SpoonGood

No Knead Bread ~ Crispy Ciabatta

It’s all the rage, that no-knead bread. I had to give it a try. So I’ve been playing with it for two months and can honestly say…it tastes better than any bread I have ever eaten! Sandwich bread is nice, soft, fluffy. Sourdough and Rye are great, flavorful, dense breads with distinct flavor. But no-knead bread…

Pina Colada Jam

If you like Pina Coladas…you’ll love Pina Colada Jam! My daughters have been obsessed with pineapple lately. We’ve been buying it fresh and letting it ripen, then cutting it up to eat fresh. While we all eat it, it eventually goes the way of most fresh fruit in our fridge. As it ages, it becomes…

Gluten Free Caraway Sandwich Bread

When I baked a rye loaf last week, my daughter mentioned how much she loved rye bread and missed that flavor since eliminating gluten from her diet. I had researched some processes and recipes for gluten free sourdough starter, but they were all very different and it only confused me. The basic premise is that…

What’s Blooming Now

“White bud! that in meek beauty so dost lean, The cloistered cheek as pale as moonlight snow, Thou seemest beneath thy huge, high leaf of green, An Eremite beneath his mountain’s brow. White bud! thou’rt emblem of a lovelier thing,~ The broken spirit that its anguish bears, To silent shades, and there sits offering To…

baby peaches on the peach tree

Future Weekly photo challenge theme, dreaming of future fruit! ~Beautiful little baby peaches in the shuck split stage of development~ A Little Peach Ditty Pink parchment blossoms flutter on branched wings; airborne sirens calling winged workers. Fuzzy babes shed petal swaddling; leaf buds open, green shoots spring. Little umbrellas shade, protect, nourish Pomona’s divine orbs….

World Health Day ~ Jerk Chicken Soup

Happy World Health Day! For dinner tonight, I decided we should have something hearty and healthy in honor of World Health Day. Something warming too, as a bit of cold weather has returned. Soup was the answer, jerk chicken soup! Actually, I intended to call this jerk chicken chili, but my husband was insistent that…

Chocolate Ganache & Opera Cream Cake

I made a batch of opera cream for Easter and it didn’t quite set up the way it should. It was looser and wasn’t cooperating enough to coat in chocolate for candy. What to do? Turn it into cake filling! I used my recipe for Coconut Lightning Cake . To turn it into a chocolate cake add…

Muscadine Glazed Ham

I used my Muscadine Nectar in the glaze for my Easter ham, replacing the honey called for in the recipe. It was a sweet, southern substitution that had me pigging out (pardon the porky pun) on the brown, caramelized, scraps while I carved it! For this ham, purchase a good quality smoked, bone-in ham, seven…

Muscadine Nectar

I have had some muscadine grapes stored in the freezer since last fall. I just couldn’t decide what to do with them after picking them up at the farmer’s market, so freezing seemed the best option. Last week I finally pulled some out and made some muscadine jam. Muscadines are a grape variety native to…

Coconut Lightning Cake with Italian Buttercream Frosting

I have mentioned before that my sisters are talented bakers, especially when it comes to cake and frosting. I can usually manage a cake recipe just fine. Due to past icing disasters, I tend to have icing anxiety every time I make it. Part of the problem is my propensity to devise shortcuts after reading recipes….

Bumble Bee Love

One Love The blueberries are in bloom and I am thankful for the humble bumble bee! Bombus Impatiens, an important pollinator. There were four buzzing around me as I shot some photos, impatient with my presence. I left them to their important work, gratefully anticipating summer’s harvest.

Cinnamon Buckwheat Biscuits

Today was supposed to be bread baking day as we’re down to two pieces of bread in the freezer. Unfortunately, mother nature has brought us 80 degree temperatures today and I really didn’t want to heat up the kitchen too much with baking. That would mean I would have to turn on the air conditioner…

Baked Bread Dough Donuts ~ Glittered Clouds

Today is International Women’s Day and it has me thinking about all of the women I’ve known in my life. I’ve been lucky enough to have many great women role models in my lifetime, most notably my mom and sisters. I have learned a lot from them as well as my mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, both grandmas,…

Super Sides ~ Balsamic Braised Carrots

Carrots illustrate the height of pickiness in my family. Some of us prefer them cooked, some prefer them raw. When I serve them as a side dish I like to either pan saute them or braise them in the oven so they are cooked, but still have a bite to them. My kids love them…

Easy London Broil Dinner

We’ve had two days of 70 degree weather and tonight I fired up the grill! On the menu, London broil with grilled asparagus. I use the term London broil loosely here, as it doesn’t necessarily refer to a dish from London, or to a cut of beef but to a cooking method. Generally, marinating then…

Reflective Seasons

Not summer, not fall, not winter, nor spring, between.

