Corn and Orange Pepper Salad

Fresh herbs are one of my favorite ways to add a boost of flavor to a dish. This time last year, I planted an herb garden near my front entryway. The location is a wonderful conversation starter for arriving guests – particularly those who can’t resist running their hand over the plants as they walk [...]

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, [...]

How to Roast Beets in 5 Easy Steps

My appreciation for the mighty beet grew around the time they started to appear in my winter CSA box. Before I found them awkwardly interesting and, frankly, annoying at the same time. They are a pain to clean, they stained my hands several shades of magenta and would take hours to transform into anything edible. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Spinach Spring Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

The next time you decide to have salad on your lunch or dinner menu, consider thinking beyond ranch as a dressing option. There is a whole world of delicious vinaigrette flavors just waiting for the opportunity to be paired with your farm fresh mixed greens. This vinaigrette has become my second favorite alternative to ranch [...]

Prosciutto Wrapped Cantaloupe with Blackberries

Summer is supposed to be a time for rest, relaxation and reflection. None of those items are in my deck of cards these days. Life has been busier than ever with interesting projects coming out of the woodwork in all directions. Whether it’s writing for class, leading walking tours, digging in my front yard or [...]

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