How to Make Your Own Ghee / Clarified Butter

I’ve been on a food book binge lately: biographies, non-fiction overviews of specific foods, recipe books, etc.  One that I picked up is called Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages by Anne Mendelson. It’s a strange selection for me – I don’t drink milk.  In fact, I have avoided milk for several years…

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…

Celebrating Simple Meals That Delight: A Full Meal Recipe

I finished Nicole Mones’ The Last Chinese Chef last week – which I really enjoyed and recommend.  Two ideas, in particular, from the book struck me. The first was the idea that food is often most delicious when it is simple – when it has no more ingredients than it needs and the essence of…

Key Lime Bars and Mayan Brownies with a kick

One of the reasons I, and many other people, love traveling is the opportunity to savor local foods.  To taste fruit ripened on the branch/vine the way it should be.  To experience the bustle, sounds, and sights of an open-air marketplace.  To smell a meal prepared with fresh herbs and spices.  To toast a new…

Triple Corn Corn Bread

I love corn bread.  Ever since I was a child, it (along with baking powder biscuits and my mother’s homemade bagels) has been one of my favorite breads.  Fortunately, it is a bread that lends itself to gluten-free (and yeast-free) preparation – much more so than the bagels ever will.  It is also easy and…

Mouth-watering GF Bacon Cheddar Herb Muffins

My husband and I recently returned from a trip with friends.  We got together for brunch to sort through the 5,500+ photos and video clips we’d taken between the 5 of us.  Thank goodness for digital cameras. Actually, I remember when I moved to Venezuela in 1990 for a year, I took a lead bag…

Vibrant Pumpkin Steel Cut Oats

Pumpkin, when tart cherry is not in season, is probably my all time favorite pie filling.  Both bring back childhood memories of family and happiness, the kind of memories that make any food taste just that much better than it would otherwise. As I grew up, I found other ways to use pumpkin, and learned…

La chia y la india

Last summer, I heard an interview with Christopher McDougall, the author of Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super-athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.  At the time, I was training for a half marathon and thought I’d try out the mid-foot running style I heard him describe.  Probably not the best…

Hearty Russian Cabbage Soup with Buckwheat Pilaf

Last week, I made Heidi Swanson’s Lime & Peanut Coleslaw.  The other half of the cabbage I bought has been waiting in the refrigerator ever since, along with some carrots and a couple of potatoes…together forming the inspiration for this evening’s meal: cabbage soup and buckwheat kasha.  I know, I know – it sounds a…

Spicy Pumpkin Tomato Soup

Finding fresh produce in the dead of a rural, Moldovan winter is almost impossible. Almost. When I served in the Peace Corps many moons ago, the one winter vegetable – aside from onions and garlic – I came to rely most upon was pumpkin. It was readily available, sweet, and delicious. And I bought one…