Good Food, Good Conversation

The gardens are bursting with the harvest and one of my favorite vegetables is abundant, fresh just picked that morning, corn on the cob.    Fresh corn on the cob with a few slices of still warm from the sun tomato, and fresh basil make a perfect no effort lunch.   Add some cottage cheese on the side and you have a complete meal.   I like to eat my corn with butter and salt.  I found mixing the salt with the butter before I try to put it on the corn works out much better.   I use less salt that way and it is so yummy.  

I must say I do love soups.   They can complement a meal or be a meal!   I like to get ahead of the game when I feel like being in the kitchen, and make several stocks, freeze them for future use.   More about that later. Butternut is plentiful in the Fall and stores well in the winter.   It's bright color always brings joy to the dinner table.   Serve it with a meal to begin, or with some whole wheat bread made with whole grains. Butternut Squash Soup   2 large onions diced large 1 buttercup squash peeled and cut in chunks 1 T  Organic sesame oil           Optional maple syrup Sea salt Parsley for garnish Heat pan and add oil.    Saute the onions until they become translucent then add the squash and continue to saute for about 3 minutes.    Add water to cover the top of the squash and onions.    Bring to a boil.   Add a pinc...

Seems like everybody loves bad news these days, especially the media and their take on the “financial crisis”. Every day the news gets worse. I’ve had to stop listening. However, for every back there is a front, for every yin there is a yang and so I began looking for the good news---the Silver lining. I believe that this “recession” is an expression of America coming of age. We are still a young country and we have things to learn. No longer an impetuous teenager, that thinks she knows everything, we are now more ready to listen. As an adult, I have grown to appreciate my ancestors and their wisdom. I believe America will return to some of the values our elders held DEAR. I predict that good things are coming. Eating IN will become more popular and necessary as people will choose to spend their money differently. Pot-lucks, social gatherings, having friends over for meals will become the norm again. The family will once gather around the dinner table w...

An easy winter salad that is good anytime of the year and always gets comments when I take it to a pot luck. So simple, I feel I don't deserve all the complements. I have gotten so many requests for the recipe that I have reproduced it here. I hope that you will try it and enjoy. 1 whole cabbage 2 Tbs. Roasted sesame seeds 2 Tbs. sea salt 2 lemons juiced 2 tsp. dark Sesame oil 1.)First cut the cabbage into quarters. Cut out the core root and lay the quarter on it's "tummy". (this will make it more secure and safer to cut on your cutting board.) Cut fine or shred the entire cabbage. Put the cabbage in a large bowl and mix in the salt. Cover with a plate and place a heavy weight on top of the plate; I like to use a gallon jug filled with water. In about one hour there will be a lot of water in the bowl, remove the weight and plate. 2) Take a handful of cabbage at a time and squeeze between your palms to eliminate the excess wat...

As a child I remember sitting around a large table at my Grandfather's house listening to the grownups talking over dinner. Most of the vegetables had been grown in the garden behind the house not too far from the chicken coop and the railroad tracks. My Dad and family lived "on the right side of the tracks, but so close that it didn't matter to some. My Grandfather had come down from Canada to settled and worked on the railroad. He was a big man, with a belly of a stomach that was firm against my head when he hugged me. In the living room was his chairand no one else could sit in it. It was an over stuffed rocking chair with wide legs and runners, sturdy enough to hold him and me while he read the Sunday funnies out loud. People talked a lot more those days. The dinner table was where all the excitement happened. There was a lot of laughter, big voices, points of view that would anger my Father and make my Mother red in the face. Children were remind...