Curried Quinoa Salad

I absolutely LOVE quinoa. Not only is it chewy and delicious and satisfying, it is a nutritional powerhouse. Besides being a complete protein, quinoa is also high in fiber and packed with iron, zinc, magnesium, phosphorus, folate, lysine, and other essential amino acids. Oh, and it is gluten-free. Bonus!


Several people who recently tried my curried quinoa salad requested the recipe so I will share it here. I make it a little differently every time so I will share a couple options and you can feel free to experiment. The curried quinoa with golden raisins is the base. The dressing stays more or less the same. It is the other additions that vary depending on what I have on hand. 


For the quinoa: Put 3/4 cups of uncooked quinoa into a saucepan. I double this to 1.5 cups for company and then double everything else as well. Cover with cold water and swish with hands. Gently pour off most of the water and cover again with fresh water. Let sit for a few minutes and up to 15. Gently pour off most of the water again and add 1.5 cups of fresh water. Place on a burner over medium heat. When it comes to a simmer turn the heat down to low and add 3 tablespoons of golden raisins, 1 teaspoon of curry powder, and a pinch of salt. Stir and cover. Cook until water is absorbed. Approximately 15-20 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, fluff with a fork, gently stir in additions and dressing.

For the simple dressing: Whisk together 1/4 cup vegetable or chicken broth, 1 T. olive oil, 2 t. freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1/4 t. kosher salt, a few grinds of black pepper.


The additions: If tomatoes are in season, they are awesome chopped up in this salad along with a coarsely chopped hard-boiled egg and some thinly sliced scallions.


If there are no tomatoes you can try chopped crisp apple, a small handful of fruit-juice-sweetened dried cranberries and keep the hard-boiled egg and scallions.


This dish tastes delicious still slightly warm and is maybe even better cold the next day.


Serves 4 (or 8 if doubled)


Try this and enjoy!

Life Proceeds Gluten Free

Yippee, some time to write!! The past week was busy with house guests and our son's 6th birthday celebration. It was also full of peaceful, aesthetic moments as captured in the photo above. Spring is in the air and life is good. I am beginning my second month of leaving gluten and dairy out of my diet. During the first month my self-diagnoses was confirmed a few times when I unintentionally or intentionally partook of gluten. I still find it a bit bizarre that one day I could eat it, and apparently digest it uneventfully, and the next day I couldn't. But I guess that is how life works. Things change. They are always changing. Usually the changes happen gradually so we have time to adapt but sometimes they broadside us and we are forced to make rapid mental and sometimes physical adjustments.

It really is a fortuitous time, relatively speaking, to go gluten-free. There is a newfound awareness of potential problems associated with ingesting gluten and a resulting infusion of gluten-free labels and gluten-free products in the marketplace. Of course, most whole food is already gluten-free. Some people are capitalizing on this. Just make sure not to be fooled into paying more for gluten-free rice or peanut butter!

At least so far, I feel that I am doing a pretty good job of taking the change in stride. Interestingly, the most difficult adjustment has not been giving up gluten and dairy, but rather changing some of my other ingrained habits associated with food. I am a zero-waste kind of gal and pride myself on shopping, cooking, serving, and cleaning up in a way that virtually eliminates any food waste. I don't feel this way about all food, only quality food. I pick up my son from kindergarten at noon and every day I see two large trash cans full of uneaten crappy food-like-substances that his school tries to pass off as an acceptable lunch for the children. I actually feel a sense of contentment that all that junk didn't make it into their digestive tracks. But I wouldn't hesitate to cut off the bite marks of a half-eaten organic apple and save or eat the rest. I know my son and husband's eating habits, so in our home I compensate for what I know my son will probably leave on his plate by putting less on mine and then cleaning his plate when he is done. Well, now that some of his food is off-limits for me, I find myself, oftentimes without success, offering Leo's picked-over or nibbled-on leftovers to my husband. The conversation might go something like this: 
"You could finish Leo's quiche." 
"Uhhh, yeah, no thanks."
"It is still good, it's just mashed up a bit."
"I'm really not hungry."
"If I put it in a container, do you think you might have it for lunch tomorrow?"
"Probably not."
And who could blame him really.
And so, unable to eat it myself; unable even to compost it (which would feel better) because of the bear that regularly visits our property, into the trash it must go. I apologize to the food-gods, bid farewell to the asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes and mushrooms, the gruyere, farm fresh eggs, nutmeg, and cream. And drop it with finality and helplessness into the garbage can. This letting go has been the surprise hardest part of my new gluten and dairy-free life.

