Category Archives: Cooking

Chinese Chicken Salad with Red Chile Peanut Dressing

Butler Green Farms is my local CSA farm. This week’s produce included romaine lettuce, sugar snap peas (so sweet!), kohlrabi, delicate spring carrots and some beautiful red Japanese radishes. Perfect ingredients for this unbelievable Chinese Chicken Salad recipe by Bobby Flay. This was truly the best Chinese Chicken Salad dressing I’ve ever made or eaten. Everyone in…

Speedy Baked Ziti

I’ve been on a mission over the past several months to add some new recipes into our week night dinner routine. After a series of rejects (including the one where I thought I was making soup and it ended up being a paella type stovetop dish) I was ready to take a break. Along comes…

Happy 2011!

Tonight’s dinner featured Ham (don’t forget to make soup with your ham bone) and Black Eyed Pea Salad. I like attracting all the luck I can get! I started the annual mosaic making thinking the final result would be a bit thin. Looking at the photos reminded me that I’m much too tough on myself….

Summer 2009 – Cherries

Washington is experiencing a bumper crop of 2009 cherries. Our backyard tree joined the party and this is just one day’s bounty that I picked last week. The crows, deer and Rocky, our resident racoon, generally get to every last one the minute they ripen. This year there’s enough for all of us. This cool…

Lemon Shortbread Bars

Meyer Lemons arrived at the market and inspired making these incredibly delicious lemon shortbread bars.  I skipped the topping called for and finished with a sprinkle of powdered sugar. As many of the Epicurious reviewers recommend, I plan to up the lemon juice next time around. I liked everything about this recipe: the shortbread crust,…

Blood Orange Margaritas

1 1/3 cups freshly squeezed Blood Orange Juice (about 6 oranges) Juice of 1 lime 2/3 cup tequila 1/4 cup Grand Marnier 1/3 cup sugar 4 cups ice cubes Mix together the first five ingredients. Make the margaritas in two separate batches: Place two cups ice into a blender, pour over half the mixture.  Pour…

Ready for Anything

Last night I finished reading Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work & Life by David Allen. I checked this book out while waiting in the library queue for his blockbuster Getting Things Done on CD (my number just came up, yay, so that’s next on the list). The book is full of focused…

Carmalized Black Pepper Chicken

I finally got my act together and set up the tri-pod BEFORE starting to cook dinner. Recently re-published in Food and Wine magazine, this yummy creation by Chef Charles Phan of the Slanted Door restaurant in San Francisco has become our new family favorite. I’ve made it every week for a month. Served with steamed…

Thanksgiving 2008

This year’s picture of the Thanksgiving table. I take one every year. Last year I set up the tri-pod and did an auto-timer (drove everyone crazy, “the turkey’s getting cold Mom”). I usually just try and get the table. A snapshot of the food prepared for a celebration giving thanks for all the blessings in…

Easy as Pie

The strawberries and raspberries arrived on the island two weeks late this year. Good timing given our vacation schedule. This is my Easy as Pie recipe that I adapted from The Chez Panisse Desserts cookbook. Obviously Alice would never use a frozen pie crust. 2 pints fresh raspberries or strawberries 3 tablespoons flour 1/3 cup…