I never thought I’d eat a cheeseburger again.  Those of you who read my blog know I eat goat cheese occasionally.  But recently I also started eating red meat again.  Grass-fed beef, that is.  It’s a totally different experience.  It has a very distinct flavor, and healthier fats.  Not only is it healthier to eat grass-fed beef, but [...]

 
One of my favorite meals is duck leg confit.  Duck legs have a lot of fat on them, but the secret to confit is that slow-cooking them in their own fat makes the meat tender and juicy and the skin crispy as it cooks away the fat.  The problem with most confit recipes is that it is [...]

 
I get a lot of my recipe ideas from the NY Times’ dining section.  This week they were focusing on White House chefs, which I found particularly interesting because of Michelle Obama’s commitment to children’s nutrition and gardening.  There was a recipe from the Obama’s favorite chef in Chicago, Rick Bayless, that caught my eye [...]

 
This is one of my favorite comfort meals (and my husband’s favorite as well), perfect anytime - whether it’s a chilly day or springtime, or whenever fresh cauliflower & cabbage are in season (for California that’s almost anytime - though in the summer I prefer seasonals such as zucchini).  I love to add reconstituted dried [...]

 
Last Saturday morning I planned to catch an early yoga class and swing by the farmers’ market on the way to pick up some eggs (you have to get there really early before they run out of pastured eggs!).  To my surprise they not only had eggs but they were selling whole, pasture-raised chickens!  I [...]

 
I am in the middle of reading Barbara Kingsolver’s nonfiction book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  It is a heart-warming, thought-provoking account of a year she and her family spent on their farm in Virginia consuming only food that they either grew themselves or bought locally from farmers in the region.  They have this amazing network of people they [...]

 
I used to think that meatballs were off limits, since I don’t eat beef and breadcrumbs are out.  I know you can buy gluten-free breadcrumbs or make them from gluten-free bread, but they are usually loaded with refined starches and yeast, 2 other things that I like to avoid.  Then one day as I was [...]

Stuffed Pumpkins

 
Did you know that pumpkins are actually a variety of winter squash?  You can do many more things with them other than just bake pies and carve jack-o-lanterns.  So this week I decided to try something festive and bake stuffed pumpkins.  
 
You can do this with mini-pumpkins or any kind of small squash.  The ones I used [...]

 
This weekend was our housewarming party, and I was so excited to have a dining room where I could put the extra leaves in the dining table and lay out a good spread!  (Not to mention have enough room for guests to mingle!)  We had black bean & corn salad, a beautiful bowl of grapes [...]

Spaghetti Squash with Black Beans & Spinach

 
First off let me say that I recently dropped my camera and ever since it has been hit or miss getting it to focus.  Sometimes it turns out great and others not.  I plan to get a new, better camera sometime this fall.  Until then I will do the best [...]