This is another of the herbs in the front garden that I ruthlessly cut back to the ground last fall. It has come back with a vengeance over the last couple of weeks. In the fall it’ll bloom and bring butterflies by the dozens.

Enchilada Sauce Recipe I was making a chicken and black bean enchilada casserole this evening and realized that I was out of canned enchilada sauce.  Then I thought … why not make my own?  It would probably be much more flavorful than the store-bought variety, and besides, aren’t I trying to cut out prepared food?  [...]

Tuesdays with Dorie #4: Kim of Scrumptious Photography decided on the Chocolate Cream Tart on pages 352 and 353. As with last week’s recipe, I made only 1/2 of this. Actually, I wound up making a full recipe of the tart crust before I remembered, but I think it’ll keep in the freezer and I’m [...]

Collard Green Recipe Collard greens are a uniquely Southern food, I think. Most people who aren’t from the South (or haven’t lived here a while) don’t really know what they are, even if they’ve heard of them to begin with. Usually non-Southerners approach collards with suspicion, if not outright fear, visions of some overcooked, slimy [...]

There were a few more stalls at our farmer’s market this morning. I’m still getting a feel for who is local and who is bringing in out of state veggies. I don’t want to be a food snob about it, but I’d rather buy from local farms and farmers first, the other markets next, and [...]

This is another one of those I-made-it-up-as-I-went-along recipes.  I had 2 red bell peppers from the farmers market that were just crying out for something more than being chopped up in a salad – stuffing them seemed like a good choice.  I spent a few minutes thinking about what makes a great stuffing.  My mom [...]

Tuesdays with Dorie #3:  Lauren of Upper East Side Chronicle selected Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding,  pages 410 and 411. This is the first TWD recipe that I’ve altered significantly.  I figured I wanted to make the first two exactly as they are in the book to see how the recipes “work” for me before [...]

What do to with whey. This has been a topic that’s been on my mind lately. I know … I know. I’m weird. But it has. See, last week I made 3 batches of yogurt; one of them I left as is for use in recipes, one of them I strained slightly for my morning [...]

Until a few weeks ago, I’d never made a popover. I’d certainly eaten them, and of course I’d read and heard about making them – complete with horror stories about how hard it was to get popovers to “pop,” but I’d never made them. Then I saw a recipe for them: 1 egg, 1/2 cup [...]