recipes

Lobster Kebabs

Are you ready to kick off the first long weekend of summer with drinks al fresco and beachside snacks? These lobster kebabs are a clambake on a stick – all the flavors of a beach picnic, grilled to perfection and lashed with melted butter. This isn’t so much a recipe as a method of assembly; some of the ingredients need to be cooked first, skewered, and then dropped on the grill just long enough for grill marks to form. It’s […]

recipes

Green Tea Soba Noodles with Carrot VinaIgrette

Soba noodles are made of buckwheat, a lower-calorie, higher-fiber grain that tastes lighter – though it will fill you up just as nicely as a udon noodle. Finding a green tea-flavored noodle makes this more interesting, but it’s not essential. I love this recipe because it bursts with flavor and color: crunchy veggies, smooth, nutty noodles and a bite of hot pepper to hold your attention. It’s an entrée, a side dish, and an eat-it-cold-out-of-the-fridge breakfast. You really can’t pin […]

food

Strawberry Fields Forever

Local strawberries are perfect right now – luscious, bountiful,dro and full of sweet nothing-else-tastes-quite-like-it-flavor. They’re a different species from the pale versions you find at the grocery store in December. These are STRAWBERRRRRIES as God meant them to be – a delight to the sense – and there are a hundred different ways to enjoy them. This recipe for individual strawberry charlottes can be a little work or a lot, depending on whether you want to make your own ladyfingers, […]

food

Asparagus and New Potato Soup

ASPARAGUS AND NEW POTATO SOUP When I hear the words “potato soup,” I think of something heavy, white, and not very appealing. This is potato soup for the way we eat now – light, bright, and full of the flavors of the season. It’s more like a broth with vegetables than a soup, and would make an elegant first course at a special dinner, or a lunch treat with a crusty multigrain roll and a green salad. It reminds me […]

food

Roasted Spring Vegetables

ROASTED SPRING VEGETABLES I love this time of year for it’s newness: baby birds, tender shoots of green leaves everywhere, and all the tiny spring vegetables that are bursting with flavor and full of life-giving nutrients. Suddenly there are little new potatoes, so firm and sweet, baby peas and fava beans, young carrots and fresh spring thyme – what could be better on an Easter Sunday buffet, lined up invitingly next to a honeyed ham and a big plate of […]