Artwork from fabric, paint and thread
Inspired by my recent culinary excursion on a perfect day off, I worked out the recipe for these unbelievably delicious cauliflower cakes. For you Winifred... 🙂 Steam until tender, about 15 minutes: 1 1/2 pounds (2 lbs with stem and leaves) cauliflower broken into florets In a food processor, puree the cauliflower then blend in:… Continue reading Perfect day-off cauliflower cakes
David requested cupcakes for his 50th birthday party. I used the request as an excuse for another creative endeavor, to tweak some of my existing recipes and formulate some new ones. They were a hit and many of the party guests wanted the recipes for all three varieties so here they are. Feel free to share… Continue reading 50th birthday party cupcakes
David and I attended the Slow Food 25-mile Thanksgiving Dinner celebration again this year joining a larger group of like-minded individuals who enjoy the process of preparing and celebrating food through community. It was years ago that I became intrigued with the “Slow Food” movement. A non-profit member supported association, it was started in Italy in 1989… Continue reading Slow Food Thanksgiving Salad
"Clementine"...what a gorgeous gal and winner of this year's 30th annual Balshaw family pumpkin carving contest! Carved by Joanna Keeley of Cape Cod, her creation featured a cabbage-patch style, stitched and stretched fabric-overlay on the carved out pumpkin. VERY clever! This was the first year of our annual contest that we had no children in attendance! This… Continue reading The Pumpkin Harvest Carving Contest
I made a salad Sunday with the gorgeous vegetables I had just acquired from the farmers market. Just thrown together, David and I were both startled by the beauty; what a great play on a complimentary color scheme! When I looked around our home, I was delighted to see the color scheme repeated over and… Continue reading Color study; Sunday salad
Last week at work while taking a break with Janet (when I served her some pumpkin pudding I had made) I looked around and realized that everything I was doing that day seemed to be dominated by pumpkin color. We are subliminally influenced after all... I thought you all might enjoy this brief photographic collage… Continue reading Color study; pumpkin pudding
It is said that "gratitude is knowing that we have enough" ...and for those of us that do, let us take on the role of care takers.Heirloom plants are our cultural inheritance. They have been handed down to us from a time before chemical agriculture. ...from a time with a much greater diversity of flavor,… Continue reading Heirloom Harvest Barn Dinner
We were so fortunate to inherit our late neighbor, Walter Goodwin’s, rhubarb patch when we acquired his property across the road from us. Mature, lush plants with tart apple-y flavored stalks, cooking with them are a throw back to gentler times now made trendy with the Slow Food eat-local movements. In an effort to… Continue reading Grilled rhubarb pie
What a better way to kick off the warm weather season then with a back yard party! Thank you to Danna and Bill and their hand-crafted mud oven for a day of fun and friendship. They made the mud oven a couple years ago over a pile of rocks from their property and a brick… Continue reading Back yard pizza and friends
We had a special guest for easter; Claude Monet. In fact, he was here all that week during my mid-night sleepless hours as I re-read his cooking journals in the book Monet's Table. To submerge myself in his aesthetic for life - outside of his aesthetic on canvas - is a comforting reminder for me that… Continue reading Me and Monet
I wasn't a girl scout but that doesn't stop me from stocking my larder. Call it my survival nature, or maybe it is simply an excuse to get into the kitchen, but am impending blizzard gets me cooking ahead. Looks like the storm will be worse at the coast but those strong winds and the… Continue reading Hunkering down; storm food
One of the main reasons I love the holiday season so much is because it provides the opportunity for celebration through the art of food preparation. Basic to our human sustenance, food transformed through the gifts of time and healthful ingredients enriches ones soul and unifies those who partake of it together. When I was… Continue reading Slow Food Thanksgiving pie
This post, that was intended for release on Halloween, missed its publication date due to the huffing and puffing of Sandy and our subsequent power outage. As outdated as the subject matter seems, I know my family would like to see the photos within; and the Woopie recipe at the end with all its pumpkin-spice… Continue reading A nod to pumpkins
I have been reaping the benefits of David’s vegetable garden this past week. It’s the end of the season when the plants are starting to shut down. Right now the peppers are doing what they are supposed to; turning from deep green to red. Just like the trick that autumn leaves do, the blue-green… Continue reading All about peppers
One of the most pleasurable past-times that I share with my daughter is cooking with her. She is an artist also, and as such, her creativity touches everything she does food included. This last week-end we created in the kitchen together. Here are two of the recipes we came up with; the tamales, all her… Continue reading Foodie week-end; fresh fruit cocktails and vegetarian tamales