Category Archives: Recipes

Five more ideas on how to eat in the heat

Bleah! It’s still searingly hot outside. (Too hot for grilling, imho.) Who wants to cook anything, even if your kitchen is in air-conditioned comfort? OK, A/C does help. But still. Who wants to eat a heavy cooked meal when it’s 100 degrees out? (Have some more water.)

sandwich

Sandwiches can save the day when it’s fiendishly hot, but try ’em with some different sturdy bread or rolls. (Photo by Laura Groch)

So what can we do to feed ourselves and beat the heat, short of eating ice cream three times a day? (wait, not such a bad strategy …) Here are some reminders of cool basics for summertime meals that might spark your imagination. (Find more ideas here.)

• Remember the “beeg salad”? Invite it to dinner. On a bed of lettuces and/or greens (raw kale, cabbage shreds), add something starchy and/or grainy (cooked quinoa, pasta, bulgur, beans, potatoes), some cooked meat, chicken, tuna or hard-boiled eggs, veggies galore (tomato, chopped celery, onion, shredded carrot, cucumber, zucchini, olives, cooked Continue reading →

What’s red, and red, and red … 3 ideas to use tomatoes

Fans of farmers markets are enjoying the bounty of fresh, flavorful tomatoes, but if you’ve run out of ideas, I have a few standbys from the kitchen files.

tomatoes

Nothing is so tasty as a glorious ripe tomato. Or two, or three … dozen … try these ideas to use some of the crop.  (Photo copyright Laura Groch 2015)

First up is my favorite, panzanella, the Italian bread salad. The juices from chopped tomatoes moisten day-old Italian bread (or other sturdy bread, like country white or wheat bread).

I keep it simple, using day-old Italian bread and toasting about half a loaf’s slices to dry them further. I let them cool before tearing them into bite-sized pieces, then add two good-sized juicy tomatoes, cut into chunks, unpeeled.

Next into the bowl goes half a peeled cucumber, chunked; two thinly sliced green Continue reading →

Three ideas to “uncook” during summer heat

sandwich

The old sandwich will keep things cool when temperatures become intemperate, but what about dinners? (c) 2015 Laura Groch

We’ll be hitting the 100s this weekend and probably beyond, so I’m ready for some cool cooking.

The kitchen can stay pretty temperate for breakfasts (cereal, toast, yogurt) and lunches (sandwiches, wraps). But sometimes dinner is another story. (No, ice cream is not sufficient. Keep thinking.) Grilling keeps the heat outside, but if you can’t stand to be outdoors that long, here are Continue reading →

For hot weather, some cool memories

Southwestern Tabbouleh Salad

Southwestern Tabbouleh Salad is cool, nutritious, low-fat — and ridiculously easy to prepare. And did I say cool? (Photo by Laura Groch)

Hot, muggy weather of the sort we’ve been having lately makes me want to find cool and easy summer meals. After 25 years of relying on fans, we’ve got A/C in our home now, which is nice, but I still don’t want to heat up the kitchen too much.

Which makes me wonder — what, in those long, hot summer days before widespread air-conditioning, did my mom and her fellow homemakers do to put dinner on the table?

Continue reading →

Playing the dozens: 4 ways to roll with post-Easter eggs

hard-boiled eggs

Playing the dozens: Here are a few ideas to use up hard-boiled eggs. (Photo by Laura Groch)

Post-Easter (or picnic) hard-boiled eggs often have people hard-pressed to figure out what else to do with them beyond egg salad — although that can be mighty tasty, and I’ve got a recipe below. Here are some other ideas you might enjoy. (If you’ve already eaten all your eggs,bookmark this post for next season and beyond.)

One of my readers, Sheril C. of Escondido, was hunting for a casserole that used hard-boiled eggs, a white sauce and corn flakes. She remembered eating it after an Easter egg hunt in Leucadia in the 1960s. “Maybe someone in the Encinitas/Leucadia area will still have that recipe. It was delicious.”

Kallee K. of Escondido responded, “This is a ‘vintage’ recipe that we have made Continue reading →

Sauerkraut and tomato soup — in your cake? A little food fun for April Fools’ Day

sauerkraut, potato chips, tomato soup

Sauerkraut, potato chips and tomato soup can put a little harmless April Fools’ Day fun on your dessert table. Photo by Laura Groch

As April Fools’ Day approaches, we’ll see plenty of ideas from clever, creative sorts for cakes, cookies and other foods transformed into things they are not, the better to turn the tables on folks. Such as cakes turned into what looks like, oh, scrambled eggs or hamburgers, or cookies turned into carrots, and the like.

Such “Fooler Foods” bring to mind some of our efforts at the now-defunct Times Advocate newspaper, precursor to the also-now-defunct North County Times.

Our Food Department was me, whichever feature reporter was free at the time, Continue reading →

Welsh cakes, physalis, banoffee and more food notes from overseas

Welsh cakes in packaging

Welsh cakes in their native habitat. A UK grocery store, that is. Unprepossessing in appearance, they turned out to be surprisingly good. (Photo by Laura Groch)

Ah, St. Patrick gets all the love in March, but there’s another UK saint who deserves remembering, and that’s St. David. His feast day is March 1 (oops), and among other things, he’s known for urging his flock to “do ye the little things in life.” Not a bad sentiment.

I’m bringing up the Welsh saint as a (shameless) segue into talking about Welsh cakes, about which I’ll have more in a moment. This is my wordy way of returning to sharing observations about our (fairly) recent Scottish/English Continue reading →

Thanks, Grandma: Rediscovered zucchini recipe brightens meatless menu

zucchini casserole bread

Zucchini Casserole Bread is something different for a meatless meal. Serve with soup and/or salad. (Photos by Laura Groch)

When life gives you a bag of surplus zucchini, here’s a vegetarian dish to help you make use of them. It’s a nice option for those observing Meatless Fridays for Lent and/or Meatless Mondays or Meatless Every- and Anydays. (It’s also worth bookmarking for when the zucchini days of summer arrive.)

I rediscovered this dish recently while rummaging through my cookbooks for something a little different. (And yes, I had extra zucchini to use.) Grandma Teresa Continue reading →

The Buttery and the Crowdie

spinach-filled buttery, crowdie

The “buttery” (or at least part of it) containing “Crowdie” served at the Scottish Cafe and Restaurant at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.                                     Photo by Laura Groch

 

 

Jack in the Box’s recent ads for their new “buttery” burger reminded me that I haven’t written anything about our Scottish adventure, and the tale of “The Buttery and the Crowdie.”

We took a wonderful trip to Scotland last September: Edinburgh, Inverness and Orkney, the last of which is very far north and off the mainland (Orkney encompasses several islands full of WWII history and ancient monoliths). The scenery and history were magnificent; the people were so friendly; and the food, Continue reading →

Words of love on Valentine’s Day. Oh, and cake

Hershey's Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake

Easy-to-prepare Hershey’s Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake (shown here with peanut-butter frosting) is a delicious treat for Valentine’s Day or any special occasion. (Photo by Laura Groch)

Best wishes to everyone for a sweet Valentine’s Day — which doesn’t have to be as commercial as all the advertising that’s been surrounding us for the past two weeks. Kisses, hugs, small kindnesses and heartfelt words will have a longer-lasting impact than candy, flowers or jewelry. (Not that I’m knocking candy, flowers or jewelry.)

But telling and showing the people you care for that you do care for them doesn’t Continue reading →