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…
Category: Summer in the Garden
Tiger Swallowtails and Life
Faithful readers, you may have noticed it’s been a bit, a bite out of time since I last posted. I’ve had much to contemplate, places to travel, lovely connections with Earth, all narrowing down to this moment. Today, milkweed in full bloom and a tiger swallowtail butterfly in incredible perfection burst into my life as…
Summer Crepe Taco Stack with Bing Cherry Salsa
Excitement on a plate! Unique dessert crepe tacos – stacked in an irresistible tower for summer picnics, a lovely buffet, or just anytime… These light, gluten free crepes can be held in the hand to eat! Arrange your stack as tall as you like in an alternating pattern of fruit and whipped cream filled tacos. Then…
Spuds of Joy!
Big smile. The first potatoes of the season are here! I decided to cheer up and dig a little. The hail storm I wrote about a few weeks ago TRULY pummeled the potato plants, their big dark leaves ripped and stems scarred all over. Five of them continued to wither, then finally dried up. I…
Perfect Picnic Thai Green Curry Pasta Salad
Thai green curry is an ongoing passion of mine. The herb-iness, the spice, the HOT, the coconut…… And, when I started to think about it, how perfect it is for outdoor summer eating adventures. Picnics. Instead of pesto in a salad. We grew a ton of basil last year as well as mint, and I…
Hail Soup and Summer 2014, Day 2
Hail yeah? There was a whopper of a storm today. “A TERRIFIC storm,” some might say. Heads nearly rolled! Tattered tomato plants, the potatoes even worse. Battered squash. Shredded corn leaves. Some carnage. Matter of factly, Pachamama served up a sumptuous bowl of hail soup, as the garden reeked of decimated dill and mint and onion….
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…
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!!))…
Favorite Photographs of the Year
Memories of 2013 from Pachamama’s Beautiful Food archives…from Paonia to Ft. Collins, Colorado. Thank goodness for gardens! Out of the thousands of photos I took, I hope you enjoy these mementoes. Click on the first image to view as a slideshow. I’m beginning to more earnestly focus on the Pachamama’s cookbook, going through recipes, gleaning…
The First Magical Ear
I am so grateful to everyone with passion. For it is passion that makes life such a rich amazement. “Carl Barnes, a part-Cherokee farmer living in Oklahoma had an uncanny knack for corn breeding. More specifically, he excelled at selecting and saving seed from those cobs that exhibited vivid, translucent colors. Exactly how long Barnes…
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…
The Versatile Ear: Raw Thai Style Corn Salad, Corn and Feta Stuffed Poblano Peppers + Roast Serrano, Organic Sweet Corn and Heirloom Potato Chowder
Originally posted on Pachamama's Beautiful Food:
Fresh sweet corn. Butter. Salt. Iowa born and raised. Summers at the lake in upstate New York. Corn is in my blood. organic bi-color Luscious sweet corn fresh from the garden in the boil I love corn on the cob! What a sign of summer! As young girls, my…
Haiku for a Melon
Grow mightily sweet in these dog days of summer, dream big, wee melon!
The Refuge of a Pumpkin Flower
When the beauty one encounters is so vast it defies description, I wonder if my heart, beaming strongly through these words is enough to portray why witnessing the refuge of a pumpkin flower awakened me?
Pachamama's Beautiful Food 