This week I picked the last marigolds from the garden, and harvested lots of fennel seed, chives and thyme. Loads of tomatoes, beets too, and butternut squash. With a chill in the air, and now having weathered our first snow of the season, my yearly reluctance to jump into autumn is fading a little, because…
Category: Cooking
Ginger Plum Butter
Italian plums will always remind me of my mom when we were growing up, her delight when plum season arrived in the summertime, and her two bite technique for eating these plums out of hand, deftly plucking the pit from the halved fruit and forging ahead with the second bite without a hitch. She…
Grilled Zucchini Sausage Pie
Is your garden producing any morning glory tipi takeovers? (I love mine!) Or how about Zucchinis Of Unusual Size? Hmmm, yes. Zucchinis Of Unusual Size are a common phenomena with just about anyone who plants a garden. And while I didn’t grow zucchini this season (I’ve got sunburst pattypan and butternut squashes, and pickling cucumbers…
Cream of Grilled Endive and Asparagus Soup with Fresh Peas and Blue Cheese
Spring has leapt into Summer. “It’s the most glorious time, of the year!” Though by all counts, this time around, so far, summer is pretty darn hot. I sure was charmed by these sweet pea blossoms and new pods way back in May: You may remember, I was so very happy to secure a plot…
Grilled Endive and Quinoa Salad with Dried Sour Cherries and Toasted Almonds
This gardening season is going to be like no other in my life! I’m just thrilled to have secured a spot in one of the many community gardens here in Fort Collins, Colorado. By the time I got over to the gardens to really check out my plot, shovel, rake, gardening gloves and a desire…
Saturday Snow + New Potato and Leek Frittata with Spicy Greens and Feta
My eyes drank in the sunrise, waking slowly on this snowy Saturday morning. Freezing cold and spectacular the colors glowed, making my heart quiver as I absorbed in all this beauty. I made some strong coffee and began assembling breakfast. A big, delicious frittata. **I want to share with you that on my birthday this…
Lemon Cardamom Bundt Cakes and Last of the Year Treasures
No matter the trials, 2016 also has had many moments of beauty. Just a few days ago, I had the good fortune to be asked to house sit for friends who live in a sweet, big old farm house out in the country. This heart display, among many other things welcomed me. Remember to stop…
Tomato Nirvana: Heirloom Tomato, Basil and Goat Cheese Tortilla Pizzas
Here in Colorado we have finally reached peak tomato ecstasy. I think for me it is truly a deep down, ingrained, hereditary love. Of tomatoes. A gift of tomatoes is a treasure indeed. Hot off the vine. Recently, from my plants and from my CSA share, I happily, gratefully gleaned purple Cherokees, Valencias, Green Zebras,…
Grilled Vegetable Ratatouille with French Pistou
There are two main styles of cooking, as my eyes see it today. One celebrates the simple purity of the ingredients and aims to let each one shine through in a merged state of clarity with the others. The other style contains more emphasis on stylistic appeal, sophistication, complexity – not to mention ambition. Both…
Banana Muffins with Lavender and Fresh Ginger reading The Tijuana Book of the Dead
I began this post months ago, yet … banana muffins with lavender and fresh ginger sounded excellent on this slightly cooler, rainy-ish summer day. It’s the 4th anniversary of Pachamama’s Beautiful Food today, so why not celebrate with a second post. I have loved the gardens I shared with you in these past four years,…
Fried Apple and Wilted Kale Salad with Curried Raisins and Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
I live in a climate that feels winter deep into it’s bones. This year we’ve gotten more snow than usual; the blues and whites stunning – merging, a dreamy fusion, blending land and sky. I’m to be found at home today, fire in the woodstove, thinking greens. This perfect little salad has been rolling around…
Chilies in Nut Sauce ~ A Magical Recipe from Like Water for Chocolate
What gifts a magical perspective can bring. It can expand and fire up our hearts, restore the sense of wonder within our lives. It is a gift we can give ourselves, to choose to see the world beyond the mundane, unclouded by the jaded. For me it is the fuel that has helped me persevere…
Double Coconut Chocolate Brownies on a Perfect Fall Day
Now I truly don’t know which is better. These double coconut chocolate brownies, or this perfect fall day. I’ll let you decide. Go on. Sit yourself down and try one. There’s coffee, too, dark Italian roast from Steaming Bean out of Telluride. In French Limoges Haviland third generation china cups, on the old front porch….
Bittersweet Autumn … alongside a dish of Curried Spaghetti Squash with Currants, Chives and Ghee
Oh Summer, I feel you pulling away like a lover’s goodbye – with a bittersweet wrenching in my heart. My eyes follow slanting light on leaves, on rippling water, witnessing a dazzle of unexpected miracles. My heart soft from sadness in the world today, this hollyhock nearly makes me weep with it’s fragile, exquisite beauty,…
Pachamama's Beautiful Food 