Maybe it’s being snowbound in the Carolinas because of Winter Storm Jonas . . . Or maybe it’s binge-watching Mozart in the Jungle . . . But I’ve been craving Brazilian food. (OK, I know that Rodrigo is from Mexico City, but I’m at the point in Season 2 where the New York Symphony is ...
Slow Cooker Recipes
Caribbean cooking – vegan style!
In looking at other cultures that use few dairy products in their cooking, I thought it would be fun to develop some recipes using ingredients commonly found in Caribbean cooking. Like my last post on Chicken-free Tagine, this is not an authentic, traditional recipe or based on the ...
What does it mean to be 80% Vegan?
Happy New Year! One of my goals this year is to re-think my cooking and eating so that I am eating 80% vegan. I've tried many times to eat 100% vegan and find that it is not sustainable because I am just craving too many delicious ingredients that I love. Take last night, for ...
Slow Cooker Baked Ziti
Baked Ziti is a hearty, stick to your ribs, child-friendly comfort food dinner that is easily made in the slow cooker. For years, I par-boiled the ziti, layered it in a baking dish with sauce, ricotta, and a vegetarian ground meat or sausage layer, and then baked it in the oven. I recently woke up ...
Slow cookers are not just for winter meals
I bought a lovely organic cabbage at the farmers market a couple of weeks ago with the intention of making coleslaw. When I found the aging cabbage in the bottom of my produce bin the other day (remember, I have three refrigerators), I knew that my only viable option was to use it in a ...
Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage
With all the cold, damp, rainy or snowy weather we have been experiencing lately in the Carolinas, I have gone back to my roots to re-discover some "stick to the ribs" meals I grew up with as a child in Cleveland. My ethnic background is Italian (actually Sicilian on my mother's side) and ...
Cooking Collards for a Crowd
Happy New Year! Hopefully, you're in the process of making your own version of a New Year's Day Good Luck Dinner. In Italy, they eat green lentils and a spicy pork sausage. In Denmark, they eat stewed kale, boiled cod, and pork. And in Poland, they eat pork and sauerkraut. Personally, I've ...
Beyond Meat Puts the Carne Back into Chili
When the weather starts to turn cool, I always turn to my slow cooker. My Cuisinart Cook Central Mulit-Function Cooker has truly revolutionized how I make dinner. No longer do I have to separately sauté in another pan that needs to be washed. Now I do everything in this wonderful ...