Healthy salad of chickpeas, garlic, green olives, and parmesan cheese, simply dressed with olive oil and lemon juice. This week I closed a chapter in my life, and was caught off-guard by the nostalgic feelings it raised in me. Like when you’re watching a movie, say a comedy, and an unexpected bittersweet moment grabs at your heart out of nowhere, and your eyes suddenly well up. It was a surprise because the event was the simple sale of a townhome I’ve owned for 25 years – one I hadn’t ...
Cucumber-Tomato Salad & Kefir-Dill Dressing
Fresh summer salad of cucumbers and tomatoes tossed in a kefir dressing with minced onion, dill, and chives. We're off to Chicago tomorrow for an annual reunion of ex-ski buddies scattered across the country. There's something so satisfying and heart warming about spending time with friends you've travelled with through decades of life changes. It all started somewhere around 1987 when I met S in Boston. She was transferred there with her job, a mutual friend connected us, ...
Peaches & Honey Frozen Yogurt
Fat-free frozen yogurt churned with juicy roasted peaches and sweetened by honey. A cool summer breeze. Years ago, my parents lived in South Carolina about an hour outside of Charleston. After 30 years of being tied to jobs in the north, they were newly retired and looked forward to getting back to the familiar, long hot summers of their childhoods. They built a house on a lake locally known for good fishing and dad motored his fishing boat out early every morning with a buddy ...
Strawberry Balsamic Jam
Soft set strawberry balsamic jam that balances the sweetness of strawberries with tart balsamic vinegar. Every year I make a little more jam, a little more experimenting with seasonal fruits at their peak. And every year I wonder why I don’t do this more often. It’s really so easy, and besides a funnel, a candy thermometer, and a really large pot, there’s not a lot of special equipment involved. My little jam operation here at kitchen central is small production; sometimes only ...
Black Bean Soup with Tomatillos and Corn
Hearty black bean soup with tomatillos, corn, and tomatoes, topped with avocado, lime, cilantro, and chipotle sour cream. I was all set to go yesterday. I knew what I'd write about. The photo was ready - or well, as ready as it was going to be. A beautiful frittata I made last week with fresh peak-season veggies I'd made several times in my new frittata pan to get just right. I sat down at the computer, wrote up a post, attached the photo, and then couldn't find my notes on the ...
Summertime Corn and Seafood Stew
Summertime stew packed full of summer vegetables, clams, and shrimp...made smokey from Hungarian paprika and bacon. What is it about summer entertaining that makes us yearn for alfresco dining with everyone we know or have ever met? Warm summer nights. Long days of sunshine. Trees at their peak of fullness, a soft whisper of a breeze ruffling the leaves for a moment. Informal, comfortable clothes and conversation over large platters of food and bottles of wine that get passed around the ...
Homemade Flour Tortillas!
An easy flatbread to make in your kitchen, and a great way for kids to have fun in the kitchen. This was a guest post over with Deena at the Stay At Home Foodie with a post about making your own tortillas. Deena did a wonderful series on recipes to get kids cooking in the kitchen this summer, and posted a bunch of great ones you should all check out whether you have kids or not. If I'm being honest, I chose tortillas mostly because I'd just bought a tortilla ...
Blackberry-Cherry Turnovers
High-Altitude Baking: Tender pastries filled with summer fruit and hints of cinnamon. We moved last weekend to a new rental condo in one of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever lived, Lake Tahoe. Tahoe personifies summer: a deep azure-blue lake dotted with boats, idyllic white sandy beaches, and heavily forested mountains laced with hiking trails. As a special treat, we now have a deck that backs up to tall pine trees close enough to reach out and touch, and a stream that meanders ...
Very Berry Mini-Pies
Two-bite mini pies loaded with blueberries, blackberries, and a dab of cream cheese. Streusel topping includes ground flax seed and cocoa nibs. I’ve forgotten how to relax. How to flop down on a beach with nothing better to do than feel the heat of the sand between my toes, half-listen to nearby chatter and squeals muted by the waves, and just let my mind wander aimlessly. After weeks of jam-packed days filled with long “to do” lists to get our house on the market, I feel guilty about ...
Avocado and Roasted Tomatillo Soup
Easy, refreshing soup of smoky roasted tomatillos, spicy chipotles in adobo, creamy avocado, and tart lime. Someday, if I ever write a cookbook, it will be on soup. Too narrow? I respectfully disagree. Too seasonal? No way. It's a wonderful way to celebrate each and every season. Butternut squash and roasted cauliflower soups in the fall and winter; spring lettuce or strawberry soups in the spring; fruit soups in the summer. Soup is the ultimate in make-ahead meals. I can make a ton of ...
Strawberry – Rhubarb Syrup
Sweet-tart, minty syrup with accents of ginger and lime. Perfect with club soda for a summery non-alcoholic drink. It's odd, but I never sampled rhubarb's goodness until just a few years ago. I don't know why, really, because it turns out I've been missing out on something pretty terrific. I guess for starters, I have absolutely no memory of my mom cooking with it. Or anyone else's mom for that matter. By the time rhubarb crossed my path, I was well into adulthood with set opinions ...
Grilled Fennel-Bean Salad & Lemon Dressing
Grilled fennel salad with cannellini beans and tomatoes tossed in a lemon-sage dressing, topped with Parmesan cheese shavings. Happy Memorial Day Weekend to all! Today I'm excited about a guest post I'm doing on RecipeLion, a recipe and cooking website from Prime Publishing that offers recipes, videos, healthy eating advice, party ideas and cooking techniques from top chefs, home cooks and experts. They have a focus on healthy cooking and eating, and when Matt asked me to share a ...