Other than that I have been enjoying cooking, baking, and eating without gluten and dairy, and I did a lot of all those things last week. I look forward to sharing as I expand my gluten-free baking repertoire. I was able to find rice flour and potato starch and xanthan gum at our co-op. I ordered sorghum and tapioca flour through Amazon. Yes, you can buy anything from Amazon. I've already made some respectable lemon bars and birthday cupcakes and am excited to continue to experiment.

Enjoy.

Spring Lily Soup

Unless you have a greenhouse, there isn't much in the way of spring gardening here in the mountains. May 31 is considered the beginning of the safe zone for planting outside without the chance of frost or even snow. Of course many people take the risk and plant sooner. I've done it myself plenty of times. I've also had to pull up frost-bitten and wilted little plants and start over. Today was one of those days that can seduce you to throw caution to the wind. The sun was high in sky and it approached 80 degrees. Surely winter is behind us. Surely this warmth will continue...... Beginning with June we are then favored with four frost-free months before the possibility of it returns. It is a short growing season but it does get quite warm, so a productive summer garden is achievable. 


Green String Farm in Petaluma, Ca, had super-fresh baby leeks when I stopped by last week on my way back to Quincy from a Sonoma County visit. And then at Tony's, between Marysville and Oroville, I loaded up on fat fresh asparagus from their garden because ours doesn't make an appearance until early June! I made a blended (I'm into those lately) spring soup out of the leeks, a few of the asparagus, and whatever else I could find in the fridge. It was delicious so I will share what I did in case someone wants to try something similar. I am not a very exacting cook so it is a challenge to try to capture a thrown together soup but I scribbled as I went. I went a bit heavy on the butter for richness because my belly currently seems to tolerate it better than, say, cream.


Spring Lily Soup 
ingredients:
a couple large or a half dozen small leeks
1 medium onion
10 asparagus
3 yellow potatoes
2 cloves of garlic
6 mushrooms (optional)
1/2 t. crushed dried or chopped fresh thyme
1/2 t. crushed dried or chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 c. white wine
3 T. butter
2 T. olive oil
3 c. chicken or vegetable broth (or water and bouillon cube)
salt


Melt butter with olive oil over medium heat in a heavy soup pot. Add chopped leeks, onions, asparagus, garlic, and mushrooms. Add the herbs. Saute until tender; about 8 to 10 minutes. Deglaze pan with the wine and cook a few more minutes. Add broth (or water and bouillon) and peeled potato chunks and a few sprinkles of salt and simmer until the potatoes are tender; about 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool slightly. Puree in food processor. Return to soup pot. Taste. Add a few more sprinkles of salt if needed. Serve plain or with chopped chives and crumbled bacon or with a fried egg as I did.


Serves 4ish.

A trick my dad taught me - instead of breaking off the tough ends
of the asparagus, you can peel them.

Enjoy

The Local Blog Scene

A sad and, I think, rather pathetic result of budget shortfalls in our county has been the cutting off of funding for our Plumas County Visitor's Bureau. The Visitor's Center on the outskirts of Quincy has a black sheet hanging ominously over its roadside sign. The county website sits unattended and outdated for the time being.


But on the upside (isn't there usually an upside somewhere?) I see a grassroots "Quincy Pride" movement taking shape in our super-awesome, righteous, gorgeous, best-town-ever. (See?!!) If there will be no county resources provided to help promote our area, we will have to do it ourselves. A local woman has started a new website to inform locals and potential visitors about our vibrant regional scene. New features are being added weekly and I see its potential to be a real internet hub for the area. Check it out here: QuincyCa.us

There are several blogs being written for the site itself which are evolving nicely. I volunteered to compile a list of other local blogs of interest to link to through this new website. It was a pleasant little journey of discovery. When I began, I knew only of my own. I ended up with a list of seven blogs, all very different. Here are the other six:

Margaret Elysia Garcia, local writer, blogs about the joys and challenges of mountain living at:  http://taleasofasierramadre.com/

Julie Hatzell, Quincy Café and Coffee Shop owner, blogs about eco-ethical business practices and issues at:  http://alleycatcafe.net/

