It’s berry time!  I’ve picked almost 20 pounds of strawberries and raspberries the past couple weeks and have been feverishly perfecting recipes that feature summer’s berry bounty.  Several the recipes are for preserved berries so we (and you) can enjoy them year round.  But this mixed berry salad recipe features fresh raspberries and strawberries in a mouthwatering and waistline friendly creamy strawberry dressing. Read more

My gardening is going grandly.  In fact, I grew everything in this salad except the dressing.  One of the greatest things about growing your own vegetables is that you can eat nearly every part of the plant.  This radish salad is not only sweet peas and radishes, but also contains their greens and flowers.  This is my new favorite salad, I may be addicted! 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

We eat a lot of sandwiches at our house.  Pretty much every lunch during the week is sandwiches, and sometimes we have them for dinner as well!  One of my favorite dinner sandwiches is a Greek Pita Pocket, so I was very excited to see it in my friend Susan Russo’s new book, The Encyclopedia of Sandwiches.  Read more

“Tra La!  It’s May!  The lovely month of May!  That darling month when everyone throws self control away.”  I’ve always loved musicals.  As a child the magic of Camelot captured my imagination (and even led to my choosing a Renaissance wedding as an adult!).  One of my favorite songs was the one about the month of May.  As an innocent child of 5, my mother made sure I knew the song I sang over and over in public was about the LOVELY month of May.  It was almost twenty years later that I performed in the play Camelot and realized with shock that the song I loved so much was actually all about the LUSTY month of May! Read more