A recent post about pizza discouraged topping blue cheese with brined olives on the basis of both being quite salty. Yet I lamented a lack of olives in my fridge last week when I served up my favorite Israeli feta for a friend’s visit. The feta, admittedly, is milder in flavor than blue cheese, making [...]
Pizza has enjoyed a lot of attention from food writers over the past month or so. As one article put it, pizza is in many ways the “perfect” food. Conveying all the main food groups in a single dish, pizza also is the great equalizer: beloved of gourmets and fast-food fans alike. But the most [...]
Southern Oregon’s Indian summer lived up to its reputation for the visit of my dear friend who often misses the region’s weather. Too bad my garden didn’t do the same. Not a single ripe tomato could I procure for a care package to accompany her home. Fortunately, she picked plenty of summer squash, chilies, cucumbers [...]
Canning home-grown tomatoes has taken a backseat in the past couple of years to freezing. Starting when we have too many to consume fresh, or give away, my mother-in-law starts to freeze tomatoes whole. It’s a convenient alternative to canning because very little prep or time is required. Firmer paste and Roma tomato varieties are [...]
Safely sun-drying tomatoes, like canning salsa, can be fraught with pitfalls even for seasoned cooks. As this month’s Oregon Healthy Living article explained, actual sun-drying is difficult to achieve without a stretch of hot days of low humidity, which are pretty much past. The food also must be screened from insects, transferred indoors at night [...]
Fresh salsas of the sort featured in this week’s A la Carte will headline the annual Eat Local Celebration. Locally grown ingredients will dictate the direction of entries in the Sept. 17 Salsa Festival & Showdown. Beyond that requirement, along with the mandate that salsas are fresh, not cooked, just about anything goes. That’s a [...]
Watermelon is an icon of summer. Yet even as the leaves start to turn and kids head back to school, locally grown melons recall warmer, more carefree days. Seven Oaks Farm is one of the primary sources locally. Owner Doreen Bradshaw pledged unusual melons, among other items of produce, for a farm-to-table dinner planned for [...]
It wouldn’t be summer without sweet corn and, once we’ve had our fill of munching it off the cob, recipes for the season’s remainder. Longtime columnist Jan Roberts-Dominguez acknowledged as much in this week’s A la Carte. Her recipe for corn vinaigrette, in particular, is one I plan to try with ears of corn that [...]
August’s arrival simplifies things for the food gardener. Water well and faithfully, preferably early in the day. Then pick as if your very life depends on it. I’ve harvested enough cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, basil and beans in the past two weeks to share with at least eight other households. The only item my friends [...]
Scorching heat is parching fruits and veggies on the stem and vine, particularly those that must fend for themselves. Oven-like air is one of the few inhibitors of Oregon’s “wild” blackberries. Actually invasive species, save one, blackberries at least offer up a sweet reward for those intrepid enough to brave the brambles. The most tenacious [...]