Sierrosmith describes Quincy as a quirky quixotic bit of Utopia lost in the Sierras. He offers an eclectic mix of snapshots reflecting the local scene at:                         http://q-topia.blogspot.com/ 

Greg Williams of Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship (SBTS) maintains a blog about Plumas and Sierra County trails and trail projects at: http://sierratrails.org/blog

Joe Willis loves natural history and blogs in hopes of inspiring others to get outside and discover the wonderland called Plumas County at: http://blackoaknaturalist.blogspot.com/


I am familiar with all of these people, except Sierrosmith, but their blogging life was heretofore unbeknownst to me. Joe Willis is particularly prolific, logging a whopping 384 posts in 2011. I know! More than there were days!


Also, continuing in the vein of shameless self-promotion and touting the merits of our exceptional area (see, I can't stop), Carrie Hawthorne, the woman who started the new website, is hosting a video contest. In her words, "In order to promote our region and foster economic development through awareness and tourism, we're hosting a video contest on QuincyCa.us. The goal of the contest is to encourage the production of short videos that reflect the natural beauty and vibrant community that exist in our area."  


I've never gotten into making videos. The only videos I've ever created are unedited snippets of our son doing interesting and not-so-interesting things. But for fun and to contribute to the cause (go, Quincy, go!), I pulled together snapshots taken in and around the Quincy area over the past several years, created a slideshow, and uploaded it to YouTube. You can view my video entry here: 

That's all for now.
Enjoy.

Gluten and Dairy Free!!!!?

I've always been able to eat anything. Allergy is not a familiar word in the history of my family. A childhood friend of my brothers, named Michael, had allergies. It was the first time I had heard the word and I remember examining him with a certain intensity to see if I could detect a difference in him that would elucidate these "allergies". He did seem a bit pale (or maybe that was just his northern European descent?) and thin. Anyway, people with allergies have always been an enigma. When I've heard of people with multiple allergies like dander, grass, pollen, milk, eggs, shellfish, AND nuts it just hasn't made sense to me. They were born of the earth, how could they be allergic to it? Well I'm still not well versed in the science of it but I now know plenty of people with allergies and sensitivities and now possibly may have to count myself among them.


These days you hear a lot about gluten intolerance. It's all the rage. I'm joking of course. I understand fully that celiacs disease is a serious issue. But what IS going on? More and more people are realizing that when they avoid wheat and other gluten-y grains that they feel better. I was in a Whole Foods Market in Napa a couple of days ago and I saw a huge selection of gluten-free products. It is growth industry right now. 


So here's the story. I had a tummy ache for about 2 weeks and instead of going to the doctor, (I have an aversion to Western medicine), I decided to eliminate gluten from my diet to see if that helped. Well, it seemed to. I was on day 4 and keeping a food journal when I had a decadent dairy-based treat. After a couple of hours I had extreme tummy pain and other unmentionable unpleasant symptoms. So maybe dairy is the issue. Back to the computer for more googling.... If you do have celiacs and there is actual damage to the villa in your small intestines it can cause you to have problems digesting dairy products even if you wouldn't ordinarily. So the two can be linked. I also read that some level of lactose intolerance in adults is the norm worldwide. I'm on day 9 now with no gluten or dairy and my tummy is feeling fine. I have mixed feelings of course. I plan to stick to the program a month or two longer until I feel that I have a good solid baseline to then re-introduce gluten and dairy in small quantities and take careful note of their effects. 


I think when you have food sensitivities you end up being a more mindful eater in general. I want my seemingly iron gut back but if I need to eliminate a category of food in order to be well, so be it. We'll see.


Here is a kale dip recipe I found in the latest Whole Living magazine. I made it back a week and a half ago when I was gluten but not dairy-free. Actually I made it twice. It was good at first, better the next day, and then I craved it.


Kale Dip
1 T. olive oil
1 garlic clove roughly chopped
3 cups thinly sliced kale leaves
coarse salt
1 cup cottage cheese
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 T. fresh lemon juice


Heat oil in pan over medium heat. Add garlic, and kale and season with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 or 6 minutes. Let cool. Place in food processor with cottage cheese, red pepper flakes and lemon juice. Puree until smooth. Serve with chips or veggies.

Lastly, I want to share a photo I took on the morning after a large bear came through our yard last week. We have a pet cat whose paw prints can be seen in the snow beside the bear's. Perhaps they are friends?

Enjoy...

