Peanut butter and jellyfish a la mer
The beach is really a reflection of the ocean’s current events. I didn’t know this before I had the chance to live here, walking on the sand with the pup and Kids each evening. Here’s some of what we find:
Make your own taco seasoning
Save the planet and mix up your own taco seasoning with ingredients from your spice rack. Tangy, spicy, and gluten-free as a side bonus! Here’s how.
How to stuff a wild zucchini
The zucchini have gone completely wild this year. It didn’t start out that way; they were actually slow to grow. I planted the 4″ starts the second week of May; by the third week of June they’d barely doubled in size. So I worked a handful of Dr....
Vacation photos and lunch
It’s happened a couple of time this summer that we’ve been hanging out on rocks in the Big Sur River gorge, or kayaking in the harbor surrounded by diving pelicans, and I’ve been caught with an uncharged camera battery. I’ve grown accustomed to...
First fruit
Tons of rock. Yards of soil. Comparing the relative values of heirloom seeds vs. organic starts. Six trips to the nursery to puzzle together a jigsaw of drip irrigation. Finally my garden fantasies are starting to bear fruit.
How does your summer vegetable garden grow? | Daily Dish | Los Angeles Times
A timely article. I’ve spent the past two weeks coordinating – and trying to do some of the hard work – of tearing out the non-edible parts of the landscaping in our 4000 square foot lot by the sea and planting to eat. Inspired by Novella...The over-packaged banana
For reasons of self-preservation, I don’t get angry with the content of most news reports. I generally accept that, despite best intentions and the presence of good in this world, there will always be greed, evil, and just plain stupidity. But a plastic-wrapped banana – seriously? What’s going on here?
Urban farming
Novella Carpenter is my newest heroine. I’ve just finished reading her book Farm City: Confessions of an Urban Farmer, in which she moves into a ramshackle apartment on a dead-end street in a dead-end Oakland, CA neighborhood and hesitantly plants a garden in...
Got water?
Definitely go and watch the excellent documentary Tapped. As soon as you can, before the next episode of Jon Stewart or Married to Rock, or whatever your viewing pleasure may be. Then go out and recommend it to everyone you know. The movie addresses what the...
Fresh crab from the Gayle R
Freshly steamed Dungeness crab tastes like the early-morning air smells at low tide, succulent and moist and just fantastic. Let go of the fear and mystery involved in getting a big live pinching creature from the ocean to your plate and learn to duplicate this taste. All you need is bucket full of live crabs, a meat cleaver, and a bamboo steamer – this will tell you how.
Eat more kale! (a field trip)
Water connects a favorite summer pastime to the ingredients I buy and prepare for our meals. Here’s a drive past some of the farms, fields, and food lining the roads to Highway 101, taking us to play in fresh, clear lakes and rivers of summer.
HFCS, a gloppy monster
News that Hunt’s is cutting high fructose corn syrup from their catsup recipe makes me wonder if HFCS will fall into the “seemed like a good idea at the time” category along with DDT and subprime mortgage loans. I cut it out of our diets over decade ago and since then it just sounds worse and worse. Give me my sweets straight from the plant, please!
Welcome to my skillet!
I'm Maggie, a food-loving, curiosity-seeking, nature-loving mom. I'm here serving up bite-sized recipes, raves, and reviews about food and family, food and culture, food and the environment, and food and travel. Thanks for stopping by!
