Recently a friend called me and asked if I’d like a big batch of broccoli stems. She was freezing broccoli from her garden, and usually purees the stems to use for soups, but didn’t have room this year in her freezer. “Sure!” I said, and the next morning a big bag of stalks was on my doorstep.
For some people it’s weird, I know. Broccoli stems are often seen as trimmings, and discarded. I really like the flavor, though. I think stems taste sweeter and less bitter than the florets. They also don’t have the grainy floret texture that children and others sometimes find objectionable. Continue Reading
Today’s recipe is a good example of how little you need to do to produce extraordinary flavors when cooking with fresh, local ingredients picked ripe. There is so much natural flavor in Dragon’s Tongue beans that a little butter, basil, salt and pepper are more than enough to round out the dish. Dragon’s Tongue beans are a variety of green beans which are yellow like wax beans, but with vivid purple stripes. They are tender and sweet, with no tough strings. Just wash and steam! How easy can it get? 
In our family, holiday feasts always end with pumpkin pie. I don’t know when or how it became a tradition, but I can tell you in my family pumpkin pies are taken very seriously. Perhaps it was because my mother made pies that won purple ribbons at the County Fair.
Several holiday appetizer recipes I created were published in the November 19, 2010, issue of Whatcom Magazine. If you’re looking for snacks for visiting friends, you might want to take a look. 
(See to the right and behind the bowl in the photo.) She said she had seen it used in Asian dishes.
Celeriac is currently in season early winter, and I thought it might make an interesting flavor twist if used as a non-traditional ingredient in a traditional dish. I’ve been experimenting with ways to prepare it. Celeriac is also called celery root, which is exactly what it is. It’s whitish, typically about the size of a baseball or softball, and has little flat stems sprouting out of it every so often randomly. It kind of looks like an organic alien spacecraft…or something. 
Some sauce recipes have become “classics” known to everyone. For example, experienced cooks learn how to make an Alfredo sauce, a buttery bechamel, and an herbed tomato sauce.
Fall root vegetables are the theme of this one-pot dish of stick-to-your-ribs goodness. Just as the cold weather begins to settle in, the local food markets begin to carry hearty, heat-holding root foods.
If you’ve been considering planning a locavore holiday menu this year but thought it might be too hard, I’ve found just the resource for you! Bellingham Farmers Market has made it as easy as can be. Here are two complete local holiday menus, one based on poultry and one vegetarian:
My garden (and my friends’ gardens) produced an overabundance of cabbage this year. What to do with all that cabbage?
Making soup stock is a fairly simple process, but getting the flavors balanced can be a little tricky sometimes. Not so with this mushroom stock. It’s made with the tough stems and trimmings from fresh mushrooms (though dried mushrooms could be used instead, if necessary). Just about any combination of flavorful mushrooms will work easily and taste wonderful. 
Thanks to the Northwest Mushroomers Association (NMA) Show in Bellingham (
After tasting honeycrisp apples grown at BelleWood Acres, I wanted to prepare them in a dessert that would change the flavor as little as possible. Many fruit desserts have so much added sugar and spices that it’s hard to enjoy the basic apple taste. 