Thanks to P for the inspiration.
This dish is extremely quick to prepare if you have the right equipment (a mandolin or julienne tool) and 100% doable on a weekday. Took me about 15 minutes, healthy, tasty, and very presentable.
For the Salmon
1/3 lb salmon per person, fillet, non farmed
5 spice powder
berbere spice mixture or a [...]

My mother loves using these as appetizers by wrapping bacon around them, tooth-picking them and cooking in the oven until crispy, salty, sweet.
They’re relatively annoying to find in local markets and for a variety of reasons I expect them to be better made at home–organic watermelon, spices hand carried back from India, quality control. In [...]

Served with Zuni Cafe Zucchini Pickles and lettuce from our organic container garden.
I make this salad in several variations, the classic being with croutons, romaine lettuce anchovies and the dressing.
Here’s the recipe for homemade caesar salad dressing.
3 anchovies, minced finely
3 cloves garlic, minced finely
3 tsp capers, rinsed lightly and minced
1 T whole grain mustard
2 T [...]

You can find the recipe @ the LA Times or in the Zuni Cafe Cookbook.
Here’s a picture of the brine and a picture of the sliced and macerated zucchini before combining. These are very tasty, but they are refrigerator pickles so they last no more than 2 weeks. Wish there was a good way to [...]

You could also use pumpkin blossoms for this recipe, so long as they are not too large/brittle/old.
I have finally figured out how to make my fried zucchini blossoms less oily, more light and all around prettier. The secret is really two things: 1) Thin batter. The texture of crepe batter. 2) Use something carbonated in [...]

A few days ago, I was browsing around Saveur for some ideas on using up excess zucchini, cucumber, etc from my farm shipment. They have a seasonal produce guide which provides brief descriptions of fruits/vegetables, such as how to pick good ones, typical uses, seasonality, etc.
And lo, I found a solution for not only the [...]

Feel free to improvise the dairy combo in this; I used what I had on hand–full cream or whole milk would suffice, or you can combine skim and sour cream, whatever you have around.
For two
150 grams rigatoni
1 cup milk
2 T creme fraiche
1/2 tsp Italian dried herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, any combo thereof)
2-3 [...]

Over the weekend I managed to walk 12 miles, learned make macaroons (french ones, not the coconut gobs of yore), procured a breakfast burrito and accompanying beverage, and watched some friends voluntarily throw their faces in freshly-iced cake.
Following a dinner party for 10 (I’m pleased to say I was a guest and not the host!), [...]

Yesterday we had some new friends over for dinner, and I planned the menu while starving after my morning yoga class. I resurrected the tomato soup (tomato soup recipe) I always make (but haven’t for about a year), took a hint from a restaurant we went to recently and constructed a fried-chicken breast nuggets dish [...]

The beets and rainbow chard are growing well since I planted them about a week ago. The beets seem as if they’ll do especially well.
Over the weekend I purchased the last of the plants I intend to grow in the coming months and managed to pot everything. Now it’s a learning curve of what each [...]