This is a popular Pacific NW version of the traditional Thanksgiving side dish, Green Bean Casserole. Stephanie Kimmel, chef/owner of Marché restaurant in Eugene, turned Thanksgiving’s well-worn green bean casserole into a refined dish. The colorful fresh green beans and chanterelles baked in a homemade white sauce are a serious improvement over the 1950s three-can combo. For toppers, the golden shallot and bread crumb crust out-crunches canned french-fried onions any day. To make things easy on the big day, prepare the beans and sauce ahead. Continue reading
Category Archives: Recipes
Pumpkin Carving Tips
- Don’t cut out the top of the pumpkin to scoop out seeds. Cut out the bottom instead. This way, the pumpkin doesn’t cave in on itself and it lasts longer. Also, you can just set the pumpkin over a lit candle or light without having to stick your hand inside.
- Sprinkle some cinnamon inside the pumpkin after carving. The heat from the light or candle will make it smell like pumpkin pie.
Sourdough Waffles
This is a deceptively simple recipe which produces a delicate waffle that showcases the sourdough flavor of your starter. The waffles are so light and airy, and the egg whites help them remain crisp. This recipe makes three waffles, but can easily be doubled or tripled. Enjoy! Continue reading
Mississippi Mud Pie
This recipe is for the benefit of my daughter, Siobhan. She has braces and says the Thanksgiving pecan pie is out. Yes, there’s a pumpkin pie, but we always have a second pie—and in our family, no one likes apple pie but me. So here’s my recipe, adapted from the recipe found in Cooking with Craig Claibourne and Pierre Franey: Continue reading
Replacing Canned Tomatoes with Fresh Tomatoes
Most of the stew or sauce recipes you find that call for tomatoes specifically use canned tomatoes, instead of fresh tomatoes. If you have a garden full of tomatoes, however (or you’re trying to avoid cans lined with BPA plastic film), you may wonder if you can substitute fresh tomatoes for canned tomatoes — and, if so, how?
Easy, Low-Carb & Gluten-Free Coconut Pie
I came across a recipe for an easy, crustless coconut pie the other day, and I immediately thought about how to make it better. The original recipe called for Bisquick, which is a big no-no in my book because of all the chemicals and additives. It’s easy enough to make your own self-rising flour that I never use commercially prepared products. So then I figured, why not just whip up some self-rising coconut flour? And since coconut oil is a solid, it is a good substitute for the butter and add an extra coconut flavor boost.
But even more intriguing to me was the possibility of making some significant changes that could benefit those with food allergies and special diets. So here is my revised recipe, which is still quick and easy to make, and tastes delicious. Feel free to experiment with this one — the few ingredients it calls for can all be readily substituted based on your family’s particular needs. Continue reading
Steak Fajita Salad
While we’re waiting for the tarragon vinegar to set up so we can make green goddess dressing, I dug through my recipe Dropbox to find some other salad recipes. Here is another one of our favorites — Steak Fajita Salad. The trick with this one is to make the dressing the night before, so all the spices have time to marry and the vinaigrette gets cold. The only thing that should be hot about this salad are the slices of juicy steak, fresh off the grill. Continue reading
In Quest of the Green Goddess: Tarragon Vinegar
We’ve been having a heat wave here in the Pacific NW — a bit early for us, but even though it is now cooling down after a week of 90-degree days, my thoughts are turning to summer salads. Of course, that means you have to have some interesting salad dressings to go along with it, and so I started digging into my “recipe box” for some ideas. Continue reading
Easy Peach or Berry Tart
I ran across this recipe for an easy peach tart and was intrigued because it didn’t require rolling out the crust. The author doesn’t peel her peaches, because let’s be real here, peaches are tough to work with. Between peeling and trying to excavate the pit and then cut it up into pretty slices… well, let’s just say my tart didn’t look this perfect. Still, it was impressive, and peach preparation aside, it was pretty darn easy to assemble this and get it in the oven.
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Coconut-Lime Chicken with Thai Garnishes
Here’s a fun and fairly easy recipe for Thai chicken that we tried last night. We added fresh chopped cilantro to the marinade to up the flavor, and it was delicious. Next time, we will add a little more salt and pepper (if not to the marinade, then to the chicken before we put it out on the grill). I could also see using boneless chicken pieces and using them to make a big platter for individual wraps, or picking the chicken off the bones after cooking into bite-size piece ready to stuff in pitas, wraps or tortillas. Continue reading