We call it ‘squeaky cheese” because it squeaks in your mouth when you eat it. But Halloumi did not need to squeak to become one of my family’s favorite summer dishes. The bright colors of the herbs and vegetables, the fragrant smell of the marinade and the fun (and novelty) of cooking cheese on a grill might have had something to do with it. Add a flavor that is touched with salt from the cheese, acid from the lime, umani from the grilled peppers and onions, serve it over pasta and, well, there you are. It starts with handfuls of fresh herbs: mint, cilantro, basil, thyme, and oregano are ...
Search Results for: Vegetables
SUPER CHEESY LASAGNA WITH VEGETABLES
Oh, the poor underrated vegetable. Too often seen as an accompaniment to meat and fish, the vegetable is maligned by children (and some adults) who refuse to eat them, or even to take one bite. And to add insult to injury the secondary definition of vegetables is “a person having a dull or merely physical existence”. This is so unfair! Think about the smell of onions caramelizing in butter, imagine pizza without tomatoes, steak and potatoes without potatoes, chili without beans! My family will tell you that, while I am not a vegetarian, I do love all types of vegetables. And I love the ...
AUGUST AND AN EASY ZUCCHINI TART
Note: I am well aware it is September. I started this in the beginning of August only to find my life delightfully interrupted by the birth of my fifth grandchild. Meet Mia Jayne Adams! She is definitely a priority so the post is late being finished but the message is still good--as is this Easy Zucchini Tart! What can I say about August? Growing up, it was the month of vacation for my family before the start of the school year in September. We piled into the family car and drove the long road from Connecticut to the barrier beaches of North Carolina, stopping along the way at ...
OLIVE OIL AND ALMOND CAKE TOPPED WITH WINTER CITRUS FRUITS
Olive oil and Almond Cake topped with Winter Citrus Fruits! It's January and the cycle of seasonal fruits and vegetables start to turn towards Spring. Gone are the apples and pumpkins of Fall and early Winter. Yet to come are the berries of Spring. Nestled in between these two seasons is the gift of citrus. Oranges and grapefruits, clementines and tangerines, they bring lightness and color to the dreary days of January and February. In celebration of the lengthening days, I made an Olive Oil and Almond Sponge Cake, topping it with Winter citrus fruits. It's light and ...
RED WINE BRAISED BEEF SHORT RIBS
Beef Short Ribs braised in red wine produce a warming meal full of flavor with a hearty gravy to pour over mashed potatoes or pasta. At this time of year, everyone is focused on turkey and sides and pie. Sometimes we forget the other meals! One of my favorites things to do is make the first meal for when family arrives. If I am lucky it happens on Monday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving but even if it is Wednesday night it is just as special as Thanksgiving to me. It needs to be a meal that says home. Something warm and hearty. Definitely NOT poultry. And importantly it needs to be ...
MY FOOD CHALLENGE
I went to the grocery store today and it was boring. Same old, same old doesn’t begin to say it. The fruits and vegetable aisle looks so inviting with its bright reds, greens, oranges and yellows. But once you start to walk down the aisle you will notice that there isn’t a lot of variety. Sure you can get carrots five different ways: organic, regular, mini-carrots, unpackaged with greens on, and topped and bagged (5 and 20 pound bags). And there is a small display of “tropical fruits”. But even that suffers from a steady diet of mangoes and passion fruit! To be fair, I am a part of ...
COOKING ON THE FLY: TOMATO AND ZUCCHINI GALETTE
Tomato and Zucchin Galette in its simplest version: commercial pie crust and a few ingredients from your pantry come together to create a rustic pie rich in the flavors of summer. I’ve been busy. I am not kidding about that. In the space of one month Rick and I are selling a house, buying a house, finishing building a house and renting a house. It wasn’t meant to happen this way. These things were not supposed to all come together at the same time. Because they have, life has been a mad dash to get everything ready. We have been masters at planning: our days are scripted, our ...
MUSHROOM BOLOGNESE SAUCE — BROWN FOOD TASTES GOOD
Mushrooms, carrots and onions come together in a delicious vegetarian Mushroom Bolognese Sauce which proves the saying that "Brown food tastes good." It just doesn't photograph well! I watch a lot of cooking shows and one of my favorites is “The Worst Cooks In America”. In this show Chef Anne Burrell takes a group of people, who hide their feelings about not being able to cook behind jokes and ridiculous (sometimes outrageous) behavior, and she turns them into decent home chefs. As their cooking gets better, they drop a lot of the façade and become increasing involved in learning a craft. I ...
VEGETARIAN CHILI: WHO NEEDS MEAT?
A Rich, Satisfying Vegetarian Chili made with Beans, Corn, and Tomatoes Two weeks into my vegetarian experiment, I have learned a few things. Namely there is a difference between eating the occasional meat free meal (pasta with fresh tomato sauce, cheese omelets for example) and making a day-to-day commitment to it. It involves cooking. It’s easy to throw some chicken in the oven or a chop on the grill, but vegetarianism done properly involves combining proteins in order to get all the nutrients you need. In the same way that one learns which flavors work well when combined with ...
CILANTRO AND LIME AVOCADO SLAW
Replacing mayonnaise with avocado in the Cilantro Lime Sauce for this creamy slaw results in a rich and healthy Asian style slaw, perfect for using with fish dishes, in sandwiches or by itself! The seeds for this recipe were planting in Hong Kong in 1986. On one of my first forays into the local cuisine, I took a boat to the island of Lantau where I sat in a plastic chair at a rickety table on the waterside of the South China Sea. I was served a dish of fried rice with the freshest possible shrimp. It was delicious. But there was something in it I had never experienced before, a green ...