Mar Vista’s Bounty Hunter – Will Work for Croissants
The latest post to the Mar Vista Patch is alive and kicking. Find out where to get the best croissants in town:
Making Kale Chips – Solar vs. Oven
Sunny days mean that it's time for a little solar food drying. Add an overabundance of kale and you've got a formula for a tasty snack: Kale Chips
We pulled out the solar food dryer that we built last year and started warming it in the
sun. Before long it was up to 110º inside and ready for a batch of kale chip. Here's the recipe we used:
Crispy Kale Chips
Zucchini Overload Solution: Zucchini Bread Cookies
There are some years that I don't plant zucchini because I'm still sick of it from the year before. This was not one of those years. Admittedly, summer squash doesn't hold my interest as long as
winter squash is around, but I wanted to try a new variety of summer squash. But wait...
First let's clarify something. Summer squash grows in the summer. Winter squash... grows in the summer. The difference is in the storage. Summer squash has to be consumed during the summer,
but winter squash stores through the winter (think pumpkins, ...
Italy Travelogue: Farmers’ Markets Abroad
In the last few years, Los Angeles has seen an abundance of Farmers' Markets popping up all over town. People are longing to get back to the way things used to be, by buying fresh local produce
straight from the farmer. Well, in Italy it still is the way it used to be, and nothing proves it more than a visit to a Farmers' Market.
There are many towns, even cities, in Italy where supermarkets do not exist. Instead the locals get their food needs met by stopping at the baker on the ...
Cherry Season is Here!
Don't you love it when new fruits pop up at the Farmers' Market? This week's Mar Vista Bounty Hunter is all about cherries and what to do with them:
It's a Cherry Jubilee at the Farmers' Market
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Italy Travelogue: Umbria’s Beauty and Hotel Montali
I've just returned from 12 days in Italy filled with gelato, pasta, cheese and beautiful countryside. May is a wonderful time to be there - just before the stifling heat, but just after
gardens have been planted. If there's one thing you see a lot of in Italy, it's front yard gardens. They are not obsessed with the idea of a grassy front lawn like we Americans. They use their land
to grow food - lots of food.
Driving through the green rolling hills of Umbria, we saw small Medieval towns dotting the ...
Eat Your Heart Out Popeye – Kale Lasagna Beats Spinach
We have a steady stream of kale coming from the garden these days, and while I make my favorite raw kale salad almost every week with it, there is a need for a new recipe. Enter Kale Lasagna from the
January/ February issue of Vegetarian Times magazine.
Along with a slew of other kale recipes, this one caught my eye. Anything that calls for no-boil noodles increases the odds of actually making the dish, so I gathered the ingredients and went to
work:
...
Crustless Quiche – Farmers’ Market Style
Adventures in cooking start with a trip to the Mar Vista Farmers' Market to round up the ingredients. Read all about it on Mar Vista Patch:
Crustless Quiche, Farmers' Market Style
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Romantic Notions of Roasted Vegetables
In my early years of cooking, I found that my attempts at roasting vegetables ended with deflated, soggy lumps that once resembled fresh veggies. Perhaps that is why I still hold romantic notions
about serving amazingly caramelized, oven-roasted, Mediterranean fare cooked to perfection at elegant parties.
Well, it may not have been an elegant party - just a thrown-together dinner for two based on this romantic notion - but success was finally achieved in the roasted vegetable department.
First, the old stand-by - baked/roasted home grown potatoes: ...
Lima Bean, Barley and Vegetable Soup
With all the talk of winter storms and canceled flights, it's clear that comfort food is in order. As a blanket apology from Southern California and our lovely weather, I offer this warming recipe to
those in icy places across the country.
It starts with baby lima beans, but we used Christmas Lima Beans that we grew this past summer:
It also calls for pearl barley, but we didn't have any on hand, so we used brown rice, since they cook in ...