 Bean Salad with Roasted Vegetables Even though we both love meat, we have our share of meatless meals. Since we workout so much though, and since John’s diabetic, we have to make sure those meatless meals have a significant amount of protein in them. One of the ways we do this is with liberal use of dried beans. We get our dried beans from either Alvarez Farms, Alm Hill Gardens, or Stoney Plains. Alvarez, in particular, has a wide variety of beans nearly every week. We love picking up chickpeas and making our Spicy Roasted Chickpeas and we regularly cook up some black beans with some pancetta and rosemary.
When thinking about what we could make for our cooking demo at Queen Anne Farmers Market, we wanted something with beans for several reasons. First, I think beans often get overlooked. They aren’t glamorous and on’t have a tremendous amount of flavor on their own. Not to mention there’s the time they require. You’ve got to soak them overnight and only then can you cook them. Second, we wanted to make a dish that was vegetarian. You never know when you’re cooking for a crowd how many people will be vegetarian or vegan.
Continue reading White Bean Salad with Roasted Tomatoes and Fennel
 Quick Pickled Vegetables I don’t know why, but this weekend I had a hankering (yes, a real, honest-to-goodness hankering) for pickled vegetables. On the rare occasions when I get a bahn-mi for lunch, my very favorite part of the whole thing is the pickled vegetables. I always want double or triple the amount on the sandwich. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the salads at Green Leaf in the ID. I always ask for double the pickled vegetables.
Continue reading Quick Pickled Vegetables
 A Valentine's Day Dinner So, we’ve touched upon a side dish but, since the main course requires a little work before the weekend, let’s talk about the short ribs and the braise.
Like I had said, I wanted to not only show you how to make some dishes, but also teach you a bit about how to cook in general.
Yesterday’s Brussels sprouts dish taught you how to sauté, where you cook something in a little bit of oil and keep it hopping in the pan.
Today, we’re going to look at braising.
Braising is a method of cooking where food is first seared (hey, two things learned in one recipe) in a dry pan and then cooked in a liquid, generally with a fairly tight cover.
Now, this dish is going to end up taking you a few days to cook and we’ll talk about that below. But, assuming we’re cooking on Sunday, you’re going to want to start this dish on Thursday (Friday at the absolute latest), so lets get cracking, shall we?
Continue reading Short Ribs Braised in Porter Ale with Maple-Rosemary Glaze
 Braised Oxtail It became very obvious to me the other day when having a conversation with another Seattle “foodie”, that I am not a gourmet cook. That’s not to say that I’m not a good cook. I am. We eat good food almost all the time. But is it gourmet? Not really. We take fresh, high quality ingredients and turn them into good, fresh, seasonal, accessible food. Not all of our recipes come out perfectly. And it’s rare that I take a recipe and strive to perfect it over many many iterations. There’s nothing wrong with that philosophy. But it’s not gourmet.
Dumplings? Easy. Delicious. Not gourmet.
Mock Turtle Soup? Nothing really gourmet about that. Meat, veggies, broth, spices.
White bean and kale stuffed delicata? Nothing gourmet here. Just high quality ingredients, mixed well in the right proportions.
Oxtail is one of those ingredients that smacks of gourmet. You just don’t hear of people cooking with oxtail at home very often. Really, there’s no reason for avoiding it. Oxtail is pretty cheap right now, since so few people appreciate it. You can get it for $5-$10/lb, or even cheaper if you shop around (there was a grass-fed meat vendor at the Kirkland Wednesday Market last year who was selling them for $2/lb).
Continue reading Oxtails Braised in Red Wine
 Savory Tarte Tatin Have you had as hard of a time cooking this week as I have? Thanksgiving is all about the food, and once that’s over the leftovers just never seem to end! I’m convinced that my containers of leftovers multiplied in the fridge. But once the leftovers were finally gone, we could see that we had a bunch of vegetables in the crisper drawers that needed to be used, as well as a batch of dough from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. So off to the cookbook shelf it was.
