Category Archives: Recipes

Beans for da Bowl? 2 hearty recipes that will also help take the chill off

marcy jiminez, mackenzie williams, lima bean festival, brownies

People come up with some amazing ideas using beans at the annual Lima Bean Festival. Marcy Jimenez and Mackenzie Willkins created brownies. (Want more bean ideas? Contact the San Dieguito Heritage Museum.) (Photo by Laura Groch)

Gray day in SoCal today, so in solidarity with our East Coast br-r-r-ethren, I think some warming foods are in order. Here are a couple of winners from the 2014 Lima Bean festival, held in September at the San Dieguito Heritage Museum in Encinitas. For the past several years, I’ve been honored to help with the judging (yes, I work cheap) of this boisterous, fun event.

Both recipes are hearty enough for chilly weather, and both would make fine additions to your Super Bowl table (you are planning more than chips and dip, right?).

BTW, if you’ve never visited the museum, or attended the festival, I can Continue reading →

A chili without tomato totality (just in time for the Super Bowl)

tomatoes

I love tomatoes, but the totality of tomato in most chilis is too much for me. Here’s a chili recipe that tones down the tomato factor. (Photo copyright Laura Groch 2015)

Super Bowl season brings up visions of other ‘super’ bowls — hearty soups, stews, chilis and gumbos that can be left in a slow cooker for dishing out at halftime and beyond.

I’m not a fan in general of most chilis, finding them way too-tomatoey, which tends to knock out most of the other flavors. But hey, that’s me. My husband, on the other hand, enjoys chili with plenty of tomatoes.

What to do to keep us both happy? Well, I recently adapted a recipe that makes Continue reading →

More than one turkey in this kitchen: Some of my kitchen disasters

apple-cranberry crisp

My Thanksgiving blunder yielded a sparkling clean fridge, and this warm apple-cranberry crisp. (Photo by Laura Groch)

Being an experienced cook — even of the home variety — doesn’t guarantee perfection. Memories lapse, attention wanders, and before you know it, disaster strikes.

One lesson I learned early is not to cook when I’m angry. Many years ago, my husband and I were experimenting with what was then a new food on the American scene — tofu. I couldn’t tell you today what we were bickering about, but as we argued, we stir-fried the heck out of that poor block of soy. By the time we were finished, so was the tofu — a pulverized mess. And we had to eat it, because there was nothing else.

On another afternoon (also many years ago), Continue reading →

Four Thanksgiving resolutions, plus cranberry sauce

cranberries, orange, jalapeño, ginger

Want to freshen that cranberry sauce? Try adding some orange peel (left), crystallized or candied ginger (right) or a bit of chopped jalapeño pepper (top). Or perhaps a blend of all three. (Photo by Laura Groch)

Thanksgiving oughta be when we make life-altering resolutions, not the new year. I think we have a lot better chance of achieving new goals when they’re food-based, not regret- and hangover-based. So I offer my Thanksgiving resolutions:

1) Have lots of food. I attended two dinners with a hostess who doled out the Continue reading →

Consolation in the kitchen

My husband likes to say that when his wife gets upset, she starts cooking, so he can’t lose. He exaggerates, of course; but when things go topsy-turvy, I admit I do find some solace in kitchen duty.

So when I recently received sad news of a friend’s passing, I found myself consulting cookbooks, looking for something to bring to the family.

In a cookbook from my early days as a bride, I found a recipe for Rhubarb Nut Bread. This friend was originally from the Midwest, so a Midwestern pie and dessert staple like rhubarb seemed somehow fitting. And I had rhubarb in the Continue reading →

Didn’t seed that coming: A new way with pomegranates?

pomegranate seeds on salad

A sprinkling of pomegranate seeds adds a bright touch to this simple green salad. (Photo by Laura Groch)

Cheery, colorful pomegranates are in season and ready to brighten our tables. Pomegranates are especially touted for their antioxidant properties these days, plus they are high in Vitamin C and a good source of fiber, says the POM Council.

But before we start cooking and eating, let’s decorate!

The fruits keep for a long time without refrigeration, so use them in a colorful display on your table or kitchen counter. Feature them in a large bowl or basket, and tuck in greenery, pine cones, cinnamon sticks or the like. Or mound them in a bowl with silver or gold round glass ornaments.

Now let’s talk juice. The flesh-covered seeds, called arils, are beautiful Continue reading →

Creamy (and low-fat!) ranch-style dressing, with a surprise ingredient

Low-fat and loving it: Creamy faux-ranch dressing recipe from the NYTimes uses beans, yogurt and in this version, garlic. I loved it!

Low-fat and loving it: Creamy faux-ranch dressing recipe from the NYTimes uses beans, yogurt and in this version, garlic.

If I told you I’d found a creamy, ranch-style dressing with LOTS less fat than the original, perhaps you would be more inclined to give those healthful salads a chance.
Well, since my last post on the topic of eating more healthfully, I’ve experimented with a neat salad dressing recipe seen in The New York Times that fits the bill.
It’s a creamy ranch-style dressing made with white beans and yogurt. The Continue reading →

Look out for loquats

loquats

Loquats are delicate, delicious and a bit difficult to find. (Photo by Laura Groch)

A community church group was selling loquats recently, five yellow, larger-than-a-grape-but-smaller-than-an-apricot fruits for a dollar. So I took home a bag.

They seemed ripe enough, softish to the touch, but I really didn’t know much about them. Taking a knife to them, I was able to pull off the fuzzy peel without Continue reading →

Make it milk: Fun snacks for kids

Tiramisu, calcium, milk, dessert, snack, National Nutrition Month

This Tiramisu Parfait is easy enough for children to put together, and it packs lots of nutritious calcium from milk. (Photos courtesy California Milk Processor Board)

Chef Gino Campagna, snacks, zucchini dip, tiramisu parfait, National Nutrition Month, California Milk Processors Board

Chef Gino Campagna offers these recipes for kid-friendly snacks and more at http://www.gotmilk.com.

March is National Nutrition Month, and the California Milk Processor Board is partnering with former Disney Chef Gino Campagna to create kid-friendly — and healthful — snack ideas that youngsters can put together themselves. Kids love snacks, but not all snacks are created equal, especially in terms of nutrition. These recipes were developed to give kids plenty of calcium in each serving. The National Institutes of Child Health report that almost 90 percent of girls and more than 80 percent of boys ages 9-13 aren’t getting enough calcium, needed for strong bones.

“We need to engage our kids in grocery shopping and cooking at a young age so that healthy habits stick with them through life,” says Chef Gino, Master Chef at Piccolo Chef, an award-winning Continue reading →

Pesto for St. Patrick’s Day

cilantro pesto, pesto, meatless, vegetarian, St. Patrick's Day, St. Joseph's Day

Nothing says green like a pesto sauce! The brilliant emerald color comes from cilantro leaves instead of basil. (Photos by Laura Groch 2014)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! You won’t find a recipe for corned beef or Irish soda bread here today, but I do have a recipe that’s very green. And it’s also kind of Italian, which checks off St. Joseph’s Day (March 19), and it’s meatless, so it works for Lenten Friday meals too.

But I have to warn you, it’s not for everyone. This recipe is for a flavorful pesto Continue reading →