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Cool It This Summer
The heat of summer is upon us. Growing up on the farm in Illinois, for me, July and August were centered around baling hay, harvesting oats, and then baling the oat straw. That meant spending those 90-degree-plus, extremely humid days…
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Going Green
Welcome to prime vegetable season. The earliest entrants have already appeared in local farmstands: the first fiddleheads and spring onions, then peas. There is a whole assortment of greens to be had, all fresh, crisp, colorful, and delicious. Of course,…
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Put a Spring {Vegetable) in Your Step
I’m ready for a menu shift. My appetite is changing. It’s the time of year when spring showers encourage the blooming daffodils and crocus. On the farm, I could smell spring coming through the thawing frosted ground. It’s the time…
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Reach for a Peach
With peaches hitting the local farm stands, it’s tempting to grab a few. But peaches are not just for snacks and dessert. That sweet, juicy fruit is a fantastic pairing in a number of summertime main dishes. That wasn’t my…
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Thai Chicken and Lettuce Rolls
A quick, cool, no-cook summer meal
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Old-Fashioned Family Food Nostalgia
Each of us has a portfolio of recipes that we ate as children, but that are no longer on our adult menus. Think about your own experience. You can probably come up with a goodly number of meals that were…
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Beet Salad with Stilton and Walnuts
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Watermelon: No Longer Just an Athletic Event
There was a time when my only questions about watermelon involved which one of my pals had the injector to get the vodka or rum into the big green melon. Or, having achieved this milestone, who could spit the seeds…
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What to Do with All Those Cucumbers
I have a cucumber tree in my vegetable garden. At least, that’s what I tell my grandchildren. And this summer, the “tree,” a circular trellis supporting several vines, is working overtime. I’m not alone. I’ve heard from fellow gardeners that…
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Undressing Your Salad Dressing
Warm weather means salads, and salads typically need dressing. Most grocery stores have a large portion of shelf space devoted to a premade liquid dressings, which may well end up populating the back of your refrigerator shelf before becoming a…
