Summer is a three-month symphony that nature offers up to celebrate the beauty of the world – she gives of herself to us color and flavor, changing the tones through each movement. In the beginning, the berries punctuate the markets and then also my breakfast. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, currants, oh how I love them all. I almost think the produce alone could make summer my most treasured season. But now we are nearing the end (as the fresh chanterelles cue us to the soon-approaching Autumn, less than a month away!) and it’s worth appreciating the current chorus of tomatoes, peaches, and plums. This meal is to enjoy those tomatoes and chanterelles, marrying Summer and Autumn together in an easy one-dish dinner.
Continue reading A Pasta to Remember Summer By
I tend to lose my appetite easily when it is grossly hot outside like it has been this week, tending towards fresh fruits and greens over carbs & meats. There’s just one problem with desiring such lighter fare day after day – I don’t consume enough calories and then I am hungry. So how to eat something more substantial when I don’t feel like anything heavy? Why of course, a chilled flavorful pasta salad!
Unfortunately, pasta salads for me often invoke images of mayonnaise laden macaroni concoctions at a sweltering hot picnic brunch that leave my stomach in that “sunken” feeling after eating, like a giant boulder decided to take up residence in my tummy. It’s usually not an awesome experience. However, thanks to my friend Stacy over at Little Blue Hen, her Greek pasta with colorful visions of artichoke hearts and olives was exactly the inspiration I needed. A light olive oil and vinegar dressing and some great bright flavors sounded perfect to me.
Most everything I had already in my pantry too, which means I didn’t have to go back out in the heat to the store to buy things. Not that going to the store is an issue, but climbing the freaking hill back up to our apartment is. Did I ever tell you that I am a complete wimp in the heat (especially if there is no A/C to be had)? There’s a reason why most of my work & travels have been to cooler regions, or why my husband and I chose the chilly windy New England shore in the Autumn rather than a tropical Caribbean island for our honeymoon. A beach all to myself on a day where the high is 50ºF with 30 knot winds? Now that’s my kinda vacation:
Continue reading Chilled Pasta Salad
The success of cooking is as much dependent on how well one follows the directions of a good recipe as it is on being able to add a personal element – either to suit your tastes, your current pantry, or just to give a recipe a little bit of flair to help you make a dish become a part of you. And that’s why I’m going to be embarking on a little project. Over the next month or so, I’m going to make for you a guide. A guide to GF ingredients, a guide to knowing when you can switch one thing for the other – in the hopes of giving you more tools to enjoy your gluten free cooking. I’m going to aim for a month to put it together, and I hope it will help you.
One of the hardest facets of gluten free baking is making the right decisions about substitutions – When does it matter what flours are in a recipe? When can you just substitute a box mix? Is it really necessary to own 20 different types of ingredients to make something? If you are like me, you probably have a base of 4-5 flours that you use regularly, and when you see a recipe with someone else’s gluten free flour mix, you do your best to make do with what you own rather than going out to spend even more money at the store – cause let’s face it – gluten free ingredients often bring a whole new definition to pricey groceries. I think about substitutions almost every time I bake gluten free – sometimes I am sure the end result will come out great and other times I’m praying to the gluten free baking gods that whatever is in the oven will turn out edible. As you probably well know, baking is not my original area of expertise, and even I am prone to a mess-up or two.
Continue reading Strawberry Chocolate & Banana Quick-Bread
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