Tip, Trick & a Recipe: I am sweet on Savory!
Savory, part of the mint family, is a fragrant aromatic herb used in American and Eastern European cooking. Savory has two seasons, bringing us winter savory and summer savory. Winter savory is very pungent, making it less popular for cooking than its cousin, summer savory. Both types of savory have been used medicinally and in […]
Tip, Trick & a Recipe: Don’t take the juicy (and messy) pomegranate for granted!
Some people say it was a pomegranate that Eve handed to Adam in the Garden of Eden. I’ve also heard that our friends, the ancient Egyptians, would bury loved ones with pomegranates due to the fruit’s ability to offer eternal life. (Hey, it’s worth a shot!) Chinese eat candied pomegranate seeds (arils) for good luck, […]
Tip, Trick & a Recipe: A healthy sweet snack
. . . go fig-ure!
There’s nothing quite like a fresh fig, but they’re not easy to find this time of year. Luckily, dried figs are readily available and almost as tasty as the right-off-the-ficus-tree form of the fruit. Ancient writings mention figs being harvested way back in the 9th century B.C., where, in Greece, figs were a staple. The […]
Tip, Trick & a Recipe: Let’s hear it for asparagus!
Today I’m talking about one of my favorite vegetables-beautiful, tender asparagus. Deliciously served with everything from pasta to steak, asparagus lends a bit of elegance to whatever meal you enjoy it with. A member of the lily family, asparagus is a perennial garden plant. It can take several years to establish a good supply of […]
Tip, Trick & a Recipe: Mystery solved! It’s a jicama
Ever pass by that ugly, brown turnip-like object in the grocery store and wonder, what in the world is that thing? Today’s your lucky day. That is jicama (pronounced HIK-ka-ma with an ‘h’), a refreshing, crispy tuber that’s popular in Mexican cooking. Its sweet, mild, slightly nutty flavor lends itself well to salsas, veggie trays, […]
Tip, Trick & a Recipe: An apricot will hit the spot!
We have the Greeks to thank for bringing apricots to us. These “golden eggs of the sun” came to Europe via Greece way back around 100–50 BC. Apricots are beautiful little fruits with velvety yellow skin and sweet, tasty flesh. Related to peaches, apricots are juicy and slightly tart with a flavor similar to that […]
Tip, Trick & a Recipe: Sunflower seeds:
they’re not just for the birds
Do you have memories of sitting outside, sucking the salt off of sunflower seeds before crunching through to the meaty flesh and spitting out the black shells? Little did we know back then that we were getting a boatload of nutrients out of these yummy little seeds, but we certainly were. Check out the list […]
Tip, Trick & a Recipe: If the cashew fits!
That buttery little crescent-shaped snack we all know as the cashew nut is actually part of the cashew apple which grows on the cashew tree in coastal areas of Brazil. Us folks here in North America enjoy snacking on these little guys, but in the Caribbean and in Brazil, cashews are considered a delicacy. Have […]
Tip, Trick & a Recipe: Time to talk about Thyme!
While most of us have thyme on our spice racks, few people realize that this powerful aromatic herb actually deserves a spot in our medicine cabinets as well! Thyme has been used throughout history as medicine and it sounds like our ancestors were bang on. There’s oil in thyme known as thymol and it acts […]