The Plan.

The fall/winter garden plan.I've said before that the garden is quite a metaphor, and this summer I have felt the pangs of an unproductive garden rattle through me in a difficult way. I've been a mess, feeling much the same way my garden looks — disheveled, unkempt, hot, uninspired, unfruitful. I'm yearning to pull myself out of this summer slump, and feeling just a hint of crispness in the air gives me hope that fall is just around the corner.Which means it's time for the plan.My local nurseries aren't yet ready for the fall garden, but boy am I chomping at the bit. (In fact, I called; there...

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The Do Not Eat List

The offending dish, complete with vegetarian sausage.We have a chalkboard in the kitchen where I write our grocery list. Increasingly, I've noticed it reminds me to get the same things, week after week. Coffee, milk, cheese, bananas, veggies (so specific!), apples, tortillas, beans, red wine. And so on.Every month or so, I get baking staples like flour and sugar, and every few months I add something especially random to the list. Curry powder or chipotle peppers — specialty items used for specific recipes.On Sunday night, I was excited to make a pot of red beans and rice for Ryan. It...

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Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

Sprinkles were especially for my niece. She approved.A few months ago, I stumbled upon my all-time favorite cookie recipe. And since then, I have made it a point to keep all the necessary ingredients for those cookies in the cupboard at all times: a practice that makes my husband very happy, might I add.When we had family over for grilled pizza night, I knew by dessert time, I'd likely be clamoring to hold my two-month-old nephew instead of assembling dessert, I had to come up with an easy make-ahead solution.That's when I had a stroke of sheer brilliance: Enter the homemade ice cream sandwich....

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Simple Meals: Bruschetta, Two Ways

Sunday dinner is served. Despite its fancy looks, it was quick and easy. Sundays are routinely busy, and dinner is often the last thing on my mind. With a load of laundry in the wash, and a few weekend projects needing their loose ends tied up before the work week begins again, it's hard to go out on a Sunday night even for a quick meal. Enter my latest Sunday night solution. Simple, fridge-clearing meals with one common item: a baguette.Last week's vegetables were languishing on the counter and in the crisper; goat cheese and prosciutto that I purchased for a special meal needed to be used...

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On the Grill: Pizzas Part 2

Prosciutto and asparagus on the left, butternut squash and rosemary on the right. The key to grilled pizzas and flatbreads is to keep the toppings to a minimum so they cook through in just a few minutes. Less can be more when you choose high-quality, fresh, gourmet ingredients.Butternut Squash Pizza with Rosemary and ParmesanToppings: 1 small butternut squash, peeled and sliced paper-thin on a mandoline 1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crushed1/4 cup shredded Parmesansea salt and freshly ground pepper Lay the thin slices of butternut squash in a single layer over the crust....

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On the Grill: Pizzas, Part 1

Funny shaped (but tasty!) homemade crusts on the grill.Recently, Ryan and I have happily inherited—for a limited time, that is—a fantastically enormous fancy propane grill. Formerly, our backyard was home to only a charcoal grill, which has not been used since sometime last fall on account of the ridiculous amount of time it takes to get started and the fact that neither of us wants to stand outside and deal with it for any amount of time at all. (Sorry, Charcoal.)But with this propane grill, it's just a turn of the knob here, a flip of the igniter switch there, and voila! Flames!We invited family...

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Fool 'Em: Homemade Fudgesicles

Vegan Fudgesicles with just four ingredients. I went there. Let me begin by saying it was 102 degrees outside today. All the drapes are shut tight and the A/C is running hard, just to keep it 80 degrees in the house. These are the kinds of summer days that make me happy to have a day job—one that keeps me in a cool office building during the most grueling months.One of my summer goals was to make popsicles, and I've pretty much mastered the peach and tequila pops. (They're delicious on their own, of course, but I like to put one in a glass and pour a Topo Chico on top for a refreshing beverage....

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Deciding Food: Discuss.

Most days, I bring my lunch to work for three reasons:It's cost-effective.It's healthy. It allows me to make the kind of food decisions I have grown accustomed to: sustainable, organic, local, and ethical. Food is such a complex thing. For me, at least, it's not just about, "What am I hungry for?" Oh, were it that easy. Instead, I scrutinize it: will this meal be vegetarian? Locally sourced? Free of pesticides? If there is fish or meat involved, is it sustainably harvested and carefully processed by trusted companies? Is the dairy free of hormones, is the fat vegetarian and free of trans...

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Wordy Wednesday: It Takes Time

We've done some of this over the summer...How is it already August? I feel like just yesterday I was proclaiming that I would sit around and play "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on a ukulele all summer long.Truth be told, these last few weeks have been exhausting. Time has been the one ingredient missing for the recipe of a perfect summer. There were birthdays (our nephew was born!), and happy times, and trips out of town, and time spent with family and friends, and even one very hot night out at the Zilker Hillside Theatre, and a very cool night spent swimming at Barton Springs. There...

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