Cauliflower Revelations

When considering vegetables, cauliflower didn't used to be near the top of my list of favorites. It hovered in the rather bland and unexciting catagory along with cabbage and turnips. Over the past couple of years since I've learned to roast it rather than steam it and more recently, to puree it, it has been promoted. My husband commented that I seem to be really INTO cauliflower lately. Well, I have been trying to perfect a blended cauliflower soup recipe so I've been making it a lot. It is also great pureed as a substitute for mashed potatoes  I blogged about roasting it awhile back and will repeat the method for doing so here: 


Method: Slice cauliflower into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick "steaks" and pieces. Place in a single layer on oiled baking sheet, brush with your favorite oil, sprinkle with your favorite salt and pepper and roast at 375 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes till nicely browned on the side touching the pan. Seriously, if you are just lukewarm to cauli, this will change your opinion. I can enthusiastically eat an entire small head of cauliflower prepared this way (in one sitting).


So, coincidentally, as I was busy experimenting with cauliflower soups I saw a recipe for one in the winter edible Reno-Tahoe foodie magazine. I really like this magazine. It comes out quarterly and celebrates the local food culture of an area. I especially appreciate the non-glossy, thick paper the magazine is printed on. There are numerous "edible" magazines that publish all over the country. Perhaps there is one representing your "foodshed" below:
Edible Allegheny
Edible Aspen
Edible Austin

Edible Boston

Edible Brooklyn

Edible Blue Ridge

Edible Buffalo

Edible Cape Cod

Edible Chicago

Edible Cleveland

Edible Columbus

Edible East Bay

Edible Dallas & Fort Worth

Edible DC

Edible East End

Edible Finger Lakes

Edible Front Range

Edible Grande Traverse

Edible Green Mountains

Edible Hawaiian Islands

Edible Hudson Valley

Edible Iowa River Valley

Edible Indy

Edible Jersey

Edible Louisville

Edible Madison

Edible Manhattan

Edible Marin & Wine Country

Edible Memphis

Edible Michiana

Edible Monterey Bay

Edible New Orleans

Edible Nutmeg

Edible Ohio Valley

Edible Ojai

Edible Omaha

Edible Orange County

Edible Orlando

Edible Philly

Edible Phoenix

Edible Piedmont

Edible Portland

Edible Queens

Edible Reno-Tahoe

Edible Rhody

Edible Sacramento

Edible San Diego

Edible San Francisco

Edible San Juan Mountains

Edible Santa Barbara

Edible Santa Fe

Edible Sarasota

Edible Seattle

Edible Shasta-Butte

Edible Sonoran Desert

Edible South Florida

Edible South Shore

Edible Toronto

Edible Twin Cities

Edible Upcountry

Edible Vancouver

Edible Vineyard

Edible Wasatch

Edible Westside

Edible WOW

My adaptation of the cauliflower soup recipe which was courtesy of Jack Rabbit Moon restaurant of Incline Village, NV, was the most flavorful yet. I will share it here:


Creamy Cauliflower Soup With Gruyere and Pesto Croutons


1 1/2 T. olive oil
1 large yellow onion chopped or sliced
1 t. salt
4 garlic cloves chopped or minced
pinch of thyme
1 cup dry white wine
1 large or 2 small heads of cauliflower broken in pieces
1/2+ cup grated gruyere or any type of Swiss cheese
3 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cup whipping cream or half and half


Saute onions, garlic, and salt for 5 minutes over medium heat. Deglaze with white wine and cook until nearly evaporated. Add broth, cream, and cauliflower and simmer until tender (approx. 25 minutes). Cool slightly and then puree in blender until smooth. Season with salt and pepper and stir the grated cheese into the still nearly hot soup. I like to save a little cheese to sprinkle on top.


For the croutons: Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Cut whatever kind of bread you have into cubes and saute, stirring over medium heat until crispy. 


Serve soup with croutons as they are or tossed in pesto for an extra burst of flavor. You can drizzle olive oil and/or cheese and sprinkle chopped fresh herbs if you like (basil, parsley, chives...).

Who knew cauliflower could taste this good?

Enjoy!

Quincy Pasta Queens

Our beloved Quincy Natural Foods co-op has been offering weekday evening cooking classes taught by community members. Last week I attended a class offered by the self-proclaimed "Pasta Queens" of Quincy. They are two local women who share a passion for pasta and clearly a great friendship. Their style of teaching and cooking was fun and casual. They had the whole class participating in rolling and cutting and filling pasta creations. We made pot stickers and ravioli and cannelloni and even some fettuccine with the extra dough. 


