Today’s brainteaser is to guess which of the bowls on the left contains the live mussels that we purchased for dinner last night and which bowl contains the dead mussels.
If you are thinking this must be a trick question because there couldn’t possibly be that many dead mussels in the four bags we took [...]
Tags: mussels
Last night I was determined to eat from the garden and one of our squash plants obliged with a magnificent specimen.
You hear so many jokes about gardeners being inundated with zucchini that I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I planted my squashes last year. But this has turned out to be one of [...]
Tags: summer squash
That unsightly mess on the kitchen table would be me re-potting several dozen small tomato plants that have been waiting on our front porch for some attention. I planted a vast number of tomatoes (mainly Brandywine, Purple Cherokee and a yellow cherry variety) in hopes of selling them to benefit the seed fund for [...]
Tags: tomatoes
By the time you’ve finished reading the last two posts, you should be fully equipped to rush out and buy enough seafood to make your own New Orleans-style gumbo.
At least, that is my hope. But first, to finish this business of roux.
I was intrigued to read Paul Prudhomme’s comment that dark and even “black” [...]
I’ve been making lots of gumbo lately. But not being from the State of Louisiana, I hesitate to post my gumbo recipe because I have some questions of my own.
For instance, why is such a big deal made of browning the roux that thickens the gumbo?
Is that a Creole thing, or a Cajun thing?
And [...]
Beginning last September, I’ve been involved with a small group of avid gardeners and volunteers forming a group called D.C. Urban Gardeners. It was pretty much a club of six, until I went online one day recently and advertised for new members on just about every listserv I could find here in the District of [...]
Yesterday was my debut as chef-in-residence at the Washington Youth Garden, National Arboretum. The mission: conduct a cooking demonstration for the parents and children who come out to the garden on Saturday mornings to tend their plots.
Not knowing exactly what to expect in terms of kitchen accommodations, I chose something easy to go with [...]
Tags: frittata·Youth Garden
Now that big corporations have become hip to the allure of “organic” food, it’s not good enough to just pick “organic” at the store.
Some companies want the government to approve a list of non-organic ingredients they can use in their products and still maintain the “organic” label. Other countries are cashing in as well, [...]
Tags: food miles
Doesn’t this look like a festive scene?
Our friend Lavinia (middle) is in town from Salvador, where she’s working with a disaster relief agency and it was her birthday. In addition, or friend Tom Janota, the guy with the big smile, is here from Mexico City.
Can you say, Fiesta!
Even better, Lavinia brought her mom along [...]
Tags: gumbo·pierogies·sour cherries
You didn’t exactly see Americans rise up when we learned that diverting corn into ethanol production was literally taking the tortillas out of the mouths of hungry Mexicans.
But look who’s crying the blues now over the price of corn!
Coca Cola has joined Pepsi, Kellogg’s and all manner of pork and beef producers to protest an [...]
Tags: ethanol
We are engaging the concerns of a hungry planet--slowly--right here in our kitchen garden in the District of Columbia, about a mile from the White House.
What's in your turkey? We killed and butchered more than 80 birds on the farm of Mike and Michelle Klein in Prince George's County. Thankfully, Michelle did the gutting. Unfortunately, Mike bought his turkey chicks earlier than usual and they did not stop growing. Our prize for helping was a carcass that weighed nearly 40 pounds. It barely fit in the oven. Here, Mike is subjecting a slaughtered bird to the "magic fingers," a machine with a nubby, rotating barrel that removes most of the feathers. 
