Celebrating what is. Each morning we get to wake up and decide what we cook up to place on our plate of life. I love and appreciate all the seasons, but summer, oh summer, is so easy to celebrate. Even amidst some hardships this season: super-strained knees, and a foot bent out of shape for…
Category: Earth ~ Recipes for Vegetables
In this element Mother Earth cradles
her gifts with her body
Golden Beet Fritters with Pesto Greens and Smoked Paprika Cream
A golden beet is like the Sun underground. Don’t you think so? We’ve had a glorious amount of winter sun this January, but it still made me smile to cut into these earthy orbs today. Last year, early spring, I had an idea their scrumptious goldenness might be amazing made into pan fritters. Today is…
Roast Pepper Potato Salad with Basil and Pearl Mozzarella
Where I live, we may have in no uncertain terms, officially reached the Dog Days of Summer some steamy afternoon during the last couple of weeks. But the garden is mightily loving the heat. I was out of town for 6 days, and came back to huge changes – a few dozen Japanese eggplants popping forth from…
Sugar Snap Pea, Carrot – Potato Salad with Fresh Dill and Capers
Sugar snap peas … fresh out of the garden yesterday inspired me to make this quick, lovely vegan salad. With a small, freshly pulled red onion and plenty of fresh cut dill, I was nearly set. These classic flavors are just perfect together. Potatoes are steamed until very tender, sweet carrots just a few minutes, so…
Pink Lady Apple Slaw with Toasted Fennel Seed and Lemon Oil
This simple vegan slaw contains wonderful medicinal healing ingredients, and a fresh, light flavor. With six ingredients, and about ten minutes prep time, it’s quick to prepare for a picnic or side. I’ve been experimenting cooking with organic lemon oil – usually reserved in the past for flavoring baked goods. I’ve tried it with steamed…
Cream of Roast Apple and Carrot Coconut Curry Soup
In this in-between-crazy-mixed-up-seasonal-phase here in northern Colorado, the calendar says spring, and the first garden plantings have begun. Then two nights in a row we had winter – skiffs, dustings, plus measurable snows! Irregardless, seventeen hills of high yield russet potatoes; red, yellow and white onions; snow, sugar snap and early shelling peas; plus mesclun…
Tempeh and Wild Mushroom Stroganoff
Stroganoff….. with a little twist. I’ve been making this recipe for years. At times, in restaurant and guest ranch venues, it has been made with elk or venison. This recipe is a crowd pleaser. And rich, earthy fragrances fill the kitchen. What more could you ask for? 2 pkg. traditional tempeh, cut into thin slices 8…
Scalloped Kale and Yukon Gold Potatoes
Late summer, I was glad one of my Paonia garden kale transplants had thrived in the new garden. Baked a little summer comfort food dish one of those kinda-chilly-for-August nights. And an even more excellent dish now in winter months. Matched with a pile of sliced taters, the earthiness of the kale melds with ((butter!!))…
Leek Gratin with Asiago Jarlsberg Mornay Sauce
Late fall and winter actually become easier to bear when it’s finally snowing, and just beautiful to be outside! What eases the early darkness of this season even more for me is, coming back indoors, watching a fire in the fireplace, and – let’s face it – the amazing foods of the season! Freshly pulled leeks are…
Grilled Zucchini Parmesan with Roast Tomato, Smoked Paprika and Basil Marinara
Lovely zucchini. It hasn’t been long since we were all peering beneath your huge leaves, pushing them this way and that, not wanting to miss the zukes of proper proportions, so we would not be, a day or two later, harboring a giant – you know – a Zucchini of Unusual Size. Very Fresh zucchinis…
The Celestial Crepe
O! To the Yin and Yang of life! To these delicious GF crepes! Upon a closer look of this kitchen creation, a deep understanding of stars, orbits and all kinds of celestial goings on takes place when you behold. Do you doubt?! Look! True amazement in a humble crepe! I made just one yin yang crepe (the tail ends of…
Black Bean, Zucchini Pineapple Chili
Nearly blocked off from town by closed-due-to-the-flood highways, my pioneer spirit from a past life kicked in, high gear. So grateful we are not in the immediate path of high waters, it felt like a just right day to make chili with what was on hand. Grateful for the garden – for zucchini, and jalapenos….
Curry Pickles of Joy
Crunchy and absolutely delicious, these are the curry pickles of summer. Yes, these may be the pickles of your dreams. For one thing, if you grow salad style cucumbers, (we have a “burp-less” variety) and your vines are doing VERY WELL this season like ours are, you may at this point of the season have…
Jumping In – To the New Garden, and a Triple Herb, Aged Sherry Vinegar Sour Cream Dip
Well, not literally (into the dip), but yes, I’m jumping in! With diminishing sadness, leaving my Paonia garden behind – because the new place is such a joy! I added my little terra cotta hummingbird heart onto the barn board fence beneath my friend’s plaque, to offer up some company! With dill exploding like small fireworks all over one raised…