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. …

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 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….

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…

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…