food focus

I love getting to know one ingredient at a time… it inevitably goes beyond ‘meet and greet’ and starts to get cozy.

Irish strawberry liqueur recipe

12/28/2012 | 4 Comments | Topics: diy food, farm., food focus, food., libations, recipes

I love when blog traditions emerge, whether it is taking the month of August off (like the Italians) or making sure to herald Halloween cocktails each year. Some annual events/topics stick around, while others—like Centerpiece of the Month or Brown Bag Blues—go by the wayside (the centerpieces took way too much time to manage, and my brown bag blues blog finally slid into the snacks… [more] category of Talk

how to roast garlic. and why you will want to.

12/01/2011 | 3 Comments | Topics: food focus, food., starters

Once you roast garlic you will never go back. It will be something you just have to do once in awhile—if just for the aroma.
I roast garlic to put into mashed potatoes, to make Tuscan White Bean Crostini… [more] and to tuck onto an appetizer plate next to a wedge of Cambazola. I just said ‘yes’ to teaching a one hour class to a room of professional women—their well-earned lunch

roasted sweet potatoes with blue cheese

11/19/2011 | Comments Off | Topics: food focus, starch

Just the other night friends came to dinner and I roasted carrots and turnips; often I roast new potatoes with shallots and wedges of fennel. Or under a big roasted chicken… [more]: fennel, onions, kalamata. You will see me lube up squash with olive oil, cut beets into uniform chunks and find thyme and fancy salts to sprinkle all over tomatoes, cauliflower or long, thick wedges of rustic potatoes. In

sweet potatoes

11/17/2011 | 5 Comments | Topics: food focus, food.

It turns out I will be cooking for a smallish group this year [for Thanksgiving] and I am thrilled to have ‘permission’ to reinvent some old classics. For starters, I want to play with sweet potatoes. Though we have great affection for the classic candy-topped 9×13… [more], this year the taters will get a makeover. The next few posts will include a number of sweet potato recipes. But before we

Not in Italy? But need gelato?

10/12/2011 | 6 Comments | Topics: food focus, food., just talk, reviews

While in Italy I make it a priority to taste as many flavors of gelato as possible (that sentence is almost laughable). Days before we left Florence—over two year ago (wrapping up our trip abroad)—Anthony, Caleb (my two sons) and I went to Florence’s Gelato Festival… [more]. We walked from one piazza to another, trying a myriad of flavors from cantaloupe to rice, tiramisu, watermelon and biscotti. I was recently

Sausage stuffed Bell Peppers.

08/16/2011 | 7 Comments | Topics: entree, food focus, food., recipes

Now that I teach classes on my [under construction] urban farm, I have a built-in excuse to play with seasonal produce. I recently had a group of women choose the ‘seasonal class’ which roughly translates to: what is piled high at nearby farmer’s markets? And quintessentially: what amount of fun can we have with these ingredients? My goal is to take unusual… [more] ingredients—such as zucchini flowers, ramps or garlic scapes—and

Edible Flowers.

05/28/2011 | 7 Comments | Topics: food focus, food., just talk, recipes

Edible flowers.
I adore the idea of edible flowers: they give you instant-chef status. You toss some flowers as an edible garnish, and all of a sudden you are credited with culinary knowledge, considered a guru of foods, a student of edible curiosities. When was the last time you were served a salad or cocktail with pansies or nasturtiums? And don’t forget: chives, lavender, squash blossoms… lilac, dandelions or roses.… [more]

Spotlight: Rhubarb.

05/19/2011 | 4 Comments | Topics: dessert, food focus, food., recipes, vegetables

Did you like rhubarb growing up? I didn’t. Though I find that to be true of quite a laundry list of foods: tomatoes, bell peppers, avocados, eggplant… now I love them all.
I bought rhubarb the other day through my CSA; I opened the box and my eyes went straight to these long, deep-red stalks. Rhubarb is stunning—probably the envy of celery. Celery gets used more, to be sure. But… [more]

Kiwi 101.

02/07/2011 | 4 Comments | Topics: food focus, food.

I am all about demystifying, unwrapping, and otherwise obsessing about one ingredient at a time.
In this case, kiwi has bubbled to the top of my brain. My husband actually text-ed me kiwi facts while taxi-ing on the tarmac one afternoon; apparently, he had read a compelling article on the many and varied health benefits of kiwi. Soon after, the California Kiwi Commission… [more] contacted me, and shared all sorts of

POM-centric party plus POM swag bags!

11/15/2010 | 15 Comments | Topics: contests, food focus, food., just talk, menus

I was chosen by POM to participate in their ‘pomegranate challenge.’ I adore a good challenge, and party themes? How did you know? Its the perfect thing for me to obsess over: weaving together decor, cocktails, a full-blown menu with multiple desserts, SWAG bags for guests and homemade pomegranate preserves (jelly AND molasses)… you should have seen all the cookbooks I blew threw—and new recipes I created, the menu scratches… [more]