Squash Blossom Pasta Recipe

Summer is in full swing and so are the farmers markets. It’s a joy to walk around and see all the juicy peaches, luscious strawberries, plump eggplants, and many colors, shapes and sizes of peppers and squash. Much as I like Summer squash, I’m even more crazy about their younger selves—squash blossoms. They are wonderful stuffed and fried, in frittata, risotto, in quesadillas and of course, with pasta.  I am a pasta maniac and swear I could eat a pound of it in one sitting. But I’ve been experimenting lately and I’ve found I can be satisfied with a whole lot less pasta if I add a lot of other ingredients. This recipe is a perfect example. It has plenty of vegetables and just a little pasta. It uses very few ingredients so use the absolute best you can get from either your garden or a farmers market.  Squash blossoms are very delicate and I like this technique of just blanching them in the pasta water rather than sauteeing them. Many recipes use to many other stron......

Continue reading

Can-It-Forward Day & Giveaway!

Every year Jarden Home Brands, maker of Ball jars and canning products hosts the Can-It-Forward Day. It’s a good reminder to learn more about preserving, discover their new products and do a little canning.  This year you'll find  The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving .  It’s the biggest book they’ve ever put out with over 350 recipes for canning, jamming, pickling and preserving. There are so many cool recipes in this book! Harissa, Worcestershire sauce, fermented Ginger Bug, Citrus Vanilla Bean Marmalade, Whole Grain Thyme Mustard, even Cold Cured Salmon with gin or vodka. There are also guides to dehydrating, freezing and canning fruit and vegetables. It  has beautiful photos from  Hélène  Dujardin .  This year I canned cherries for pie, using a recipe from the new book. It was easy as pie! If you’ve never canned pie filling I highly recommend it. It might be the easiest introduction to canning ever.  The recipe instructs......

Continue reading

Slow Cooker Smoked Chicken Recipe

Recently I was working on some recipes for a client and was tasked with making “faux barbecue.” By faux, I mean no smoker, no grill. In fact, all the recipes were to be made in a slow cooker. I don’t use a slow cooker very often so I wasn’t sure the recipes would even work. Boy was I wrong! If you are looking for an easy way to cook chicken, this is it. It stays tremendously moist and flavorful and the meat is particularly good for using in sandwiches, salads or even tacos or enchiladas. One of the secrets to this recipe is dry brining the bird. That just means sprinkling it with salt before cooking. Salting it 24 hours ahead is fine, but 48 hours is even better.  Don’t freak out over the use of 1/4 cup of liquid smoke. It does not actually touch the bird so you’re not ingesting it at all. In any case, liquid smoke is a natural and safe ingredient . Experts agree you'd have to ingest 3 whole bottles to cause any harm.  This recipe in particular didn't go to pr......

Continue reading

Food & Drink Non Fiction & Fun

I meant to post about these books in the Fall but somehow the post got lost. These books are each a lot of fun and good no matter what the season.  Drinking the Devil’s Acre A Love Letter from San Francisco & Her Cocktails.   If you love San Francisco you will be absolutely charmed by this book. Author Duggan McDonnell is something of a renaissance man—a barkeep, author, historian, a teacher and has been involved in the introduction of a pisco and Jardesca. He’s also a wonderful writer. The book details secret bartender formulas, stories behind classic and contemporary cocktails as well as recipes, stories from many eras in our city by the bay, and so much more. Learn why so many cocktails in San Francisco use citrus, why San Franiscans love the negroni and all things bitter, how tequila made its way to California etc. It’s a pure pleasure.  The Mad Feast  An Ecstatic Tour Through America's Food This book is an “anti-cookbook.” It is a series of surp......

Continue reading