Flip, flip, flip, hey! Savory Tarte Tatin. Veggies, bread, cast iron skillet, some seasonings and that’s it? That seems like something my Thanksgiving-addled brain can handle. The cookbook I landed on was The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook. The authors are from the Pacific Northwest and we’ve had nothing but excellent luck with the recipes in this cookbook. If you’re new to cooking with cast iron, we highly recommend this book. The local angle was one of the primary reasons we bought the book, and their recipe for cornbread pudding didn’t hurt either.
Continue reading Savory Tarte Tatin
 Nightwatch Stuffing Ever since I started cooking Thanksgiving dinner, I’ve been searching for “my” stuffing recipe. Mom’s stuffing was always good and of course it had that “I grew up with this” charm, but I wanted my own recipe. (Mom’s uses items that are decidedly not local, so that’s another reason to find my own recipe). I’ve tried several different recipes, and so far, this is what I’ve come up with. This recipe (or a close approximation) will be what we use for our local Thanksgiving this year.
We’ll also have John’s Merme’s stuffing, which uses Bell’s Poultry Seasoning. Luckily, Bell’s is from New England, and that’s exactly where his parents are flying in from in just a few days. So we’ll ask them to bring us a box.
Soon after my dear, sweet husband introduced me to beer, I decided that one of my favorite beers was Nightwatch from Maritime Brewery. I like my beers dark and toasty. But lucky for us, Nightwatch is a local beer so it fits in very nicely with any Thanksgiving planning. The second component to today’s stuffing is a bag of stuffing mix (read: stale baguette pieces) from Tall Grass Bakery. You can pick up a big bag of stuffing mix at the University District or Ballard Farmers Markets this weekend for only $5. Add in some carrots, celery, an egg, and a bit of seasonings, and you’ve got yourself some stuffing.
Continue reading Nightwatch Stuffing
 It is finally November. Well, ok. Who am I kidding. Finally isn’t the right word. It is ALREADY November. I’m still not sure where July went and already we’re into November. But since it’s now November, we can start talking seriously about Thanksgiving recipes.
I love Thanksgiving. What can be better than a day centered completely around food? Well, how about a day centered completely around local food? I hope you’ve ordered your Thanksgiving turkey already. If not, there are still a few options, including Bill the Butcher in Woodinville.
Continue reading Emmer Bread and Sausage Stuffing
 Summer Vegetable Soup with Purslane I admit, until this week I’d never tried purslane. In fact, I’m not sure I’d ever even noticed it at the market tables. However a couple of weeks ago, at the Ready. Set. Cook! event at the University District Farmers Market, both chefs used purslane in their dishes. So when we saw it was an option for our Growing Washington Local Choice Food Box, we ordered a bunch.
Purslane has long been considered a weed, but you can eat it just like you eat a leafy vegetable. The flavor is sweet, salty, and sour all at the same time. I think it tastes like a succulent bit of romaine lettuce. Purslane has more Omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy green. It is also high in Vitamins A, C, and B (beta-carotine).
There are a variety of things you can do with purslane. Chop it up and throw it in salads, add it to soup, or make a pesto out of it.
For this today’s recipe, we made a minestrone type soup and add a bunch of chopped purslane to the pot right before serving.
Continue reading Summer Vegetable Soup with Purslane
When Michelle Obama was creating such a buzz over the White House organic vegetable garden, one of the quotes that was mentioned often was this:
“And when you’re dealing with kids, for example, you want to get them to try that carrot. Well, if it tastes like a real carrot and it’s really sweet, they’re going to think that it’s a piece of candy. So my kids are more inclined to try different vegetables if they’re fresh and local and delicious.”
This is a stunning salad
Well, I couldn’t agree more. Sweet fresh carrots can taste just [...]
Bok Choy is technically classified as a cabbage and is also sold under the name Chinese White Cabbage. You’ll also see it labeled bok choi. The stalks are crunchy and white and the leaves are tender and dark green, making it a very striking vegetable. You can eat it raw in salads or slaws, or cook it in a variety of dishes.
Bok Choy Stir Fry
We picked up all of our vegetables for [...]
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