Pickled Daikon Radish & Carrot Slaw

Daikon is a long, white, root vegetable that translates literally to “large root” in Japanese. My first introduction to these lovely radishes was through a community cooking demonstration I attended several months ago. We watched for nearly an hour as our instructor prepared each ingredient with focused precision. It was as if the small cleaver, [...]

Arugula Salad with Blue Cheese & Apples

Living on potato chips and Red Bull for the past two weeks was a real challenge. Balanced between my usual hectic holiday activities, I worked hard, and well into the late night hours, to finish projects for three graduate classes this semester. Now that everything is completed and grades are officially posted, preparing real food [...]

Blue Cheese Ranch Dip with Fresh Vegetables

The keys to potluck success I’ve learned over the years are to keep the food simple for transportation purposes and serve familiar favorites with my own twist to add interest. I reviewed my calendar recently and realized I had 6 potluck parties to attend in December! That’s a lot of Crockpot fare in my very [...]

Harvest Broccoli Salad

An entire bookshelf in my tiny home office is filled with spiral-bound cookbooks. These aren’t just any kind of cookbooks. They were assembled by local community organizations in the hopes of raising funds for an assorted list of causes. Two books in particular were produced as fundraisers for the local senior center in my hometown [...]

Steamed Mussels in White Wine Sauce

There will always be a special place in my heart for a steaming bowl of fresh mussels with crusty bread for dipping. While living in Chicago, mussels at HopLeaf became a perfect excuse for impromptu gatherings with friends. Even in my current city of Pittsburgh, there are times when my cravings for curry and coconut [...]

Baked Kale Chips

I had the opportunity to attend an interesting lecture by Chef Ann Cooper in a high school gymnasium filled with parents recently. Known as the “Renegade Lunch Lady,” Chef Cooper discussed the current state of school lunch programs and how we should improve them. The information outlined in her presentation was thought-provoking and insightful. In [...]

Tomato Salad with Farmer’s Cheese

Riding high on my new farmer’s cheese making abilities, I decided to toss together an easy salad for a small gathering of friends. This simple treasure is not only lovely to eat, but wonderfully beautiful at the same time. Be sure to take advantage of all the tasty tomato varieties at the farmers market. Before [...]

Homemade Fresh Farmer’s Cheese

I’ve always wanted to learn how to make farmer’s cheese. I turned to the book Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz for guidance and a recipe. After a few tries, I realized the process of making such a lovely dairy delight is quite easy and something will be made over and over. Yum! Homemade Fresh [...]

Grilled Steak House Pizza with Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing

Two things I was craving for dinner the other day were steak and a salad. Rather than choosing between the two or having both separately, I decided to give them try in the form of a grilled pizza. I figured the extra chunky blue cheese dressing I had in the fridge would be a perfect [...]

Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing

This dressing is creamy, chunky and tangy all at the same time. What’s not to like? I decided to try something different when whipping together a dressing for a steak house salad. Rather than adding the traditional amount of sour cream, I opted for Greek yogurt instead. This substitution incorporated a slightly Mediterranean tang to [...]

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