It’s almost the end of June and I haven’t written about juneberries, my favorite foraging fruit next to blackcaps. Juneberries are small, round berries that look like tiny purple crabapples, but that are soft like a blueberry. They grow on shrubs or small trees. Where I live they are often called serviceberries or amelanchier (after their Latin genus name Amelanchier), probably because they don’t really … Read more
Sometimes I get a little distracted while baking and forget to put an ingredient in. Baking soda, sugar, oil, salt — if you bake for long enough, you’ll forget one or all of these ingredients at one time or another. Usually, it spells disaster for the final product. But every once in a while you make a fortuitous omission, discovering … Read more
June is a big month for harvesting and freezing berries for me. To make room in the freezer this week, I cooked up a pot of curry using frozen chicken, pineapple, and peas as the central ingredients. Not to brag, but it is beyond delicious. The pineapple goes wonderfully with the coconut milk, and together with the lemongrass adds a nice … Read more
Frozen yogurt with no added sugar, lots of fruit, and a texture as rich and velvety as ice cream? It’s not an impossible dream. This recipe has only strawberries, pears, plain Greek yogurt, a dash of milk and Truvia. Last year I splurged on a Vitamix to simplify ice cream making and other tasks, and I’m glad I did – in … Read more
I wasn’t sure what kind of muffins to make today, so I looked in my fridge for inspiration. The jar of sour beets caught my attention. I texted my sister and told her I was thinking about making beet muffins. She texted back, “That sounds kind of gross. But good luck anyway!” She’s right. It does sound kind of gross. But it’s … Read more
The weather hasn’t cooled, so I’m still finding myself unable to eat all the bananas in the fruit bowl before they start turning too ripe to eat. (It doesn’t help that I consider any banana with no green on the skin “too ripe.”) Well, it’s time for more banana muffins! Just to keep some sort of variety in my life, I decided to make this … Read more
Now that it’s getting warmer, bananas and avocados ripen a lot faster on the counter than they did in the winter. They over-ripen a lot faster, too. Over the weekend, I found myself with a glut of avocados and bananas that were too ripe for my taste, but still edible. How could I use them up fast? I decided to make … Read more
My favorite coffee shop recently featured tomatillo soup for lunch. It was delectable and inspired me to create my own version at home. Because I keep cooked beans, caramelized onions, cooked grains and vegetable stock on hand in the freezer, the preparation was incredibly quick and easy. (You can find my directions for making big batches of beans here, caramelized onions here, … Read more
Knowing my love of slow cooking, my close and personal superior Mindy Celeste sent me a recipe from Real Simple for slow-cooker rigatoni. It’s the best kind of crock pot recipe, requiring little preparation beyond chopping and mixing. The original recipe calls for thawing and draining the spinach, but MC said, “I did not thaw or squeeze anything as I used whole … Read more
I was feeling fancy this week, so decided to make iced muffins. I usually skip icing and frosting because they tend to be loaded with sugar. Plus, I’m a bit lazy! But I’ve been wondering lately if sugar substitutes could create the satisfying, crunchy-but-melty texture of a good icing. My curiosity finally won out over my laziness, and I started experimenting. … Read more