces are some of the best in the world, in my opinion. Often thick, rich in flavor, and healthy for you, they are also easy to make – and to modify – if you know what goes into them. What is Muhammara? Muhammara, a red pepper and walnut dip from Aleppo…
Fueling your Run and Recovery Without the Grains + How to Make Plantain Chips
Though I’ve been out of a routine the last couple of months, I usually run pretty regularly. In fact, I am planning to run in a half marathon this Saturday in a place called Monte Cristo. The last time I was there, I ran into a moose and her baby. While the thought of seeing…
How to Roast Hatch Green Chiles
It was a bittersweet weekend around our household. We lost a dear furry friend, but also spent days surrounded by loving friends and family – much of that time was spent cooking and eating. Food is comfort. Food is love. And, preparing food is therapy. So I got my hands dirty cleaning sweated Hatch chiles…
Enjoying the Fruits (and Vegetables) of Summer
I love this time of year. It brings back childhood memories of running through late-summer orchards, eating ripe peaches from the tree and not caring that the fuzz tickled and that juice was running down my face and neck. My home town was the epicenter of fruit-growing in Utah. The road, two blocks from my…
Garlic: strength, health, protection, and flavor
Garlic has long been my favorite vegetable. I love it so much that, in college, I used to eat raw cloves. My roommate’s mother, a Taiwanese woman who rarely spoke to me when she visited, made a point to call me out on it one day. “You eat garlic like Chinese Red Army. They’re strong and healthy. …
Coconuts and the Blades (AKA Coconut Knives) that Cut Them
Last summer while wandering through an Asian grocery store, I stopped in the kitchen tools section. I ended up buying some things that, today, I don’t think I could do without – a fine-gauge strainer, a stainless steel wok spatula, and a mesh drain catch-all. There were also some tools at the market that I…
How to Roast Red Peppers
I’ve roasted peppers a number of ways over the years – over a gas flame, in the grill alongside chicken, in a pan on the stove… But, the way that works best, is the way that works for most vegetables: roast them in the oven. It not only creates great blistering, but the tenderness of…
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Quick Marinara
Brussels sprouts have become a favorite around our house this winter. We buy several pounds at a time. I suspect that if one wants to gorge themselves on vegetables, it is probably ok. At least, I hope it is, because that’s what inevitably happens. There’s nothing quite like the salty crunch of the outer leaves…
A Beautiful French Heirloom Pumpkin
I walked into the kitchen in the late afternoon while the sun was low in the sky. The room was cast in hues of deep orange, and this pumpkin, with shadowed stalk and tendrils, nearly blended into the background. This lovely curcubita was a gift from a friend who grew it in her yard. It…
How to cut a mango
I looooove mangos! All varieties. My favorite thing to do is take a very ripe mango, roll it around until the flesh is pulverized and juicy, and then poke a straw through the skin to drink it. I don’t do this as much in Utah – where mangoes arrive green – as I did in Venezuela…
How do I love thee, citrus? Let me count the ways!
I had a completely different plan in mind for this week’s blog post than what I ended up writing – like a lot of people, I was going to make something “Super Bowl-ish”. The thing is, I’m not much of a football fan. I am crazy about citrus, though. Earlier this week, I went to a…
Garbanzo beans pop, pop, pop – who knew?
Have you ever eaten a fresh garbanzo bean? Have you ever even seen one? I’ve eaten chickpeas for years dried and then cooked, but never, until this month, have I seen these wrinkly legumes in their fuzzy little pods. They “pop” when you try to open them, releasing the air inside. And they taste very…
Sweet Limes – New tastes and new friends
Think again. These are sweet Palestinian limes… When I went to the Mexican market the other day, I saw some for the first time. I picked one up and nonchalantly tossed it into my cart to try later. I looked up to see an older couple watching me. I winked and walked away. Moments later, I…
How to Roast Beets
Beets are beautiful – raw or roasted! This bunch of big, beautiful, brilliant beets was tossed casually onto the table. Disregarded. Late afternoon sunlight warmed the leaves, leaving them languid. Raw beets? Yeah! Beets are one of the most amazing additions to juice. If you have a juicer, add this to your recipes….
Fennel for the Everyday Joe (and Jane) + Soup Recipe
Fennel was on sale at the grocery store last week. I picked up a bulb, with all of its unruly fronds intact, and headed up to the front. “What do you use that for,” asked the guy at the checkout counter. “I see people buy it sometimes, but have no idea how I’d use it.”…
Monster Soup
On my last trip to the farmer’s market, I bought a zucchini. The problem is, when I tried to pay for it, they wouldn’t let me leave without taking 2 more squash. My options were zucchini and zucchini…or the 1 Hubbard squash they had left. I opted for the 7-pound monster. The total for all…
A Weekend’s Worth of Canning Farmer’s Market Finds
We had a state holiday here in Utah a week and a half ago that gave us a three-day weekend. I thought I would go to our local farmer’s market to pick up some sweet cherries – in season, and one of my absolute favorite fruits – and find some corn for a barbecue we…
Light and Easy Nectarine, Fresh Green, and Pistachio Salad
I am excited about all of the summer fruit and vegetables that have been making an appearance lately. I’m not so excited by the heat. So, I’ve been making a lot of refreshing salads. They are perfect for a light supper out on the porch. My recent favorite is filled with fruit, nuts, and fresh…
Highlighting Native Foods: Three Sisters Chorizo Casserole
Kabocha, a Japanese winter squash that can often be found at Asian grocery stores and sometimes at your local grocer’s, is beautiful, with creamy, deep-orange, and sweet meat. It is also my all-time favorite squash. I like them so much that within two days, I had bought two of these suckers at two separate…
Managing the Costco Fruit Run Aftermath
I’m not sure what got into me last week, but I decided to buy fruit at Costco, not instead of at the local grocery store, but in addition to – and I did twice. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was the sudden appearance of summer (we had a long rainy spring). Or, maybe…
Garlicky Pizzaliciousness – Creamy Paleo Garlic Sauce
For a long time, I’ve tried to figure out a good garlic sauce for pizza. Today, I finally came up with one which is a definite keeper. I love to throw some grilled chicken, bacon, artichoke hearts, pine nuts (when they are not outrageously expensive), and chopped sun-dried tomatoes on top of a garlic sauce…