Plants Posts
No-Cook Strawberry Ice Cream
You can make this easy, no-cook strawberry ice cream in your blender. (No ice cream maker required!) The hardest part is waiting for it to freeze.
Blackberry Sorbet
One of my favorite ways to enjoy summer berries is to make sorbet. If you’ve never made sorbet, you may be surprised by how easy it is to do at home. You can’t beat the flavor. Nothing in the supermarket even comes close.
Basic Cooking: How to Make a Blueberry Pie
You don’t always need a ton of ingredients to make an absolutely mouthwatering dessert. Blueberry pie is one of my favorite summer treats. A few cups of fabulous, fresh fruit. A little sugar to bring out its flavor. A handful of flour to trap all that luscious juice and thicken it into a syrupy sauce.
Classic Bread & Butter Pickles (No Canning Required!)
This recipe produces classic bread and butter pickles—the kind my mom used to make every summer when I was a little mouse. They’re sweet. They’re tangy. They have a fabulous crunch. Like my Quick, Fresh Pickles, there’s no canning required for these babies (in fact, they just need an overnight soak in the fridge).
Orange Melba Sauce
Escoffier’s original sauce is a heady mixture of raspberries, current jelly, sugar, and cornstarch. In this version, I’ve done away with the current jelly and the cornstarch (a generous amount of sugar helps thicken the sauce as it reduces), and added a little orange juice. It’s my favorite thing to drizzle over cheesecake. I’m also totally guilty of eating it straight, with a spoon.
Super Simple French Fries (Crisp & Crunchy in Just One Step)
No soaking? Only one fry? Start the potatoes in cold (yes, cold) oil? Come on. I had to try it. And man, am I glad I did. Hands down, these are the easiest, most delicious fries I’ve ever made.
Spicy Guacamole
I’m totally guilty of having guacamole for dinner. Not the most well-balanced meal, I know, but I don’t do it that often. (And hey, I do usually dip veggies and rice crackers in it, as well as chips!) When we’re in a pinch and don’t feel like cooking, chances are I’ll grab a few avocados and go to town.
Garlic Scape Pesto from The Garlic Farm in West Granby
Recently, my mom and I took a little road trip around the countryside in Northern Connecticut. When we happened across The Garlic Farm in West Granby, we knew we had to pull in and investigate. Here’s a photo tour of the farm, a bunch of info on garlic scapes (including how to cook them), plus a super simple recipe for some of the most garlicky, mouthwatering pesto you’ve ever had.
Port Wine Macerated Strawberries & A Trip To Wilhelm Farmstand
Granby, CT is a sleepy little farm town with a handful of hidden culinary gems. Wilhelm Farm’s roadside stand is one of them. When we passed by, we knew had to stop and sniff around a little. Here’s a peek at the farmstand—plus a quick recipe for strawberries macerated in port wine.
Quick Fresh Pickles
These crisp pickles are high on my list of nibbles and noshes to take on a picnic or a barbecue. They’re the perfect cool companion to spicy barbecue or lunch-counter favorites like a thick pastrami on rye. And while pickling can seem daunting, it doesn’t have to be. You can make these crunchy spears overnight with a handful of pickling cukes. The best part? No canning required.
