Recently Lynn and Marvin Fast of Red Barn Lavender gave me some ground cherries from their garden to try cooking. Marvin explained that ground cherries will never be a commercial money-maker because harvesting them is very labor intensive, but they are delicious to eat nevertheless. Why not grow some yourself? As you do more locavore eating (eating only locally grown food), sooner or later you’ll be motivated to do a little home gardening. I’d like to encourage you to give it a try. Fall is a good time to start planning for next year. Continue ReadingRecently Lynn and Marvin Fast of Red Barn Lavender gave me some ground cherries from their garden to try cooking. Marvin explained that ground cherries will never be a commercial money-maker because harvesting them is very labor intensive, but they are delicious to eat nevertheless. Why not grow some yourself? As you do more locavore eating (eating only locally grown food), sooner or later you’ll be motivated to do a little home gardening. I’d like to encourage you to give it a try. Fall is a good time to start planning for next year. Continue ReadingCategory : Breads, Recipes, Vegetarian
Herbed biscuits are not hard to make. Start with a basic biscuit recipe, such as my Baking Powder Biscuits, stir some fresh chopped herbs into the batter, and voila!
Sometimes, though, you want a fancier appearance for your biscuits. It only takes a little extra time to step the look up a notch. Continue Reading
My mother and my grandmother come to mind when I think of baking powder biscuits. Both knew how to make them light and flaky, a perfect complement to almost any meat and vegetable meal. Continue Reading
This week I didn’t have time to go to the mainland to buy groceries (I live on Lummi Island), so I relied on what was in my pantry and what I could find at the Lummi Island Farmers Market and the Islander grocery store. What a delight to walk into the Islander and see fresh Boxx Berry Farm blueberries in boxes on the checkout counter!
Some didn’t make it home, of course, and others promptly disappeared upon arrival, but I had enough left to bake into something. I had a little blue cornmeal from Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill on hand in my pantry, so decided to make some “blue in blue” muffins. Continue Reading
Category : Breads, Recipes, Vegetarian
Pizza is a go-to food when time is short. For homemade pizza to be a serious contender for dinner, I had to find a dough that was fast–and I mean really fast–and easy to make.
This recipe fills the bill beautifully. It’s yeasted, but you don’t have to wait for it to rise. You don’t have to knead it. You don’t have to toss it in the air. Continue Reading
Brioche. Sounds like something gourmet that would take hours to prepare, right? And it tastes like it, too. In reality, you can make a loaf of brioche in less than two hours–and most of that is rising time and baking time, during which you can read a magazine.
As far as I know, no one grows grains commercially in Whatcom County. It’s not the ideal climate. However, Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill (Bellingham) uses regional grains from as close to home as possible. They grind organic flour freshly each week, and they make a hard red spring wheat flour especially for use in bread making. The texture, fragrance, and flavor are delightful. Continue Reading
Category : Breads, Breakfast, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian
Last week’s menu introduced Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill (Bellingham) and the fresh grain flours they grind weekly. This week I wanted to try some of their blue cornmeal. Blue corn has more protein and lysine than yellow corn, which is high in beta carotene. The blue color is a nice change, too. Other than that, you can cook with blue cornmeal just the same as you would with yellow or white.
Really fresh cornmeal has an extra bit of crunch to it that gives cornbread a nice texture. Some local butter and honey on the fresh warm cornbread is simply out of this world! These are flavors to savor slowly. Continue Reading
