Please enjoy this recipe, an earlier version of which I posted in November 2011:
This past week I found myself the proud possessor of a lovely hubbard squash. Add to that the butternut squash that came in a CSA box last month, and the bags of carrots that continue to come every week, and which are piling up in the refrigerator, and, as my dad used to say: “It’s time to get choppin’!” Continue reading
I was introduced to delicata squash some years ago while celebrating the wedding of friends in Santa Cruz. Delicata is a small, lovely squash that looks gorgeous and tastes the same. It’s a little bit sweet, and a little bit not. Plus, unlike most other squashes, you can eat the skin of the delicata!
This was a wedding to remember. In keeping with an old family custom, and so that we could easily identify the affiliation of each of the guests, those invited by one partner were instructed to wear gold while those invited by the other were instructed to wear white. We were members of team white, and I was thrilled to have an opportunity to wear a knitted cream dress that had been hanging in my closet for a long time. Once we arrived at the outdoor venue, we all joined together in a sea of yellow, gold, beige, cream, and white to form a new, beautiful, extended family. It was very moving, and most memorable. The simple beauty of this recipe will always remind me of the love and joy we helped to create on that beautiful October day. Continue reading
It probably won’t surprise you to discover that I never tire of reading cookbooks and food magazines. I’m always looking for something new and different. I was thumbing through a copy of Food & Wine recently, and came across a really interesting fresh pomegranate salsa that involved charring a red onion and serrano pepper, while simultaneously reducing sherry vinegar in a small saucepan.
In theory it sounded amazing, but in truth it sounded like a lot, even for me. But I love pomegranates, and I love pistachios, and I loved the creative mixture of ingredients. So I decided to try it a different way. It looks like it’s time to up my salsa game. Continue reading
I’ve posted this recipe in these pages once before, but it’s so unusual and delicious that it’s definitely worth repeating. Plus I have a lot of collards in the fridge at the moment. I love how the aromatics supplied by the cumin and cinnamon and lemon in this soup yield a result whose flavors are so different from the spice combinations I normally tend to reach for. Continue reading
This weekend I made our first cholent of the season for Sukkot, the fall harvest festival. We ate it inside our beautiful sukkah, built mostly by my husband, but this year with the help —for the first time — of our very young grandchildren. Cholent warms you from the inside out in chilly weather, and then, just little while later, it is gone.
I have made cholent (a crockpot stew traditionally served on holidays and Shabbat) a thousand times or more in my life, and no two versions have ever come out exactly the same. But, like riding a bike, there is a rhythm to the recipe, and once you get the rhythm, it belongs to you for the rest of your life. Continue reading
In the days when my house was full of school-age children, I used to make crockpots full of soup every weekend, and hope that it would last into the beginning of the following week to provide warm lunches or dinners until it was gone. I don’t make weekly crockpots anymore, but I still love using my crockpot to make soup in the fall, around the holidays, and in the early spring, before the weather begins to warm up.
This time of year, with the nights cooling and plenty of holidays on the calendar, it’s always a great feeling to fill the crockpot and see what develops. And it doesn’t have to be chicken thighs. You can also fill your crockpot with beans! An overnight crockpot fills the house with a sublime perfume, the stomach with a delicious and satisfying meal, and the hearts of those you feed with all kinds of warm and cozy feelings. Continue reading
Last week we were expecting a whole crowd of people to gather for dinner on Friday night. My husband had been away all week, and we were all looking forward to enjoying good food, good company, and a glass of good wine.
I was looking for a main course that would serve as a dramatic centerpiece for our meal, a symbol of sorts, and so I decided to try making a vegan version of a cassoulet. Traditionally, the cassoulet, a staple of French cuisine, is made with meats and poultry like mutton, pork, sausage, and duck confit, and different regions of France are known for their own distinctive versions. But I had my heart set on making a new kind of cassoulet that, while plant-based, was still intensely flavorful. Continue reading
As you have probably noticed, it’s been a little on the hot side. It is August after all, but I took a quick trip down to Austin, Texas, this week to give a talk on diet and inflammation, and it was, at 104F, 30 degrees hotter than in Cleveland where I can usually be found. I’m pretty sure that 104 degrees is a record for me.
This recipe is guaranteed to make your belly happy when it’s hotter outside than you are on the inside. It’s a great dessert, but it’s also a delicious and nourishing breakfast or afternoon snack. Yes, you read that correctly. It is INFINITELY more nourishing than a bowl of sweet ultraprocessed cereal. Continue reading
In the past few days we’ve had vegetable-bean soup made with Moro beans from Rancho Gordo, fresh tomatoes on toast made from Simple Kneads’s sourdough bread, tossed green salads with peppers and radishes, pickled red onions, fresh guacamole, orange-grapefruit salad sprinkled with pistachios, green grapes, cherry tomatoes, and fresh blueberries. And there is almost always homemade bread made from my husband’s hands with King Arthur’s whole wheat flour.
Our meals do not exactly have a theme, but they always have a lot going for them. It’s all about vegetables, and fruits, and color. On a regular basis we make our way through red, green (light, medium, and dark), white, yellow, brown, orange, purple and blue produce. That’s a lot of colors. And, as my mom taught me, the more colors at a meal, the better. Continue reading