Between last week’s champagne bar and this week’s warm weather, I’m starting to develop a craving for strawberries. Last year I planted around 4 plants, which yielded my husband and I around 2 miniature strawberries every couple of weeks. While the sweet taste is worth it, I’m going to need a bit more than that to make one of my favorite desserts, Strawberries with Zabaione. This dessert isn’t too sweet, and the zabaione and balsamic complement the strawberries flavor without overwhelming it. It’s the perfect way to enjoy flavorful strawberries from the farmer’s market or your backyard when they start appearing. (more…)

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Dairy free, Dessert, Gluten free, In the Garden, Italian, Vegetarian by Courtney

This weekend, after 10 months of growing, I finally harvested my brussels sprouts, one of the first vegetables I planted in my garden. We yielded a little over 4 pounds, so it was time for me to find some new, delicious recipes to try out.

A while back I remembered seeing a pasta with brussels sprouts, and since I just picked up a box of Mother-In-Law’s Tongue at World Market (beautiful, striped pasta – like a candy cane, only better!), I thought this might be the perfect recipe to search out.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find the pasta I was thinking of, with shaved brussels sprouts, but admittedly, I didn’t try too hard because I stumbled upon this recipe at Martha Stewart for a pasta with bacon and brussels sprouts – one of my favorite pairings! (more…)

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Dinner, In the Garden, Italian by Courtney

And lunch, and dinner… But that’s because it is just so yummy. A friend of my husband’s passed this recipe along to me, and she’s even given me a few slices from time to time. Since I had a ton of zucchini to deal with, I thought I would make a couple of batches of this recipe and freeze most of the loaves, since bread freezes nicely.

That was the plan, but it went a little awry as we’ve snacked and nibbled our way through two and a half loaves now. This morning I finally tucked one lone loaf into the freezer for a good winter snack. (more…)

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Bread, Breakfast, Dairy free, In the Garden, Prep for Later Use, Snack time, Vegetarian by Courtney

Given the latest crop of zucchini to pop up, I’ve been trying to get creative with how to use all of it up before it goes to waste. This past weekend was a zucchini-stravaganza for sure!

One of the dishes I made was this Zucchini Pie. The recipe comes from a cookbook I received last Christmas, Heirloom Cooking with the Brass Sisters. I had actually popped open the book to find a recipe for Zucchini Cheese Bake, but when I read the story behind this, I decided it must be made (too!). (more…)

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Appetizers, Dinner, In the Garden, Vegetarian by Courtney

As soon as I saw this recipe on Food In Jars, I knew I had to make it. I had quite a few roma tomatoes, and while I initially had set them aside to make massive amounts of pizza and pasta sauce, I was really, really dreading peeling that many tomatoes.

Enter the Tomato Jam recipe. Tomatoes, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and red pepper. Those ingredients alone sounded too good to be true. But the kicker was definitely this line, which was like poetry to my ears: “It needs the skin and seeds, to keep things interesting. Don’t take them out.” (more…)

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Appetizers, Condiments, In the Garden, Prep for Later Use, Vegetarian by Courtney