Mentally rummaging through her kitchen for picnic fixings last weekend, my friend came up with tuna fish. “Oh, wait. You don’t like grocery-store tuna,” she lamented. It’s true. When it comes to my seafood, I’m a stickler for quality. It just comes with the territory of being a coastal native. But give me some distance [...]
I’ve heard the stories dozens of times, yet a visit with my grandmother rarely doesn’t include tales of her childhood on ranches in Wyoming and Colorado. I revel in these discussions, tucking away tidbits to share someday with my children. That’s because all the little stories of a family’s history are just as vital to [...]
Readers of this blog will have noticed several references over the past couple of weeks to zucchini. If you’re a gardener like me, I don’t have to explain what’s up with that. Persistently prolific, zucchini is bound to test any cooks’ repertoire. Put one little plant in the ground in May, and you’ll be eating [...]
Ironic as it is, time spent in nature can beget the most unwholesome meals. Blame it on the need for quick, no-fuss, portable fare — burgers, hot dogs, pork ‘n’ beans. And for side dishes? Potato chips and soda, of course. But it’s easier than most of us would think to prepare healthy side dishes [...]
It’s greasy, sugary, spicy and, above all, heavy — just the thing to induce queasiness after one too many spins on the gravity-defying Zipper. And given that much of it is laden with trans fats, cholesterol and salt, shouldn’t we avoid carnival food like the plague? The problem is that first bite tastes so good [...]
There’s one vegetable that has the power to draw me to local farmers markets week in and week out during the summer. Garden-fresh green beans are such a simple, wholesome food and — as today’s A la Carte story pointed out — one that’s best enjoyed this time of year. Whether stir-fried with complementary vegetables [...]
Grocery shopping usually provides my first jolt back to reality after a vacation. No one likes to leave behind a refrigerator of food when no one’s around to eat it. So empty shelves are all that are left to welcome us home. Despite the fact that shopping isn’t high on my priority list the evening [...]
If you’re anything like Mail Tribune Editor Bob Hunter, the sight of a menacingly magenta beet on the front page of today’s food section made you shudder and shake your head. What were they thinking? Nobody likes beets! But as a beloved co-worker of mine pointed out, “You’re just a beet-hater!” She used to be [...]
The season’s picnics and barbecues promise an endless parade of burgers. But how to keep the standard beef patty from becoming stale by summer’s end? The Mail Tribune wants readers to tell us how for a story in an upcoming edition of the newspaper’s weekly food section. Add your favorite burger tips and recipes as responses [...]
Summer heat, in addition to making many of us sluggish, has a way of sapping a cook’s fervor. Salads seem the obvious bill of fare this time of year, but at the end of a long day I often want something more substantial than greens and vegetables. Adding meat to a salad isn’t anything new, [...]
