Mayan chocolate is probably best known as a delicious, hot, and frothy drink made with ground cacao beans and corn meal and spiced with chiles and cinnamon. This rich but bitter drink – called xocolatl – has been around for thousands of years, and only became a sweet treat in the 1700s in Europe. These…
Tag: fruit
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…
Rose and Bael Fruit Tea Recipe
As you know, I love to visit ethnic food markets. Recently I discovered that my favorite SE Asian market carries dried rosebuds and something I hadn’t seen before: bael fruit. Bael fruit is known by many names: Bengal quince, golden apple, Japanese bitter orange, stone apple, and wood apple. Native to India, it is often used in a popular summer drink. The package…
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…
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…
Cornstarch crepes with fresh fruit
According to Lou Seibert Pappas, an authority on the subject, dessert crepes were originally made from wheat flour, and savory crepes, interestingly, were made with buckwheat – a gluten-free seed that is milled into flour. Crepes were also cooked on good old cast iron pans, instead of the fancy, electric crepe cooking appliances available today….
25 Quick and Easy Gluten-free and Dairy-free Snacks
I love snacks. I’m what you might call a forager or grazer, eating here and there throughout the day. And, when I am not at home, I have a back-up plan. Back in the day, I had a drawer full of snacks that could rival your best grocery store selection…from soup to nuts, literally. And,…
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…
Quick GF Pineapple Upside-down Cake
Last night, I totally messed up the cake I was making. You know how pineapple upside down cake is supposed to have the pineapple at the bottom of the cake pan while baking? Well, mine had it in the middle. And, I was planning to mix strawberry chunks (dusted in sugar and then frozen) into…
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…