YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Garlic Scape Pesto

So before I share this recipe, which I found literally years ago, I need to tell you where I’m sitting. Well it’s not actually the where that matters, and it’s not the view either, oddly enough. It’s the smell. OMG!

Like many of my stories having to do with food, this one starts with my dad, Chef Ira. Pretty much anyone who knew him could tell you that Chef Ira was in the habit of buying enormous quantities of supplies for the farm. The grandchildren took particular delight in this habit of his; my mother not so much. But be they foodstuffs, baked goods (I’m looking at you Marie, Amy, Jimmy, and everybody my dad loved at the Italian Bakery in Flemington, NJ!), meats, paper goods, party supplies, kitchen appliances (think: apple spiralizer), or feed for the animals, he liked it big and he liked plenty of it. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Joe Gardewin’s Ginseng Chicken Salad

My friend Joe recently invented a recipe that he calls “Ginseng Chicken Salad.” It all started with a recipe called Korean-style Ginseng Chicken, from Growing Up in a Korean Kitchen,* which he says is by far the best Korean cookbook he has, and I think that’s saying a lot (!). He especially likes it because the recipes are very similar to recipes his wife used to make. If you don’t happen to have a copy of Joe’s special cookbook, which I do not, you can use the leftovers from a boiled or roasted chicken recipe. I am proud to share this recipe here with you. He’s invented something good. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Slow Chicken & White Beans

In honor of the upcoming marriage of HLJ to ESS:
Here’s a magnificent recipe, inspired by the fact that this year is the #Year of the #Pulse! You know how much I love beans and the flavors developed by slow cooking! Try putting it up right now, and you’ll have a very special, delicious and nutritious meal for dinner tonight. Of course, if you’re me, you might decide to make it tonight instead of in the morning, so it will be ready just in time for breakfast tomorrow.
Whenever food cooks in our slow cooker through the night, it gives me delicious dreams. Sometimes it even wakes me up, a few times for a few moments, to savor the smells. Then, when morning comes, I can barely get myself up and dressed fast enough in my hurry to get downstairs to eat my yummy breakfast from the crockpot! I’m not kidding — consider yourself forewarned.

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