Vegetables

Persian Barley and Vegetable Soup: Feed Your Inner Gladiator

Persian Barley and Vegetable Soup: Feed Your Inner Gladiator

It’s cold. It’s winter here in Southern California (sort of). Clearly, it’s time for the warm comfort of a bowl of steaming hot soup. Here is a soup recipe you might not have considered: Persian Barley and Vegetable Soup with Dried Cranberries. It is delicious…

Getting Smashed: Russet Potatoes With Horseradish Sauce

Getting Smashed: Russet Potatoes With Horseradish Sauce

  I’m a potato person. Surely it is my Irish heritage. I love mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, potato cakes and on and on. I think if I ever were to post on one of the ubiquitos dating sites, I would have to be honest. My…

A Cabbage Roll By Any Other Name: Golabki

A Cabbage Roll By Any Other Name: Golabki

Lahanodolmades. Kaalikaaryle. Bai Cai Juan. Golabki. It’s Lahanodolmades in Greece. It’s Kaalikaaryle in Finland. It’s Bai Cai Juan in China. It’s Golabki in Poland. Turns out, cabbage rolls are “a thing”  just about everywhere. And, it’s with good reason. They are delicious! So here is…

Easy Peasy: Pea and Fennel Cream Soup

Easy Peasy: Pea and Fennel Cream Soup

Got holiday anxiety? You deserve a little private celebration during these busy holiday weeks. This elegant little Pea and Fennel Cream Soup certainly fits the bill. It is bright-green beautiful, comfortingly creamy and oh-SO-easy to prepare.     This recipe is adapted from one that…

Spicy Kuri Squash With Harissa and Lemon

Spicy Kuri Squash With Harissa and Lemon

Cooks have long understood the impact of color on eating habits. The ancient Egyptians and Romans used herbs to color their foods and wines in an effort to enhance their appeal. Instinctively, I think, most of us understand that color suggests flavor, ripeness, and sweetness.…

Not Your Momma’s (Or Dorcas’) Holiday Green Beans: Green Beans With  Dried-Cherry Vinaigrette

Not Your Momma’s (Or Dorcas’) Holiday Green Beans: Green Beans With Dried-Cherry Vinaigrette

According to Smithsonian Magazine somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000,000 people will be eating green bean casserole this Thanksgiving, many of them following some version of the recipe Dorcas Reilly (pictured below) created in 1955. Dorcas was a food expert working for Campbell’s Soup Company…

Cheesy Potato Heaven! Gratin of Asparagus and Potatoes

Cheesy Potato Heaven! Gratin of Asparagus and Potatoes

When an Irish girl tells you that a potato dish soars, you should listen. This potato dish soars! Potatoes should definitely be on your Thanksgiving table anyway. The potato carbohydrates will give you the energy you need to keep things on a mellow Norman Rockwell-esque…

No Worries Here: Greek Fasolada (White Bean Soup)

No Worries Here: Greek Fasolada (White Bean Soup)

I’m imagining myself enjoying a bowl of this wonderful Fasolada soup on a lazy afternoon in a boisterous Greek taverna. Outside, the turquoise waters of the Aegean Sea lap gently against faded fishing boats beached on the sand . Bottles of Fix beer and a carafe…

Soup Weather: Spicy Fresh Corn and Coconut Soup

Soup Weather: Spicy Fresh Corn and Coconut Soup

Fall. Crisp, cool mornings. Pungent loamy soils and bursts of intense garden color. Juliet lifting her tiny nose to savor the new chill in the air. Soup weather. Finally. Spicy Fresh Corn and Coconut Soup Save Recipe Print Recipe My Recipes My Lists My Calendar…

You CAN Win Friends With Salad: Two Vinaigrettes

You CAN Win Friends With Salad: Two Vinaigrettes

The Simpsons were wrong. You CAN win friends with salad…at least with one dressed with a fantastic vinaigrette. (The Simpsons: “You Don’t Win Friends With Salad.”) Today you get two excellent vinaigrette recipes. The vinaigrette on the left is a fresh fig vinaigrette. The one…