I've done homemade pasta in the past but I never got in the habit of making it. Come to think of it, my husband even made me homemade pasta while we were dating. He also made me rack of lamb one funny time (story for another post). But anyway, he TRICKED me! I thought he was interested in cooking but since he really hasn't cooked since, it is clear that he was just trying to impress me. Very sweet this husband of mine. 


But even after taking the class where I was reminded of how simple pasta is in principle (the pot sticker dough was literally made from just flour and water), it still seems like a bit of a production. Certainly having some basic equipment like a pasta dough roller would help if you are making any kind of quantity. I could see getting a couple friends together once a year for a little pasta making party. You could set up a production line and make a bunch to eat that week and a bunch for the freezer.


Being the last one left in the class still indulging in all of the delicious creations we made and cooked up, I was the lucky recipient of some big hunks of extra pasta dough. In the next couple of days at home I made ravioli with it. Some I filled with a roasted butternut squash filling with dreams of covering it with a nutmeg cream sauce. Others I filled with a blue cheese walnut concoction. The pasta dough itself was colorful. One of the Pasta Queens made a beet and also a carrot dough. See below.

The lovely hands-on mess of our pasta making class

Flour and water transformed!

At home roasting butternut squash to fill ravioli

Love the colors!

I used a canning jar lid to cut and press the ravioli. I used the thin side to cut through the two layers of dough to form a circle and then flipped the lid over and pressed the fat side onto the circle of dough to seal the edges. This worked surprisingly well. These were frozen on the baking sheet and then bagged up once they were hard. 
P.S. I pulled some from the freezer over the weekend to serve to guests covered in nutmeg cream sauce (garlic, butter, chardonnay, cream, freshly grated nutmeg). Dream fulfilled.

They turned out well. Yummy to eat and fun to look at. If not a Pasta Queen, I at least felt like a Pasta Princess for a day.


Enjoy!

Spring Begins!

It's Spring! Aren't you glad?

Welcome Rain and Photo Drama

We received 8 inches of much-needed rain last week. Five of the eight came all in one soggy, wet day. Then we finished it all off with a dusting of snow and a power outage. I realize that I miss power outages. When I was a child in rural Sonoma County, our power lines were some of the last to be repaired. That sometimes meant 2 or 3 days without electricity. It can be humbling and quiet-cozy and Little-House-on-the-Prairieish. Electricity is certainly something that most of us in this country take for granted. Our outage on Saturday evening was too short. Just long enough to spread candles around the house and do some shadow theater on the ceiling.


On another note, while we were inside watching the rain come down, the tulip and jonquil plants outside shot up 6 inches. They are the dependable yearly harbingers of spring in our yard.


On yet a third note, when I began this blog months ago, I thought that I would not include any photos of my family. I felt like that was too personal to share with the cyber-world. As I grow more accustomed to this medium and because I know most of my audience, I'm becoming more comfortable with the idea. Unquestionably it is common practice. So here goes. Actually this is just a random little boy who I asked to participate in a fun exercise. I named or described an emotion and he made a face to express it. I was very impressed with this 5-year-old's ability to capture the essence of an emotion on his face quickly and accurately. This was an amusing rainy day activity and I also liked how it opened up the conversation and increased awareness about the large range of emotions and feelings that we humans experience.

Future actor?

Enjoy.

Espresso Almond Cookies

 

OMG, I used to buy these from the Arcata Co-op when I was in college at HSU in the early 90's. I didn't buy them very often mind you. I was on a student's budget and at the time they went for 90¢ plain and a dollar for chocolate-dipped. An entire loaf of the co-op bakery's most basic whole wheat bread sold for 99¢ so one had to prioritize. Yeah, that was 20 years ago. But guess what, those cookies are STILL big sellers. And when I visit Arcata, which I try to do once a year in October (it's beautiful then), I stop by and pick up a couple for old time's sake. Thankfully, my financial situation has improved enough that I can't tell you what I've most recently paid for them.


*Okay, now get this. I was about to guess that the cookies might cost a buck and a half by now when I decided to give them a call to find out. Twenty years later, they are just 95¢ and $1.15 dipped. Wow, that is low inflation. I'm impressed. I should have asked how much their basic whole wheat loaf is.


