Right now, my garden is an explosion of chard. It was growing well before we took our vacation to Maine at the end of June, but upon returning, everything in the garden just exploded in green! It’s now more than I can keep up with so I’m trying to find all the chard recipes I can, especially ones that preserve some of that green goodness … Continue reading Chard Pesto
You know when you make something good, like really, really good? Like restaurant-quality good? Lick the plate good? When you dream about it that night and you are counting down the minutes until you can eat the leftovers for lunch the next day? (Or is that just me?) Well, this recipe is good. Really, really good. And, as we were eating leftovers the next night, … Continue reading Zinfandel-Braised Short Ribs
We had some friends over recently for dinner and, despite the warm December weather we’ve been having, I wanted to do a really great braise. I absolutely love Molly Stevens’ book “All About Braising” and found a recipe for osso buco, but I adapted it using bison shanks that I picked up at our local farmer’s market. The traditional accompaniment to osso buco is risotto … Continue reading Bison Osso Buco
I love a good, chunky cranberry sauce and think it pairs perfectly with turkey, and is a lovely addition to a turkey sandwich. However, a little goes a long way with cranberries and inevitably, every year, we have too much sauce left over. I was originally determined to not make cranberry sauce this year, but to buy a small jar or container of it instead. However, … Continue reading Cranberry Sauce with Dried Cherries
Making your own chicken stock is one of the easiest things you can do in the kitchen, resulting in a versatile, high-reward product. Some recipes suggest boiling a whole chicken or using chicken meat to make the stock, but that seems wasteful to me. So, I always use chicken carcasses or bones for my stock, and with the addition of vegetables, my stock is always … Continue reading Roasted Chicken Stock
Upon returning home from our long trip, I spied several red tomatoes in the garden still holding their own in late September. I picked about 20 medium tomatoes and wanted to find an easy way to use them up quickly, since a few of them seemed like they’d been hanging around awhile. Because these are late season tomatoes, I wasn’t sure how flavorful they would … Continue reading Roasted Tomato Sauce with Spinach Pasta
Every year around this time, I get a little burned out on making sweet, fruity jams and start to focus on putting up tomatoes for the winter months. Because my tomato plants don’t yield a huge amount, I turn to bulk buying tomatoes at the farmers markets. Each week the vendors lay out all their colorful varieties of heirloom tomatoes, but I end up bypassing … Continue reading Big Batch Tomato Meat Sauce
Half Pint Garden 