Winter. A pot of bean soup. A perfect pairing. With the inclusion of a soaking step, beans nutritional value can be maximized with miniscule additional effort. Soaking beans 12 to 24 (or 36) hours in an acidic, alkaline, or neutral water solution 1)lessens cooking time, 2)reduces or eliminates legumes gaseous effect, and 3)neutralizes phytic acid to…

Alton Brown brings it… but my son-in-law, Patrick, brings it to the table. For a pre-Thanksgiving Dinner, he made Alton's "Sweet Corn Bread Pudding." It was so good that I duplicated the recipe when I prepared dinner for a second celebration on Thanksgiving Day at my daughter Jessie's home in Atlanta. Sides included deviled eggs,…

Each workstation in the Wholehearted Baking: Whole Wheat Breads class that my granddaughter and I attended at King Arthur Flour's Baking Education Center in Norwich, Vermont on Nov. 19 was set up with supplies to make a batch of scones and a loaf of bread. As we progressed through the two recipes, we learned techniques…

My grandson brings new meaning to the term cereal bowl. If you're looking for another "out of the box" use for cereal, here's one. In my swim class last winter, I met a man. His name was Jim. I never knew his last name. What I did know is that he was a very sweet…

I have a notebook. A tattered, spiral notebook. It holds recipe clippings and handwritten "keepers" collected from the very early years of my marriage to Dick. There is a handwritten, vanilla splattered recipe written on a yellowed sheet of paper in that tattered spiral notebook. It is one that I've used countless times over the…

Are you longing for the juicy fruits of summer… watermelon, peaches, and pick-your-own berry patches? Are you dreaming of plucking sugar snap peas and string beans from your garden plot? Me, too. But, every season holds what our bodies need at the perfect time. During the summer months, in-season fruits have an abundance of water…

Celeriac. Celery root. Turnip-rooted celery. Knob celery. All names for the gnarly rooted winter vegetable that is a member of the same family as parsnips, carrots, chervil, parsley, and fennel. As roots reach deeper into the earth and celery-like stalks unfurl to provide beauty in the garden, a massive edible bulb grows under the soil.…

It belongs to the umbelliferae family as do carrots, chervil, parsley, fennel, and celeriac. A hard frost develops its sweetness, so it is well suited for planting in Minnesota's climate. It provides vitamin C, fiber, folate, and potassium. It makes a tasty cookie. It's a parsnip. To prep the parsnips, remove the peel. (A young…

My garden blessed me with abundance. Heirloom potatoes that included white, red skin/red flesh, and purple skin/purple flesh varieties… and perfectly formed heads of cabbage. To make soup. A simple Potato Cabbage Soup. To sip and savour the abundance with thankfulness. Potato Cabbage Soup 1 tbsp butter 1 onion, chopped 4 stalks celery, chopped 32…

Upon returning from our 3-day hiking, biking, and camping adventure in northern Minnesota's Chippewa National Forest, a package awaited in my mailbox. Inside was a special birthday gift from my granddaughter. She had selected a recipe from a notebook I had given her… the pages filled with recipes handwritten by my mother years ago when…