White Bean Spread
Now I like hummus as much as the next gal, but hummus isn’t the only way to turn cooked beans into a tasty puree. White beans have an exceptionally creamy texture, but a more delicate flavor than chick peas. And since the beans will be pureed, you don’t need to fuss over the white beans...
Carrot Pie
My first pie of spring will be rhubarb custard, but those little rhubarb shoots are taking their sweet time, irrespective of my whining. Where to look for pie inspiration when relegated to last year’s apples and root vegetables? I ran across a turn of the century recipe that suggested using carrots to make pie, much...
Homemade Veggie Burgers
Veggie burgers don’t always have to be seen as a second-rate meat substitute; at their best they have a wholesome, not-too-filling-but-still-satisfying vegetable-y goodness. From a culinary perspective, veggie burgers are just a savory vegetable croquette topped with all of the delicious trimmings of a burger. The freezer section of your local grocery probably has its...
Savory Lentils & Greens
I didn’t mean for this dish to be so good. I was really just looking for something serviceable as a vehicle to explain how to cook lentils. But it turned out to be so easy and delicious, I might just be making it all the time. Is two nights in a row too much?...
Cooking Dried Beans
Dried beans are one of the few food products that are cheap and durable enough to also double as childhood craft supplies. But they are good for more than gluing to your turkey themed collage or for filling tiny sacks of potatoes in your latest diorama; dried beans can and should have a starring role...
Potato Skin Crisps
As I have mentioned before, potato skins can be put to good use in making a flavorful batch of broth. But they are also quite tasty cooked all by themselves. Recently I made a huge batch of sunchoke soup (incidentally if you ever have the better part of an afternoon to kill and feel like...
Whole Wheat Crackers
I enjoy all of the little– shall we say– particularities of working with pastry doughs. They must be carefully handled. (As one of my dear pastry instructors would say “like children: gentle, but firm.”) They must rest, chilled, for the appropriate amount of time, allowing the gluten to relax. Then they must be cut and...
Homemade Vanilla Extract
If you read the “ingredients” section in any book with a pastry chef’s name on the front, you will likely find a discussion of that chef’s preferred vanilla bean, complete with a discussion of its unique and superior qualities. Now let me first state that there is a marked difference between vanilla beans from different...
Vanilla
Vanilla– how on earth can I pretend to write about kitchen economy and still write about vanilla? Famously the second most expensive spice (first place goes to those electric little threads of saffron), vanilla is very expensive in all its forms (whole beans, paste, extract and powder.) It is possible to save money on costly...
Cabbage Stem and Fennel Salad
Ingredients: The stem from one small head of cabbage one small head of fennel half of an apple or pear the juice from one lemon salt olive oil Cut Veggies: Using a grater or a Japanese Mandolin, cut the cabbage stem into paper thin slices. Getting really thin sections of cabbage is a must for...
Bread Scraps
Leaving leftover bread out to stale is actually on of the best ways to preserve it. When my bread has past its prime (usually 5 days for a home-made sourdough loaf– breads that are not leavened with sourdough will stale more quickly) I cut off the crust and tear the remaining bread into pieces. Leave...
Labne (Yogurt Cheese)
Cutting back on my budget has, inevitably, meant cutting back on cheese. Cheese really ought to be an expensive product. To get a little perspective on food costs, I’ll often think of all of the steps it takes to produce a particular food product. Cheese gets very involved: first feed must be grown to nourish...
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