home eco-nomics for the rest of us
No-electricity cooking at home is seldom planned, unless of course you’re undertaking some Scouts project in the back yard or live off the grid. Kudos to you, if you are/do. For most of us, most of the time, no-electricity cooking is foisted upon us under …
One of my favorite appetizers or snacks is a vegan street food from southern France called socca. It’s made with garbanzo bean flour, and although it looks like flatbread, there’s no gluten in it. Best of all, no recipe necessary! Here’s the formula: 1 C. …
Here’s the thing about pumpkin pie. The crust. Really? Despite a conscientious pre-bake and all those shenanigans, the only sometimes worth-eating part of a pumpkin pie crust is what sticks out above the custard, and that – with apologies to all you pastry kings and …
Beets like this – magic. Golden, red, and everything in between, there are difficult and messy ways to prepare beets (those ways have their time), and then there’s this. Works every time. And there are so many things you can do with them! Like this …
Our fall days zoom on, shorter and shorter. Here’s a handful (in five installments) of super speedy foods – no recipe necessary, few (and flexible) ingredients required, quick to assemble, quick to clean afterward. That they’re healthy (pretty much) is bonus plus. Then, you can …
I had some quinoa in the fridge, leftover from a tofu katsu dinner I’d enjoyed a few nights ago. (Man, that was good!) So when I woke up wanting something hot and substantial for breakfast, I thought – why not stir up an individual quinoa …
This curried red lentil soup just happened despite my efforts to make more of an effort of it. It’s finally super easy, requires only one cutting board and one pot (out of which you can eat, if you’re that sort. I am.). It’s delicious with …
One perfect peach, a pint of cream, and a craving after comfort – a pudding is born. If there’s one thing that really gets Mr. Hollywood’s goat around this time of year, it’s that chipper “summer’s almost over” refrain he hears from young parents sending …
Okra is way too easy to hate, which isn’t fair because there’s so much to love! It says “summertime” almost as ringingly as the tomato sandwich. But it’s okra’s slime that turns people off. I get it. And I’ve been one of those people. Then …
It took moving to the South for me to appreciate the beauty of a proper tomato sandwich. Not that we didn’t get beautiful, juicy tomatoes of every conceivable variety in Minnesota. It’s just – who would name with pride such a simple thing? A sandwich …
(to accompany this essay also on Huffington Post): Sometimes a dish of beans and rice is just the thing, the just thing. I live in Charlottesville, plenty famous enough, thank you very much, without the white supremacist rally mid-August that catapulted our town into national news. …
I wasn’t planning to make this, or any summer squash thing for that matter, but plans seldom affect what I actually end up doing. I’d gone to a small, off-day farmers market up the road from our place to pick up (or so I thought) …