Seared cippolini onions lend depth to this jewel-toned radicchio and frisee salad with shaved beets and carrots. Jump to recipe. [Read more…]
persimmon, pear, and clementine salad
Dear December, please slow down. I want to enjoy every second of pine needles, Christmas lights, candles, cinnamon, clementines and laughter. I want to cry to “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and dance to “Christmas in Hollis” at least five more times. I want to bake cookies for the world, make my own eggnog, make my own holiday gifts, and wear something glittery for a night out on the town. But you, December, seem to have different plans and are rushing by at lightning speed, and I feel a little lost in your speedy wake. [Read more…]
date cake
For whatever reason, I’d been putting this date cake off for weeks. The pound of exquisite Medjool dates I had purchased wallowed in the fridge. Every few days the allure of the dates would prove irresistible and, wondering if the cake would ever get made, I’d pinch a couple. But then, it snowed.
If you live in the Northern Hemisphere you probably heard–the east coast got snow in October. We were mostly expecting nothing, but Saturday morning rain turned quickly to snow. First a few scattered flakes, then gigantic fluff, then it came faster, and soon, it was straight-up snowing. And then what are you going to? Make a date cake, of course. [Read more…]
savory strawberry salad with buttermilk dressing
I’ve always been a bit dubious about savory strawberry preparations. With such subtle flavor, it seems the sweetness could easily be leached out of the delicate berries. But the other day, for whatever reason (chalk it up to a pregnancy craving) I needed some strawberries in my salad. Also, two eggs and buttermilk. Lucky for me, it was really simple to put this satisfying salad together. [Read more…]
mango and avocado salad
To start this post, I’d like to pay tribute to the apple. This humble fruit was made to last–how an apple picked in November could still taste juicy and delicious in May, May!, is one of nature’s great mysteries. But this is the time of year for saying goodbye to apples. They’ve been good to us, but now there are blueberries, strawberries, and cherries on the horizon. And the occasional tropical fruit from the grocery store. These sweet and fleeting fruits lack the apple’s constancy, but it is their very impermanence that makes them so wonderful. Really, summer fruit is the main reason I put up with hot weather at all.
This vivid avocado and mango salad was created against a backdrop of impending over-ripeness–tropical fruits being among the most fleeting. You get some mangoes and avocados and they’re hard as rocks for three days, ripe for ten minutes, and then they’re soon on their way to the trash. Lucky for us, this salad used the needed fruit, and was really, really good. [Read more…]