Sometimes it’s nice to have limited ingredient choices as this helps to direct the creation of a recipe. Here I use almost everything that’s ready in my early spring garden this year. Although every fruit is a perennial plant, only a few vegetables are, asparagus being an exception. Read more…
Roasted cauliflower may not be one of those foods you have a craving for but it just might be once you try roasting it. I roast vegetables of all kinds but for some reason I did not figure to roast cauliflower for a long time. At this point countless heads of cauliflower have been consumed by my kids over the years thanks to this simple method. Read more…
Clam Chowder is not typically made with fresh clams (too expensive) however if you are able to gather a whole bunch of clams straight from the beach why not take advantage. You probably either eat whole clams dipped in butter or in clam chowder as bits n’ pieces that came from a can. In the recipe, hopefully the best of both worlds is exactly what we are doing here. Read more…
Catching a trout is a right of passage for anyone growing up in the Northwest. Like salmon, they are delicious fresh as well as smoked. Whether you catch fish yourself, buy at the market, or have an angler friend there is no doubt that fish is easy to acquire in the Northwest. Read more…
The time frame to enjoy your own garden or farmer’s market tomatoes is very short so there is no time to mess around. I think a tomato salad is just about the best way to properly dispose of large quantities of one of the all time best garden items. Read more…
One of my culinary interests is using ingredients collected from the same place, or even all wild ingredients. It’s also exciting to imagine what native people would have prepared with no grocery store and only the rivers, fields, forest and garden to shop. Now this is not necessarily a native American recipe but it could be similar to something they may have prepared as berries and herbs were commonly used to season fish and game. Read more…
There are several foods that really stick in my mind from my childhood and one of them was those flour tortillas my mom would buy in bulk from the ladies at church. The simple combination of flour and lard rendered a chewy and crispy tortilla that tasted better with each bite. Read more…
The Nicoise salad was conceived in Province France but is simply a combination of the available ingredients in the spring season. It’s as fresh as it gets and that is the really the whole point and only point of the Nicoise salad to begin with. Living in the northwest I like to see if I can sometimes make recipes using only ingredients that I have personally collected which is very much possible with this salad. Read more…
Wild ginger (Asarum canadense) has a wild history for several reasons. First of all, although it is not related to the commonly known Asian ginger varieties, it does serve many of the same medicinal and culinary purposes. This plant was used by the peoples of native America as a carminitive. That is, to remedy ailments related to digestion such as gas, bloating, cramps, aches, and pains. Read more…
The only thing that really matters when constructing a good soup is to pack in the flavor every which way possible, and when using mushrooms it’s hard to get this wrong. This soup can be made with 100% wild mushrooms but it is also quite good with domestic mushrooms or a mix of the two. It is a good idea to use both dried and fresh mushrooms as the dried mushrooms render a very flavorful broth. Read more…
by the handful 