This is such a simple dressing to make and a kitchen mainstay in our home. If you can make your own buttermilk (I’ve been trying my hand at one from Cultures for Health ) it’s even better as you can make it organic and with whole milk! Sometimes I mix this up with a few leaves of basil thrown in, but it’s a pretty classic dressing that everyone loves; it makes a gorgeous green dressing perfect for your favorite crunchy salad greens or slaw (or, ahem, spicy grilled chicken wings . . . it is football season, after all!)
Oct 042010
May 262010
Oh, how I love pickles. We’ll just start it out like that. Because you are likely to see all manner of vegetables pickled this year from this kitchen. Fair warning. We love, love, love asparagus in our house. We eat it steamed, grilled and roasted. We eat it in salads, on pizzas and simply dipped in mayonnaise. But the other day, in the glee of spring asparagus season, I bought too much for us to eat. We’d already had it several times and I was afraid it might go bad before we wanted it again. So I did what any real-foodie pickle lover would do. I made pickled asparagus. Lacto-fermented, of course. Keep in mind this is more of a method than a recipe. I didn’t have any dill on [... To read more, click here ...]
May 192010
It is late spring and our mornings start with the windows and doors open and breezes flowing through at breakfast, and end with dinner al fresco at night. I love it. And as the weather warms I instinctively begin craving whatever is fresh, crunchy and green. One of our favorite salads is good old Caesar. We eat it plain on the side of a grilled steak, or as a meal with roasted or grilled chicken, salmon or shrimp on top. I love the sharp pungency of the garlic mixed with the saltiness of the anchovies and parmesan and crisp lettuce leaves. There’s nothing like it. I’ve been making this dressing for a few years and just love it. It is inspired by a recipe Ina Garten originally made for a [... To read more, click here ...]
Feb 012010
Remember this post? When I declared that I’d no longer be buying mayonnaise? Ever again. Well, I haven’t. And I’ve been delving into all manner of mayonnaise recipes online and in books, in search of the perfect one ever since. I’ve resurrected curdled mayonnaise’s more times than I’d like to admit (I’ve included my favorite remedy, below) and I’ve experimented with only egg yolks, egg yolks plus one egg, lemon juice vs. cider vinegar, by hand vs. blender vs. food processor vs. hand blender. I studied Child, and Ruhlman. And over the past few months I’ve really figured out the flavors and technique that I prefer. And it surprised me. And then I decided to make it lacto-fermented, so that it would last in the fridge for six to eight weeks, just [... To read more, click here ...]
There are two standards of quality for me when it comes to a good Mexican restaurant. First, refried beans. Beans must be offered and they must be refried. Not black beans, not some low-cholesterol offering, but real refried beans, preferably cooked in lard and topped with queso fresco must be served. You got bad beans? I won’t be returning. Second, escabeche. If I go to a taco stand or Mexican restaurant and they have a little bowl of escabeche on the table or included with their salsa selection I’m a happy girl. I know I’m in. I’d rather frequent a sketchy Mexican restaurant with good beans and escabeche than a beautiful one that markets their black bean wraps with avocado puree and fishbowls of margaritas, thank you very much. Which [... To read more, click here ...]
Jun 302008
I always buy my avocados from the same family’s booth at my Saturday Farmer’s Market. Run by a married couple, their young son often plays with my little guy while I choose which two avocados I want for the weekend (ripe, with a bit of give to them) and which two I want to buy to make something with for later in the week. They have a 3/$4 listed price but we have a 4/$5 agreement every week. I’m a repeat customer. Though avocados are their primary seller, they often frequently sell traditional, hard to find Latin-American fruits and vegetables, like chayote and nopales, along with a range of citrus fruits. One day I realized that the proprietor’s son had handed over a small, bright orange kumquat to Lloyd and [... To read more, click here ...]
Jun 272008
The one condiment I can not seem to keep in the house is salsa. I think my husband must eat it for breakfast. I buy it on sale for the pantry, next time I go to get a jar out, they’re all gone. I open a new jar and eat a little bit with lunch, by the weekend there’s only a teaspoon left. My husband can easily go through four or five cups of salsa in a weekend of football games. And not only do we eat it with chips, and on things like tacos or quesadillas, but we have it with eggs, a cup or so mixed in with vegetable beef stew in the wintertime, a dash added to a spaghetti sauce that needs some oomph, and marinate shrimp [... To read more, click here ...]
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