Above is a picture of a recent lunch that was very simple to make because I had bean thread noodles on hand. I find bean thread noodles to be a very handy pantry item. Bean thread noodles are made from mung bean starch: the same mung beans that are sold as common sprouts. The noodles…
Shrimp chips are popular throughout Southeast Asia. They have many names, such as “prawn crackers” and “krupuk” (Indonesian). Properly prepared, these chips are light, not greasy, and have a mild but clear shrimp flavor. Like potato chips, it’s hard to eat just one. I always have some on hand. For entertaining, I bring out the…
What to do with all of the apples I collected for the photo in my last post? Applesauce. Applesauce is easy to make, and your efforts will be deliciously rewarded. It’s really worth the effort, and it’s a great dish to do with young children. Kids love applesauce, and eating the applesauce that they’ve helped…
I’m not very focused on baking, so when I want to bake something with apples I find myself in a quandary, as I don’t know which are the best for baking. In my experience, some apples are reduced to mush by the baking process. Others hold up but don’t taste great. Then there are those…
My nephew, Sam, is a vegetarian. If it weren’t for him I wouldn’t have developed this recipe. As you know from my previous post, I’m a big fan of stuffing cooked inside the turkey. Of course, one can’t do that for a vegetarian stuffing, so I had to come up with one cooked outside the…
It’s that time of year again, and the big question is: how does one roast a turkey? Well, I’ve tried numerous methods, and this is the one I’ve settled on. It’s from the now defunct Gourmet magazine. In the original article, I believe they said that they had tested over 25 ways to roast a turkey…
The first time I ever saw, touched, and tasted a fresh fig was a revelation. My knowledge of figs until then was mostly confined to Fig Newtons. I didn’t even know what a fresh fig looked like until I saw it at a health food store in Santa Cruz, CA in the late 70s. The…
A gardener friend once said that if she were ever a castaway on a deserted island she would want to have a squash seed with her. One seed and she could grow a large vine and plenty of food! If you’ve ever grown zucchini in your garden you know what she meant. A healthy zucchini vine…
This is a simple, refreshing soup that’s good hot or cold. The original inspiration comes from Deborah Madison’s The Greens Cookbook. It’s a vegetarian soup that can be made vegan. You make the stock from asparagus ends and leek tops, and you use the body of the asparagus and leeks to make the soup. I’m not…
Spring is officially here and summer is just around the corner. Time for a tall pitcher of cool, freshly made lemonade! Last weekend, our neighborhood sponsored a yard sale. The kids ran a lemonade stand/bake sale to raise money for charity. It was a big success. The lemonade drew a lot of surprised comments. “The lemonade…