Anyway, these cookies are worth every penny and more. They are rich, dense, buttery, chocolately, nutty and caffeinated. You have to try them. And guess what? You won't need to go all the way to Arcata, Ca to do so. I am going to share the recipe with you right here on this hedonistic-farm-girl blog. One day, during my three years in Arcata, I asked the North Coast Bakery (inside the co-op) for the recipe. They already had some photocopies of the handwritten recipe on some North Coast Bakery stationary and happily handed me a copy! That same photocopied page, slightly yellowed, lives in my recipe drawer. 


They don't contain any eggs which contributes to their density. Also they use whole wheat pastry flour and ground almonds so they are heavy-duty cookies.


Espresso Almond Cookies
Pre-heat oven to 350°. I make quick work of this with a Kitchenaid mixer but, of course, it can be done by hand.
Cream together: 
1 cup soft butter
3/4 cup brown sugar (I now use muscovado)
Add:
4 1/2 teaspoons of instant espresso (I usually substitute 3 or 4 t. of 
   finely ground good coffee)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
Combine and add to creamed mixture:
1 c. finely chopped almonds (I use a food processor and go pretty fine)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Finally add:
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour


Roll into a log. Slice into approximately 24 rounds. Flatten slightly with hand before baking. Bake at 350° for 14 minutes. Let cool completely.

If you tend towards the hedonistic, you can also melt a half a cup or so of the semi-sweet chocolate chips either in a bowl over hot water or carefully in the microwave and slather some chocolate over half of the top of the cooled cookie. Because they are so rich, I usually freeze some for later, which works great.

Enjoy!

Kitchen Inspiration and The Idea Board

Kitchen inspiration comes in waves. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with ideas and enthusiasm and other times I can't think what I should create; my attention is elsewhere. In the summer of course, there are more fresh ingredients lying about that need to be used. So then, as with most of the time, what I choose to create is dictated by what I have on hand. The wasting of good, quality ingredients feels like a mortal sin to me. I work hard, especially in the summer and fall to ensure that no fruit or vegetable finds itself withering or, heaven-forbid, molding in my kitchen but instead that each and every cherry, if not consumed fresh, will find its way, at its peak of ripeness, to its next incarnation as jam, a galette, a crisp, in mead, or ice cream. Or at least to a freezer bag for later use. And later is now. This is the time of year when I appreciate being able to go to the cupboard or the freezer for edibles carefully put away earlier.

Last year I purchased a chalkboard for the kitchen from IKEA. It's nice having an erasable and visible slate for jotting down inspiration when it strikes. At first it was used as a menu board which announced the evening meal but it has now become a kitchen-creation-idea-board.

Some things that I've made lately that showed up on the board are: 

Cherry Fairy Galettes made with last summer's pitted and frozen cherries from the neighbor's tree.

Biscuit-Crusted Savory Pie made with solar dried tomatoes and frozen pesto from last summer's bounty. This was right up my husband's alley. He loves savory comfort foods. Think chicken and dumplings, lamb and mashed potatoes, shepherd's pie...

White Bean Artichoke Rosemary dip made from dried cannellini beans, jarred artichoke hearts, and dried rosemary from my parent's epic bush. I will share this recipe because I found the dip to be flavorful, tangy, easy, and healthful.

Other ideas that have been knocking around in my head or finding their way to the IDEA board are making some more of my own liquors like a Grand Marnier, an Amaretto, and a honey Kahlua. Also, various salad dressings are begging to be made: A French catalina-syle, a creamy poppy seed, Pangaea's orange dressing, my mom's lemon paprika dressing, and a balsamic vinaigrette. I'm sure I'll be doing a salad dressing post soon! Although my inspiration waxes and wanes like the moon, it always seems to return to the kitchen and the creative possibilities to be embarked upon there.


Artichoke White Bean Rosemary Dip 

1 clove garlic 
2 1/2 cups of cooked white beans
1 cup artichoke hearts packed in oil
Juice of one small lemon
1/2 t. of crushed dried rosemary (or 1 t. chopped fresh rosemary)
1/4 t. kosher sea salt or other salt


Macerate garlic clove in food processor. Then add beans, artichoke hearts, lemon juice, rosemary, and salt and blend until smooth. Serve with pita chips, asparagus, and/or carrots for dipping.


Enjoy!