A Fresh Start
One of the great pleasures of home gardening is that each year, you get a fresh start. If a particular crop or variety of plant did not work out, grow well, or produce much, each spring you get a do over. You get to start …
Recent Blogposts
A Look Back
As the cold of winter continues, I have time to reflect in this off season about the crops I grew in my garden last year and changes I want to make in the coming year. During this time, I like to review the list of …
Clothes Make the Man, But Croutons Make the Salad – Crispy, Crunchy Croutons
While clothes may make the man, croutons make the salad…or soup…or pasta. They are little nuggets of crispness that finish a dish, and no, they should not be relegated just to salads. They can be a little oasis in a creamy soup and will add …
Soup People – Tortilla Soup
Some people are soup people. Take my grandfather, for example. He ate soup as a first course at dinner every day, even in the middle of the summer. That’s a soup person. My father-in-law also loved soup. He would eat soup as a full meal …
Ham Transformed – Split Pea Soup
I didn’t grow up eating much ham. It’s not that my family refrained from eating pork, we just didn’t cook ham. We had deli ham occasionally, along with salami and the other meats that are found in a Philadelphia hoagie. I have always loved the …
Winter Gardening – Microgreens
In the cold of winter I miss my garden. While I may be able to pick a little hardy kale if the temperature is not too low and I haven’t used it all, the garden is mostly barren this time of year. And even though …
Appetizers, a New Year’s Eve Tradition
I love New Year’s Eve. I always have. I love the celebration and revelry, the noise and the glitter. Everyone is happy. It’s a joyous holiday, full of pomp and excess. And I love my tradition of feasting on a wide variety of small bites …
Green Gold – Chimichurri
After noting that I often serve empanadas with a bowl of chimichurri on the side, several readers asked for the recipe for this fresh, uncooked, herb-based sauce. It also goes beautifully as a marinade or finishing sauce on grilled steak, chicken, or fish. I love …
All Things Dumpling – Empanadas
I love all things dumpling, and every culture has their own; Italian ravioli, Jewish knishes and kreplach, Indian samosas, Tibetan or Nepalese momos, Polish pierogies, British pasty, Chinese wontons. The list goes on and on, and I love them all. As a teenager, I discovered …
The Casual Cook – Sweet Potato Bisque
My wife Marci’s grandmother was French Canadian. When Marci was young, her family often had Sunday dinner at her grandmother’s house, and to hear her tell it, it was a grand affair. Fresh vegetables from her grandfather’s garden, a fresh made apple pie, and never …
