Back to school. Back to craziness. With this sweltering heat, the last thing you might want to do is cook, but as I crave some crisp fall days, I can at least write about how to make that task easier and of course enjoyable. We all have our shortcuts in the kitchen. Maybe it's using some prepared ...
farm fresh
Zucchini Ribbon and Blossom Salad
...
Vintage Canning Cone Sieve Colander Strainer Wood Masher Rolling Pin Pestle
Sometimes something from the past deserves a reinvention for a new time. Take this vintage cone sieve with wood masher which finishes your tomato sauce better than any sieve with a hand crank. I used it this afternoon to get the most puree out of the remaining seeds and skins which were leftover ...
Blueberry Cake with Lemon Glaze
This blueberry cake recipe is for Debbie and of course all of you! During our massive cooking date last week, the grease was splattering, pots of water boiling and the mixer was whirling as Debbie and I made Maryland crab cakes (the real stuff), blueberry cake (with Jersey berries) and a large vat ...
Farm Fresh Tomato Sauce
It's that time of year when I've always got a pot of sauce simmering on the stove. This past week, I made farm fresh tomato sauce three times. One batch for a bunch of hungry teens, another to break in my friend Debbie's new kitchen and another batch for the freezer. I've got the process down to ...
Creamy Corn Empanadas
Another fabulous freezer friendly (say that three times!) use for sweet summer corn, these crispy Corn Empanadas are filled with a blend of flavors which place corn on the pedestal it deserves. I love to stuff ingredients into some kind of wrapper -- dumplings, spring rolls and empanadas are my ...
Farm Fresh Freezer Cooking
Labor Day weekend is flashing it's yellow lights of warning. Not only does it mark the official end of summer, but also provides the heads up that summer's finest -- sweet corn, Jersey perfect tomatoes and crisp kale -- are on their way out. For some people, Labor Day weekend might be that final ...
Summer Cooking & Savoring Farm Fresh
Upon my return from the Algarve, I've felt myself in a race against time. As the farms abound with my favorite ingredients -- corn, zucchini, beets and tomatoes -- I'm hustling to create as much as I can. Needless to say, my freezer is stuffed with farm fresh everything, from gazpacho and blueberry ...
Fresh Figs and the Algarve Air
Cooking is a whole lot easier when you've got the freshest ingredients available at your fingertips. That's why cooking in the summer is ideal, where farmers' markets abound with foods begging to be made into something delectable. My vacation cooking in the southwestern Algarve was interrupted this ...
Cinnamon Chip Zucchini Bread
Upon my return from vacation, I was greeted by an overgrown garden with one extraordinarily large, on steroids-like, zucchini. I wasn't functioning too well the first day feeling the jet lag pretty strongly. Having already had a few mishaps in the kitchen (like nicking my finger on the mandoline) I ...