Just so you know, Not everything I try is a success. I know that there are friends that think I am making it up. After all I am a proficient cook with lots of experience and knowledge.
Now, it is true that I am a proficient cook with lots of experience and knowledge. And yet, trust me, I have very bad cooking experiences! Last week was a great example. . . I was on a roll! (more…)
My favorite part of gardening is watching the seeds sprout and poke up through the ground. My second favorite part is harvesting the food. Third, is eating it.
It is immensely gratifying to actually see the results of all your hard work. Watering, weeding, keeping after pests and fungi is hard work. Never mind the transplanting and soil prep. It’s definitely work! But there are so few things in life where you can actually see, taste and experience such tangible and direct results.
Harvesting means menu planning. Now, in the winter menus are usually about the finished product – casseroles, soups, stews and meatless meatloaves. In the summer it is about making sure I have cooked rice and beans in the fridge, nuts in the pantry and a few things in the freezer.
Planting a garden is a small act in creating a long term plan. You plant seeds, water, watch and wait. And then one day you see a little shoot of green poking up the dirt. This is my very favorite part or gardening!
The miracle of life and growth always makes me happy! I walk around with a big grin on my face all day. There is nothing like a little miracle to remind me how wonderful life is and how grateful I am just to be alive. (more…)
First of all, lets be clear that I consider cooking more art than science. The important disclaimer as that we are talking cooking not baking. Baking is kinda fiddly and requires much more science. But that said, I think of recipes as crude hand drawn maps. They give you a rough idea about the general direction you are planning to go. (more…)
Of course I have a stash of the must have foods. As long as I have the things shown here plus a few basic veggies and herbs I can always figure out how to cook a meal. Here’s my pantry
Since we are constantly asked what we eat, I have decided to post our dinner menu plan for this coming week. Over the next few days I will add the cooking tips and the recipes we use.
There are several things to note – we almost always have certain basics in our fridge. These include cooked brown rice and prepared beans of some type; this week it is navy beans. In our cupboards we keep a supply of things like olive oil, nuts, herbs, spices, canned and frozen veggies and salsa. As a practical matter we buy bulk and stock items like rice, beans, nuts, flours, oils, herbs and spices once a month on a “big shop” day.
Every weekend David and I spend part of a day procuring and preparing the food for the week. We have a lot of fun and use it as quality time together spent shopping, cooking, talking and singing to the tunes on Pandora.
Yesterday was the day. (more…)
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