Simple Salsa

Simple to make and nutritious, salsa is a great pantry item to have on hand for snacks, meals and for forming the base of sauces, soups and chili. I make my own once or twice a week using fresh tomatoes in summer or canned in winter. Need a quick meal? Saute chicken rubbed with salt,…

Quick Pickled Veggies with Edamame

I have a secret. An un-American food revelation that makes me very strange (according to my husband). So weird he cringes if he’s with me at a deli counter, taking a few steps back to make it look like we aren’t together. He’s thinking “don’t say it!” His composure is that of tweens when their…

Lentil & Chickpea Stew ~ International Year of the Pulse

Today I’m participating in Blogger Action Day for The International Year of the Pulse. What are Pulses? Legumes, or beans and peas. But not just any legumes. Pulses are specifically bean and pea crops grown solely for use as a dried bean or pea food crop. So fresh black eyed peas would be considered a…

1871 Chocolate Jelly Cake ~ Vintage Valentine

Valentine’s Day is approaching and to me, it has always meant CHOCOLATE! The richness of chocolate somehow symbolizes the richness of relationships, of family and love. Plus, it’s yummy! So I knew there would have to be chocolate in the house for Valentine’s Day. I have been researching brownie recipes in digital newspaper archives for…

From Scratch Ranch Mayo

We all have food memories, good ones and bad ones. Both kinds tend to stay with us forever, and influence our future food choices. The memory of a good Bearnaise lingers through several of my food memories. An average hotel luncheon that was elevated by a good Bearnaise flavored with fresh tarragon. A happy company…

Dragon Cayenne Ketchup

Or…what to do with all those dried dragon cayenne peppers! This pepper based sauce is good on anything. Use it as you would BBQ sauce for flavoring chicken wings, drummettes or fingers, burgers or hot dogs. Dunk your fries in it, or mix it into dips for a fiery flavor. It is a quick, easy…

Sesame Snow Peas

I’ve been trying to incorporate more green veggies into my diet and am getting tired of the same old same old. Broccoli be gone! Don’t even speak to me about kale! I know it is the darling of the food world but I don’t care for it (I love the less glamorous spinach and arugula),…

Weightless in the Withering Garden

Weight(less) Yellow ladybug in the withering winter garden, scouring decaying canna for a meal, unaware of the mighty impact it’s existence propels, weightless.

Veggie Avocado Noodle Bowl

This isn’t a recipe really, more like a process. If you have stock/broth and noodles on hand you can turn anything you have into your refrigerator, freezer or pantry into a noodle bowl. I had my Homemade Avocado Pasta Dough rolled into noodles and I had homemade vegetable broth. I pulled out my saute pan and…

Homemade Avocado Pasta Dough ~ Vegan

This recipe offers a vegan alternative to traditional handmade pasta by replacing whole egg with fresh avocado! You still get your dose of healthy fats for delivering fat soluble nutrients, but without cholesterol. It comes together very easily and aside from a short rest in the refrigerator prior to rolling, gets you to the table quickly….

Vegetable Broth ~ For Flavor & Nutrition

Vegetable broth is so quick and easy to make and so healthy and flavorful, there’s no reason not to have it in stock (pardon the pun) in your freezer or fridge! Use it as a base for soups, stews, gravies and sauces. Add it to your macaroni and cheese, alfredo sauce, mashed potatoes or breads…

Gluten Free Italian Wedding Cookies

I tested a gluten free version of my family’s recipe for Italian Wedding Cookies, see that post here: My Family’s Italian Wedding Cookies and they got my gluten free daughter’s full approval! You may make the following gluten free swap for the unbleached all-purpose flour called for in the original recipe: 3 1/2 to 4…

‘Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas!

This was supposed to be a blog post with beautiful pictures of hand dipped and decorated Opera Cream candy to take to my parent’s house for Christmas Eve. Then El Nino happened. Thunder, lightning and torrential rain. Warm temperatures and high humidity do strange things to sugar and chocolate. My candy morphed into something from…

Gathering ~ A Band of Marmalade

Gathering Certainly you’ve heard the phrase pride of lions or gaggle of geese, or at the very least school of fish. All phrases meant to convey a group of something. A gathering. In this case, a band of marmalade. Why a band of marmalade? Because, this marmalade represents a gathering. Actually quite a few gatherings. It…