I really enjoy good food, but I don’t necessarily want to spend all day every day slaving over a hot stove. Having a Ragù di Peperoni e Pomodori sitting in the refrigerator means I can have the flavor of hours of cooking in just a few minutes.

Categories: dairy-free, gluten-free, mother recipe, pantry, sauce, vegan, vegetarian
Tagged: dairy-free, gluten-free, mother recipe, pantry, sauce, vegan, vegetarian

Back in the 80′s I was Pastry Chef at The Winchester Inn in Ashland, Oregon. Among my duties was soupmaking, and over the years I worked there I must have made more than a thousand pots of soup, including several hundred batches of a deceptively simple soup called Cultivator. I may not have remembered the [...]

Categories: dairy-free, gluten-free, soup, stock, technique, vegan, vegetarian
Tagged: dairy-free, gluten-free, soup, stock, technique, vegan, vegetarian

Recently I attended a Holiday Meal event at an upscale restaurant that started with a Forest Mushroom Soup. Or so they claimed. It was a tan-colored insipid broth with a few bits vaguely recognizable as “mushroom” floating in it. I put away my business cards so no one would ask me for an opinion. Here’s what [...]

Categories: mushroom, soup, vegan, vegetarian
Tagged: mushroom, soup, vegan, vegetarian

Holidays are a time for entertaining and cocktail parties, but not everyone wants alcoholic beverages. Cordials are a great solution. If you’ve never made a cordial, you’ll look at the recipe and say, “Hey, that’s just flavored simple syrup!” You’re right, of course. Now add seltzer (carbonated water) and you can call it a cordial. [...]

Categories: beverage, dairy-free, entertaining, gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian
Tagged: beverage, dairy-free, entertaining, gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian

Just a short post today because I’m still recovering from a quick trip back to Portland. Dinner at Paley’s Place was divine. The drive back to Tennessee was much too long. Anyway, if you have some butternut squash laying around and want a nice, quick soup, here you go. Conveniently, it’s vegan, tasty, and warming [...]

Categories: dairy-free, soup, vegan, vegetarian
Tagged: dairy-free, soup, vegan, vegetarian

It was a day made for potato soup. The weather had been getting colder the past few days, there had been a couple of light frosts, and the previous day there was a touch of sleet. Forecasters predicted a hard freeze for that night, and snow as well. Even so, it was a bit of [...]

Categories: gardening, soup, vegan, vegetarian
Tagged: gardening, soup, vegan, vegetarian

This is one of those multiple-step recipes that I really hate to post, but it’s just too good not to. Tomato Chutney 1 orange pepper (capsicum) roasted, peeled, seeded, and chopped 1 Walla Walla sweet onion (or other sweet onion) chopped and caramelized 2 lbs. Roma tomatoes, blanched, peeled, seeded, and chopped 1 medium lemon, [...]

Categories: condiments, gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian
Tagged: condiments, gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian

I wanted a nice Spring afternoon snack today, and when I spotted some lovely blueberries, I knew that a simple blueberry scone with lemon curd would go really well with a cup of coffee and a healthy dose of lazing about. Fortunately, I had lemon curd already made, so I could start on the lazing [...]

Categories: baking, dessert, eggs, mother recipe, preserving, vegetarian
Tagged: baking, dessert, eggs, fruit, mother recipe, preserving, technique, vegetarian

Opening day of the Portland Farmers Market was a beautiful, warm Spring day. When I came across the Cherry Country booth I thought about how nice it would be to have venison or some other game, then remembered that I have a dinner class coming up where I’ll be serving lamb. Cherries are a classic sauce base for wild game, [...]

Categories: condiments, fruit, gluten-free, sauce, vegan, vegetarian
Tagged: condiments, dairy-free, fruit, gluten-free, preserving, vegan, vegetarian

Over the past year I’ve seen a lot of posts about macarons filled with spectacular and stylish photographs and gushy praise for the cookies. I assumed that any cookie with stores dedicated to it and books written about it must be at least as special as the chocolate chip cookie, so I decided I, too, would take [...]

Categories: baking, dairy-free, dessert, gluten-free, rant, technique, vegetarian
Tagged: baking, cookies, dairy-free, dessert, gluten-free, mother recipe, rant, technique, vegetarian