The Summer Beet

Chioggia Beet Salad & Red Beet Pesto There’s a good argument to be made that summer cooking is more about not cooking or cooking as little as possible. Why heat up the kitchen, or work up a sweat? Chioggia beets fit right in with the no-heat approach to summer eating. Sometimes called candy cane or […]

Are You Grilling Pizza? Here’s How.

Sourdough Whole Wheat Pizza Dough You don’t need a fancy pizza oven to bake pizza outside. Toasty temperatures this summer has led me to do most of my cooking on the grill, and pizza has been “on repeat “all season. Here’s my easy-as- (pizza) pie technique. All you need is a grill, pizza peel, parchment […]

October is National Pizza Month

Caramelized Onion and Fennel Pizza with Sausage I love pizza and I’m not alone – 94% of Americans eat pizza on a regular basis according to pizza.com (Reference 1) which also posts: •The average American eats 46 slices per year •Kids between the ages of 3 and 11 prefer pizza over all other foods for […]

A New Vegetable?

Try a Broccoli Leaf Pizza A label in the produce aisle caught my eye, “Brocco’Leaf ™- Amazing Superfood.” I grabbed a bunch. Was this a great marketing pitch or a new vegetable? A little research revealed that what resembled collard greens were mature leaves of the broccoli plant. The Nunes Company trademarked the name Brocco’Leaf […]

A Gluten-Free Flatbread Everyone Loves

Farinata Everyone who tries this pizza-like appetizer, made with a chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour crust, seems to fall in love with it.      I was moved to try Farinata when I found a half-empty bag of garbanzo bean flour after testing Garbanzo Bean Gnocchi with Forest Mushrooms and Garlic Chive Coulis in my friend Braiden […]

Leafy Greens Get Trendy…and Convenient

  Greens have trickled into the mainstream.  In the Allrecipes.com food trends report for 2012, Kale Chips were one of  the top eleven “What’s Hot” recipe searches (up 133%). Allrecipes.com Senior Communications Director Judith H. Dern called Kale Chips, “the gateway drug to adding this leafy green vegetable to every meal!”    What consumers do […]

Snowed In? Play in the Pantry!

Clam Pizza Forced to hunker down when a snowstorm hit the Seattle area recently, I probed my pantry for dinner fixings.   The most creative kitchen-fun is when one is challenged to be inventive with what is “on hand.” A light bulb came on when I found a couple of cans of clams in the pantry. […]