What keeps most of us from cooking a butternut squash is the thought of peeling it. Its odd shape, a sharp knife and slippery hands = a trip to the ER. But peeling one is easier than you think. All you need is vegetable peeler, making this task much safer and faster. When I cook…
Category: Garden to Table
Fresh vegetables from our backyard garden
No Cream Creamy Zucchini Soup with Fresh Tarragon
If you still have zucchini from your garden or farmers market, try this delicious zucchini soup from Ellie Krieger. The creaminess is not from cream but from a secret ingredient, cannellini beans. The beans not only make this soup dairy-free, but they give it a boost of fiber and protein. I love the slight licorice…
Chilled Cucumber and Dill Buttermilk Soup
I seem to only use buttermilk in pancake batter or muffins. That’s unfortunate because buttermilk, like yogurt and kefir, is a cultured dairy product rich in calcium, protein and healthy probiotics. Since most of us are not going to start drinking buttermilk, I wanted to find another way to incorporate it into more recipes. Here,…
Deliciously Simple Fresh Tomato Soup
My husband’s garden continues to produce a bountiful supply of tomatoes (check out his post at Main Line Haven) so my daughter suggested tomato soup. Tomato soup is surprisingly easy to make. You just need tomatoes and a few simple ingredients. It’s fast and delicious. Total prep time: 10 minutes. Total cooking time: about 30…
Colorful Crostini Bites
My kitchen is overflowing with tomatoes and this is not an exaggeration. I have them on trays, in baskets, on plates, in bowls, in every corner of my kitchen. My inspiration for this dish is from the rich, vibrant colors of the tomatoes accenting my kitchen. I don’t really have a recipe (these are very…
Roasted Beet Root Salad with Creamy Feta Dressing
Gorgeous! I love the vibrant color of red beets but my kitchen looks like a crime scene after cooking, peeling and chopping them. One trick I learned to keep from staining my hands is to rub my hands with vegetable oil before working with beets. My favorite way to cook beets is to roast them….
The Caprese Salad (culinary simplicity at its finest)
It’s that time of year. When tomatoes are at their peak, mouth-watering juiciness, it’s time to make the Caprese salad. So simple yet flavors so perfectly matched. I would never even consider making this salad without vine-ripe garden tomatoes and sweet summer basil. Get yourself some fresh mozzarella and a high quality extra virgin olive…
Chocolate Beet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
I found this recipe while searching for beet recipes (because that’s what I do in my spare time). The natural sweetness of the beets goes well with the slight bitterness of the dark cocoa and I love the natural pink color of the icing. The recipe is from eatingwell but I made some modifications. I used…
Rhubarb Oat Shortcakes
Delicious. One word to sum up this delightful summer dessert from Melissa Clark, food columnist for the New York Times. Fresh rhubarb is ready to harvest in late spring (my husband picked some beautiful rhubarb from our garden, featured below) and you’ll find it at produce markets throughout most of the summer. The colors in rhubarb are lovely…
The Rosemarie
The Rosemarie is a favorite drink on the menu of a newly established distillery and tasting room in Bellfonte, Pennsylvania called Big Spring Spirits. It’s a frequent destination for my husband and I when we are vacationing at our cabin in central Pennsylvania. Although I don’t have the exact recipe from the distillery, my husband…