Tag Archives: herbs

Dairy free recipes, Flower Power, From the Kitchen, Gardening, Good Reads

Harvest. Unexpected Projects Using Extraordinary Garden Plants by Stefani Bittner & Alethea Harampolis

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Harvest. Unexpected Projects Using 47 Extraordinary Garden Plants by Stefani Bittner & Alethea Harampolis is a fun, beautiful, inspiring, and informative gardening cookbook I recently bought.

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I pre-ordered this book and I never pre-order a book.  I like to read the reviews and have the book be out for a while to see what people think of it before I get it. But the name of this book got me hooked – Harvest!  What a lovely name for a gardening book.  Harvest speaks volumes just by the meaning of the word – the feel good images it conjures of fields and farms, of flowers and nature.

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I ordered the book not knowing if I would like it, but that’s the beauty of Amazon. I figured if the book didn’t live up to my expectations I could easily return it. I finally got a copy of Harvest in the mail about a month ago, and with an open mind started perusing this book.  Let me give you just a few of the many reasons why this is a wonderful book to add to your gardening and cookbook collection. Continue reading Harvest. Unexpected Projects Using Extraordinary Garden Plants by Stefani Bittner & Alethea Harampolis →

From the Kitchen, Quick & Easy Recipes

Dave’s Amuse Bouche. Goat Cheese Wrapped in Seaweed.

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Amuse bouche is a complimentary, bite-sized portion of savory food served before a meal or in between courses at a restaurant.

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When I invited our friends Dave and Rose to come over for dinner one evening to show us how to make pasta and tiramisu that they had learnt on their Italian holiday in Tuscany; Dave brought an interesting amuse bouche – goat cheese wrapped in seaweed.

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This was a very unique amuse bouche because I would never think to combine an Asian flavor like seaweed with a western flavor like goat cheese. Dave’s amuse bouche was a delectable little bite that packed a ton of flavor. Here is the recipe.

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From the Kitchen, Quick & Easy Recipes, Salads

Goat Cheese Tart with Sundried Tomatoes

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This is a recipe I got from watching Barefoot Contessa’s show on Food Network.  Ina Garten was making a beautiful goat cheese tart with thinly sliced zucchini.  It looked positively gorgeous. But I am not a big fan of zucchini – no offense to zucchini fans. This recipe also called to make a homemade pastry crust – and I am not a fan of that either.

I decided to take Ina Garten’s recipe and make it my own. I used a store bought frozen piecrust (the kind you have to roll out) for the goat cheese tart, and instead of zucchini I used a jar of sundried tomatoes as my topping.  To turn this delectable tart into a meal – I served it on Sunday evening with a tossed green salad as part of my Sunday Salad routine.   Continue reading Goat Cheese Tart with Sundried Tomatoes →

From the Kitchen, Quick & Easy Recipes

Spring Risotto with Leeks, Peppers & Arugula

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You will find this recipe is not your traditional way of making risotto. I’ve tried the authentic Italian way of making risotto, and let me tell you, it’s a time consuming recipe.  Every time I have followed a risotto recipe I have had to stand over the stove and stir the risotto rice with broth in batches until the rice is cooked. This takes at least 30 – 45 minutes. 45 minutes of standing and stirring, sometimes even longer. I started to dread making risotto when the kids wanted it.

Then one day I decided to try an alternative way of making risotto. I wondered how is it that in restaurants risotto is at our table within minutes. It occurred to me that they must cook the Arborio rice in advance, and just add the veggies or seafood when we order.  I thought let me give that a try.

The next time I made risotto, I cooked the Arborio rice in broth in a pressure cooker – no stirring involved. Then when I was ready to make my risotto, in a separate pot I sautéed vegetables and just added them to the already cooked Arborio rice and mixed it all together.  The risotto turned out awesome. Because the rice is already cooked, the whole process of making risotto goes by much faster. Try my recipe for a quicker vegetable risotto and see if you like it as much as I do.

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From the Kitchen

Spring Herbs & Goat Cheese Fettuccini with Braised Sugar Snap Peas & Leeks

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I asked Anjali to pick a bunch of herbs for a vegetable pot pie I was making and this is the basket she proudly presented to me.  These fresh picked herbs and lemons looked so beautiful that in addition to using them in the potpie I wanted to make another dish that would bring out the freshly picked herb flavors.

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Gardening

The Joy of Herb Gardening

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Growing herbs at home is one of the most satisfying gardening tasks there is, and it’s extremely easy too.  As beneficial as herbs are for all of us, what is many times overlooked is the joy that herb gardening brings even before we harvest these herbs for all their healthful uses. Within the large realm of gardening, herb gardening has its own therapeutic effects.

When you are outdoors working in the dirt taking care of herbs, planting, weeding and watching all the bugs, butterflies, and hummingbirds – any stress you have will seep away, even if it’s just for a few minutes you are one with nature.

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From the Kitchen

Mushroom Quiche on Whole Wheat Crust

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Mushroom Quiche on Whole Wheat Crust:
makes 2 quiche pies

Ingredients:

  • 2 whole-wheat frozen pie crusts
  • 6 cups finely chopped mushrooms
  • 10 cloves finely chopped garlic
  • 1 bunch chives finely cut about 2 -3 tbsp
  • 2 tsp dry herbs like thyme, rosemary, oregano
  • 8 small sage leaves
  • Salt and pepper
  • 8 eggs
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
  • 2 cups Swiss gruyere cheese shredded
  • Olive oil

Continue reading Mushroom Quiche on Whole Wheat Crust →