Recipe: Pressure-Cooker Vegan Chili

bowl of chili topped with avocado slices

I made some quick chili based on a recipe in the Moosewood Cookbook, but with some tweaks for the ingredients I had on hand. I also used a pressure cooker instead of slow simmering on the stovetop—quicker cooking means less heat in the kitchen. After the beans and wheat are done soaking, it takes about half an hour for the … Read more

Quick Snack: Cashews and Chocolate

It’s summer, and I don’t feel like baking. Also, I have a bar of fancy Scharffen Berger chocolate that doesn’t taste as good as I expected. (I can hardly taste the pistachios.) So instead of making chocolate chip muffins or granola bars, I make an easy snack: one ounce of salted cashews with a bit of chopped chocolate. It’s heavenly.

Quick Dinner: Pesto Pasta Salad

Mindy Celeste made an awesome pesto pasta salad when I was visiting her in Oregon last month. I asked her for the recipe and planned to make it this week. But as often happens with me, I neglected to buy half the ingredients when I was at the grocery store. So I changed the recipe to suit what I had on … Read more

Quick dinner recipe: Fennel & tomato penne with eggplant

This recipe includes several solanaceous vegetables that are just coming into season where I live: eggplant, sweet pepper, and tomatoes. My beloved fennel also plays a starring role, along with fresh basil and onions. And it took me under 30 minutes to prepare. There’s so many vegetables in this dish you could skip the salad. But if you have as many veggies as I do … Read more

Parsley, sage, rosemary and bee balm (or, How to eat the prairie)

I was walking by the river near my house today and was delighted to see one of my favorite prairie plants blooming along the banks: Monarda fistulosa, also known as bee balm or wild bergamot. This charming flower is native to most of North America — and if you don’t have it in your neck of the woods, you might have one … Read more

Recipe: Simple black raspberry salad

I’ve been eating black raspberries at every meal now that they’re in season. They were in my oatmeal at breakfast, my yogurt at lunch, and in my salad at dinner. I love how they look next to the beets. The colors would make a lovely combination for a duotone quilt. If only I had made the salad before the sun set, the picture would have … Read more

Quick Dinner Recipe: Mixed Veggie Scramble with Radish Toast

We signed up for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share this year, paying a flat fee at the beginning of the growing season to a local farmer, who then delivers a box of fresh vegetables once a week. Getting a CSA subscription is more economical than buying an equivalent amount of vegetables at the grocery store, and some CSAs let you … Read more