Lightened-up Clam Chowder (for Morag’s Mike)

Any true New Englander is bound to have cozy clam chowder associations, even if they’re tucked away far back in those dark recesses of the mind. In fact, clam chowder is such an east coast institution that “lightened” versions seem almost sacrilegious, and perhaps a little pointless when you go too far, kind of along the lines of dessert. On the other hand, I don’t actually like creamy things (unless...

Lettuce Explore: Outside the Salad Bowl 1

Go to the end of this post for a Roman minestrone recipe with lettuce. Recently, during an interview with “Chicago’s Conscious Caterer”, the inspirational chef and leader in sustainability Greg Christian, the topic of cooking lettuce came up. Greg was sharing an example of how he stretches one Sunday “big pot” meal into a week’s worth of versatile, varied dishes. One revamped weeknight...

Thoughts on Reluctant Harvesting part 1: Garden Ba...

  Scroll to the end of this verbose post for a chard stew recipe–it’s a great basic template, one of those big pot meals you can throw just about anything in! The theme of our backyard garden this year has definitely been baby steps, in more ways than one. Although my husband Dave and I celebrate local, seasonal food and are inspired by goals of sustainability, neither one of us has ever possessed much of a...