What’s in Season? Potatoes

Fingerling potatoes simmered with butter and herbs, originally uploaded by shannon_turlington.
I’ve been seeing a lot of potatoes at the farmers market lately: red-skinned potatoes, teeny fingerlings, Yukon Golds, Peruvian purples, even baby russets (which would make excellent mini baked potatoes). Who doesn’t love potatoes? Well, I know a couple of people who don’t, but clearly [...]

Tortellini With Lemon & Herbs

Tortellini with fresh herbs, originally uploaded by shannon_turlington.
Last week I posted a wintry pasta dish, so this week I am countering with a pasta that is all about summer. This sauce is light and tangy, perfect for a hot summer night, especially if you can use herbs right out of your own garden. It pairs [...]

Farmers Market Vegetable Soup

The problem with going to the farmers market is that it is all too easy to yield to temptation and grab up way too many fresh vegetables than you can possibly eat in a week. What better way to take advantage of all that bounty than to make a huge pot of soup? You can [...]

A Big Batch o’ Gazpacho

There’s no denying it. Despite the hotter-than-Hades August that seemed like it would never end, fall has arrived. The cool, crisp days with no humidity almost make you forget that we’re still in the midst of a record drought. Who needs rain when you have glorious blue sky and it’s 72 degrees out?
So why am [...]

What’s in Season? Tomatoes

There is nothing quite like the taste of a vine-ripened tomato picked out of your own garden. Supermarket tomatoes in any season are pale, watery imitations of what real tomato-y goodness can be, and therefore not worth buying, in my book. (Fortunately, canned tomatoes will get us through the winter.) Fresh-picked tomatoes are the essence [...]

Best Iced Tea Recipe Ever (Eating Well)

OK, I have been making and drinking this iced tea for weeks now, after having seen the original recipe in the excellent Eating Well magazine (which I have since adapted a little, of course). This tea is extremely quaffable, very light and just a touch sweet, without that bitterness that iced tea can sometimes get. [...]

What’s in Season? Summer Squash & Zucchini

Aren’t we awash in squash? They say that if you can grow anything, you can grow squash, and my experience has borne that out. This is our first year having a vegetable garden, we planted one squash plant on purpose, and now I am pulling a full-grown squash off every other day or so. Not [...]

How to Make Sorbet

A couple of weekends ago, my husband brought home a gigantic watermelon. “They were selling them by the side of the road,” he said. “I tasted it and it was so sweet I had to buy one.”
How were the two of us going to eat a whole watermelon before it went off? I had the [...]

Two Salads: Horseradish Slaw (Cookthink) & French Potato Salad (The New Best Recipe)

I went to a party last week and had the opportunity to bring two dishes. I actually like being asked to bring food to other people’s houses, because it gives me the opportunity to try out recipes on a wider audience as well as to cook for more than two people. This time, I was [...]

My Favorite Spinach Salad

One of my problems with spinach salads is the raw spinach. No, seriously. I actually love spinach and feel very virtuous when I’m eating it because it’s so packed with iron and vitamins. But raw leafy spinach is daunting. With the exception of baby spinach, I find it too bulky, too much work for not [...]