As a brand new gardener I have been patiently waiting for my very first tomato plants to burst with plump red and golden fruit.  Unfortunately, the weather has not been working with me.  The large amount of rain we had at the beginning of summer really slowed the growth of everyone’s tomatoes.  I have lots of green ones, but I’ve only had three ripen so far.  I really wanted to use my first two tomatoes in a simple dinner that featured their sweet flavor.  With some peas from my garden and shrimp from the freezer, I had just about everything I needed for an easy summer dinner. Read more

Our CSA starts this Thursday, and I anticipate it being the high point of my week.  To give you an idea of what my last week has been like; my pastor from Hawaii passed away, my grandmother had to be rushed to the ER twice, my grandparents need to be forced into assisted living, we had to confront one of our students living with us and give him an ultimatum, and we found out our cat Cappucino has pancreatitis and FIP and will need to be put down today or tomorrow.  This is all in the midst of working and teaching cooking classes.  So picking up our CSA box and getting to see our dear friends who own the family farm will be a huge blessing of something positive in the midst of a difficult time. Read more

I’ve avoided writing about what’s going on in Japan.  I want this site to be fun, informative and full of joy.  Yet it’s hard to make your writing cheerful when your heart is breaking.  I was planning a lighthearted post on picky eaters and vegetables, and playing with a way to make cauliflower appealing to children.  Instead I just kept thinking “Comfort food, the world needs comfort food.”  So I combined the two.  This Cauliflower Mac and Cheese recipe is not only a kid friendly recipe, it combines cheesy cauliflower and macaroni and cheese, two of my favorite comfort foods.  It’s also healthy, with cauliflower replacing the pasta and milk instead of heavy cream.  If you just want the cauliflower recipe, feel free to skip to the bottom, I understand.  If you want to read about my experiences doing disaster relief and how they’ve shaped me as a person, read on.

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Since kale is my best growing crop (I just planted some in the ground and ignored them, a year later they’re still huge!) I’m always on the lookout for ways to use it.  I love kale chips and the sinfully rich kale casserole, but our absolute favorite use for kale is green smoothies.  Still, three favorite recipes for a vegetable that’s basically free year round is not enough for me.  On the hunt, I was so excited to find this winter pasta recipe by Heidi of 101 Cookbooks. Read more

Yes, it’s another squash recipe.  I can’t help it, I’ve already eaten 8 of them this fall!  This one is an acorn squash pasta recipe, no not pasta made of acorn squash, but spaghetti noodles with big beautiful chunks of acorn squash, a super savory sage brown butter sauce, and loads of freshly grated parmesan.  It’s so good that my husband actually asks for leftovers to take to work the next day *GASP!*.  This man does not typically like leftovers!

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