Rosa’s Avocado Mousse

Read this quick little post about a weirdly delicious dessert, then consider moseying on over here to my giveaway that closes in about 7 hours. No one’s entered yet, so your odds are really good. So good it might be worth coming all the way to Chicago for. If you like beer & want to learn to make it.

Awhile back, Bill mentioned that his mother, Rosa, used to make an avocado pie when he was growing up, and that it might be his favorite dessert of all time.

Me, I was like, “Pie… made from… avocados? Really?”

Turns out, yes, really. And it’s really good. Even when, like me, you forget to make the crust fairly regularly and turn it into mousse instead. It’s good either way, but it’s best when you have a crowd to feed it to.… Continue reading →

TBWC2C Challenge: Apple-Pumpkin Brown Betty

I’m not quite sure what possessed me to volunteer to be one of the home cooks for Zach and Clay’s Super Awesome Cover to Cover Challenge over at The Bitten Word. I actually almost passed on it. When they first posted it, I could have been somewhere in the first 20 volunteers, I suspect. However, I decided not to, as Bill and I were traveling for most of the cooking time.

When they posted their request for a few more volunteers, I looked at the schedule again. I considered that our vacation rental had a kitchen. And then I said, “Why not?”

Then I got my assignment, an Apple-Pumpkin Brown Betty (APBB). I told Angelique that when I saw the recipe, I was thrilled. You know, in a food hoarder sort of way.… Continue reading →

Tomato Soda

So, originally, I had this plan to use this space to talk about my garden and a new blog I’m reading. However, I had a seasonal & amazing drink yesterday, and I had to bump the scheduled post in favor of a slightly later but more “real time” post. Because, seriously? I just had to share this with you.

It started as a cocktail recipe from Imbibe Magazine last year. I was a little perplexed that their tomato cocktails were in the September/October issue, but whatever. I waited. I plotted. I dreamed. I schemed. I was going to have a tomato cocktail the following tomato season. Maybe many.

So, of course, tomato season hits and I can’t find the right magazine anywhere. Mostly, it turns out, because I am looking in the past three or four year’s worth of May/June and July/August issues.… Continue reading →

Turkey Enchiladas

One of the things that prompted the start of this blog, back in 2010, was the fact that Bill and I bought a CSA share. Basically, we realized we’d occasionally get more food than we knew how to handle, as well as the occasional food item we couldn’t even identify.

What we didn’t know, that first year, was that our farmer had spent some time in our home state of New Mexico and so also had a taste for some of the foods we grew up on. So, we were delighted to see (and smell!) some Anaheim peppers in one of our boxes way back then.

The truth is that we’re always thrilled to see Anaheims in the box. Even now, into our third year with Tomato Mountain, the things that are so like New Mexico green chiles make us smile.… Continue reading →

Experimenting in the kitchen

How to Cook Everything, Revised Edition by Mark Bittman

I’ll write this up fully later, but I just wanted to share a couple of photos with you. I’ve been in the kitchen more than my silence might indicate, but mostly doing simply things like hummus. Today’s my first experiment in awhile.

Well, I call it an experiment, but like the cautious cook I usually am, I took Marc Bittman’s recipe for “Braised Oxtail with Garlic and White Wine” and messed with it as I cooked. For one thing, I used beef neck instead of oxtail. It looks just as (if not more) tasty than the oxtails I’ve had, but was astoundingly cheaper. If this works out, I may never go back to oxtail.

His recipe also calls for 4 ounces of bacon. I didn’t remember that before I started quick thawing the beef neck.… Continue reading →