At the risk of creating the most boring Maggie's Market Guide to date, I thought I'd share my approach to fridge organization. In the last couple of months, in an effort to reduce food waste, I have taken on a new approach to sorting my food and it's working! Leftovers are getting eaten, produce is not languishing and it's been easier to look and see what's for dinner.
Read MoreAs I opened my cookbook just the other day (my collection of old print-outs, handwritten and stained pages, clippings from newspapers) I realized my go-to granola recipe was still the same one Lillie posted nearly 12 years ago. Many things have changed since then, but the successful formula has stayed the same.
Read MoreI was reading one of my favorite food blogs, looking for a chicken meatball soup recipe and she mentioned making her chicken stock from a leftover roasted chicken in the oven. This sounded easy and brilliant and just the life hack I have my eye out for these days.
Read MoreA great cook needs flexibility, and this is why menus at farm-to-table restaurants change so quickly. Cooks adapt their dishes based on what beautiful things they see at the market. By rigidly sticking to a recipe, you often overlook the sensory and intuitive aspects of cooking that make it more than just a simple combination of ingredients.
Read MoreFor the longest time, I didn't bother to cook my own beans (and still often end up reaching for a can at times) despite people telling me how far superior home cooked beans are. I'm not great at planning meals ahead, and was always bound to have last minute plans come up the day after setting beans to soak on my counter. The notion that I had to remember to soak beans and then be sure I was home to cook them was more than I could deal with. And yet, everyone really was right. Home cooked beans are outrageously good.
Read MoreThis is the best kind of picnic food, hearty and easy to transport. It's what I made when I took Get Up! and needed a healthy and satisfying lunch for a group. It's great for dinner at home with leftovers for lunch. It could even be a great side at Thanksgiving, especially if for whatever reason you had to, gasp, forgo the stuffing.
Read MoreCabbages takes forever to grow, get huge, love to suck up nutrients and love extra worm castings. Bugs and slugs also love cabbage and can often take down starts before they've even had a change to grow. But a full grown cabbage is such an immense thing of beauty, with curled outer leaves and tight dense heads. With exceptional Harvest interns this spring, 2015 was going to be the year we grew a cabbage.
Read MoreSquash is hearty, smooth and silky and a perfect staple for mid-winter diets. I love it blended with coconut milk and cayenne for soup, wedged and roasted with lime juice, baked until soft and mashed with butter and black pepper. But my favorite way to eat it has started with a less than pleasant experience. Dicing squash is an athletic event, one that involves holding down a round objet on slick countertops and large knives wielded dangerously. There tends to be lots of cursing, sweat on my brow and results in a bad mood.
Read MoreCome January, when it's cold and all I want is grilled cheese and spicy tomato soup, I am forever grateful for the cans in my pantry. Home canned tomatoes are so beyond anything sold at the grocery store and make a great holiday gift, or impressive mid-winter dinner party addition.
Read MoreAnd now I’m a bit of an eggplant junkie because of it. This method could not be easier. No salting, no blotting, no individual brushing of oil needed. Slice your eggplant. Cook dry. Season. DONE.
Read MoreThis time a year in the Bay Area, markets can turn into a wide sea of different tomatoes. Some are firm and almost storybook red, others are lumpy and misshapen, and there are long skinny ones with almost mealy flesh. Each of these tomatoes has unique flavors, textures and uses but how do you know which will be the best one to use for your grandma’s famous tomato soup? Or sliced up on a large platter for a simple September meal? Below you’ll find a guide to tomato shopping and eating – how to choose, how to store, which ones are best for sauces, canning, slicing, salting and just plain munching.
Read MoreBut fresh berries often have delicate skins, and even too much contact with the little green baskets they come in can cause puncture and bleeding, shortening the berry's life. I get lots of questions at the farmer's market every week (where I work on Saturday's for Tomatero Farm) about the best way to store berries.
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