The 2023 Zucchini Chronicles

I launched into this gardening season here in northern Colorado with a plan and a mindset. I would grow a “bush” zucchini rather than an indeterminate viney dragon-like variety delighting in rapidly growing to take over the bulk of my plot. As for my mindset, I was vowing to stay on top of production and…

Beauty of the Garden

Early mornings in this years garden plot have been so inspiring, my heart sings to be there, and I love to share the beauty. As the garden builds momentum, the glory of summer and how we can celebrate the earth right into our kitchens fills me with joy. I hope it does for you too….

Spring sweetness + dill pistachio pesto

The predicted, celebrated and at once startling rush of spring in Colorado is here, with all possible weather variations – making me feel, after these many, many long strange months of the pandemic – a welcome, grateful giddiness some days and moments of joy that feel a little foreign, a little unexpected, yet familiar, too,…

GF maple glazed corn fritter donuts 🌽

If you’re from Iowa, you get it. In the summer, in the Midwest. Or anywhere else where local sweet corn can be bought by the bushel, then you sit out in the garage with your sister and shuck the ears for your mom, coming away with memories of dinner with platters of corn, slathered with…

Garlicky butternut squash lasagna

From garden to butternut squash celebration today = many months. I was thrilled to create this absolutely delicious recipe – at the end of February, wind whipping up some mighty frigid air here in northern Colorado, the smell of garlic and lasagna lusciousness warming my kitchen and my heart. Scanning back over hundreds and hundreds…

Spicy GF Gingerbread Cookies

This season for the second year in a row, I drove to a little town near the foothills to choose my holiday tree, cut up near Red Feather Lakes, thinning the forest there to help keep the trees healthy. Last year my tree was so happy it greened up over the weeks standing in its…

Adventures of a Cookbook

Like I preface most of my conversations about the journey of creating my cookbook Pachamama’s Beautiful Food, I begin this post with the same sentence. I have no illusions of grandeur. No thoughts of huge fame, and surely not fortune, but a joy that this long term dream of mine wriggled through the recipe filled…

Rustic squash, olive and cheddar galette … and the first snow of the season

Yesterday was beautiful … and bittersweet. The first snow of the season happened, in midst of the October eruption of golden leaves and fall prairie flowers.  The familiar changes are always, to me, a bit startling and therefore so entrancing, creating magical landscapes in the tiniest and grandest of details. The afternoon before I had…

Fresh corn, sweet pepper and basil soup

The flavors of late summer are so bright. Harvest at the farmer’s market, here in Fort Collins, Colorado. A genuine balm for the winter to come. And this soup is so simple and absolutely fresh, perfect for this fall week, taking advantage of the last of this season’s corn. You will love the flavors of…

Lemon Basil Muffins with Ground Pistachios

It’s been a whirlwind of book publishing these last two months, and kitchen life has for the most part been pretty simple. Which has been great. Grilled cheese with tomatoes and basil from the garden. Blistered shishito pepper and garlic – from the garden – omelettes with red pasada and yukon gold home fries, you…

Oh Joy! Pachamama’s Beautiful Food Cookbook is coming soon!!!

I am so thrilled to share with you – my longggg term dream is becoming a reality! Dear Readers and Friends, Gluten Free Eaters and Pachamama Lovers, My first job getting paid to cook was 41 years ago at a little diner in Iowa City, Iowa.  From then to now there has been a whole…

Celebrate Spring with this Asparagus Crimini Mushroom Herb Tart

It (truly) is the most glorious time of the year. Spring Equinox here in the northern hemisphere, and the renewal of all things green and alive is the launch into my favorite season. Celebrated below in the grandest way:   All of these things and more charged up my heart and spirit in the last…