Several years ago I had an illuminating experience. An amazing green salad with strawberries coated in freshly ground pepper. It opened my eyes to a new way to eat one of my all-time favorite fruits. Savory. Awesome. So now that I am elbow deep in strawberries from my garden, fresh, gorgeous, staining my countertop red they’re so ripe and juicy strawberries, the first thing I thought to make was to somehow recreate that salad, but make it my own. And, anyone who knows me, knows that to make anything my own, it invariably involves adding bacon. When my dad told me about a hot bacon vinaigrette he’d made recently, using bacon grease as the “oil” in the vinaigrette, I knew that I’d hit the mark. Top it off with some [... To read more, click here ...]
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 ...]
Calabacitas. How can I have forgotten about calabacitas? Calabacitas is a traditional New Mexican dish, often made with the first of a season’s squash harvest (hence the name. “Calabazas” are squash or pumpkin in Spanish. Calabacitas means “little squash”.). My version includes summer squash, fresh corn, green chile and bacon, served up in a creamy, cheese sauce. Unctuous, creamy, salty and sweet, it is a comforting tribute to the best of the season. The first time I had it was when I was invited to my dear friend Carly’s house in college and her mom made it for us. Heaven. I’ve since made it many times since when in college and for the first few years after graduation, but somehow, it had gotten out of my repertoire and I had [... To read more, click here ...]
This is one of those recipes that you start out with just an idea of a taste combination you want while you’re making dinner. You fiddle around with it, change your mind once or twice and, when it’s done and you taste it, you want to immediately write it down while it’s fresh in your head because it was the best dish ever. Ever. This is the best green bean recipe I’ve ever tasted. Seriously. You need to try it right now. It is a simple way to enjoy the bounty of summer and I always have all of the ingredients in the fridge and pantry to whip up a batch when it is green bean and tomato season. Enjoy! Green Beans with Balsamic Tomatoes, Bacon and Basilserves four Four [... To read more, click here ...]
One of my favorite, easy but oh so flavorful, always-have-the-ingredients-for-it meals is Pasta Puttanesca. I make it with shrimp. I make it with chicken. I make it with leftover chicken. I make it when I have fresh tomatoes. I make it with canned tomatoes in the winter. I make it with artichoke hearts and capers when I’m out of olives. I up the olive quotient when I’m out of capers. It is that kind of a recipe. Versatile. And always a hit. That is, until we decided to go grain free a while ago. After our move, we have not one box of pasta in our house. I can’t cheat. So what did I do? I experimented with spaghetti squash. And found a NEW favorite! Spicy Spaghetti Squash Puttanescaserves four [... To read more, click here ...]
After recently going grain-free and low-carb, both for health and to lose the baby weight, I’ve been experimenting with new recipes to fill our plates and satiate our palates. This one is a winner! Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to take a picture – it was eaten too soon! – but won over even my potato-loving husband. He asked me to include it in the rotation weekly! I served this with meat loaf and it went FAST. Looks like cauliflower will need to be on the grocery list more often! Three Cheese Twice-Baked Cauliflowerserves four, with leftovers 3 heads of cauliflower, cleaned, cored and broken into florets8 oz cream cheese4 Tablespoons butter1 cup (or so) sour cream1 bunch green onions, washed and chopped1/2 cup parmesan cheese, divided8 slices thick [... To read more, click here ...]
I will confess that my favorite, FAVORITE, favorite side for Thanksgiving and Christmas is green bean casserole. And don’t get me started on these new-fangled Food Network green bean concoctions, with their shitake mushrooms and hand-fried onions rings on top; I love the old traditional. But, unfortunately, though the old traditional is easy, it is far from healthy using canned green beans, canned cream of mushroom soup (normally with MSG added somewhere in there) and trans-fat-full French Fried Onions (don’t even get me started on the “cheddar”-flavored onions. Heresy!) Over the last few years I’ve somehow become known as the go-to person for making the green bean casseroles for our holiday meals. I’ve been slowly augmenting my old traditional recipe to a healthier version, and am excited to share it [... To read more, click here ...]
I am the last person you can imagine who would normally be sharing the joys of lentil salad. I never liked lentil soup and generally tried to stay away from them altogether. Until, my friends, I tried this recipe. I think I’m a convert. And if you make it and try it, I bet you will be too. I originally used this recipe and, with a few tweaks of my own, wanted to share it and link it to you on my blog. This salad was a great, fresh tasting relief from months of wintry food and would be great any season. I originally ate it a little warmer than room temperature (right after cooking it) and have since also enjoyed it cold as leftover and hubby enjoyed it warmed [... To read more, click here ...]
Welcome to the Heartland! Reformed Urbanites, we are enjoying new life on a small family farm/homestead in the Midwest. Join us as we garden, cook, read and enjoy our boys; becoming better stewards of the Earth while raising our family.
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