It seems to me that there are two kinds of rice pudding in the world–the creamy, stovetop kind and the more dense, baked-in-the-oven kind. Both are delicious, old-fashioned foods. If you prefer the creamy, stovetop kind, this recipe is excellent and has never failed me (although I cut the sugar in half). This creamy, stovetop [...]
From now until March 3rd, you can watch this entire movie for free using this link. I highly recommend you take an hour of your time to watch this movie, starring some of my favorite people on the planet, Joel Salatin and Michael Pollen. It will inspire you to find and get to know your [...]
Virtually every culture on earth incorporates some kind of delicious fermented food into their cuisine–sauerkraut, kimchee, lacto-fermented pickles, cheese, beer, yogurt, sourdough, to name a few. Fermentation is magical and awesome. Fermenting food is of course a natural way to preserve food, but I’d also argue that humans possess an innate instinct to practice traditional [...]
“Nutcakes” sound like something a hobbit would pack for a journey, or Jemima Puddle Duck would serve with hot tea. Really what they are are pancakes, but made with rich, finely ground almond flour instead of flour. We have been making these for breakfast and find them to be much more filling, satisfying and less [...]
A close friend of mine recently had a big health scare. Now she is overhauling her life to eliminate a lot of the toxins in her environment and reforming her diet. She asked me about sources for pure, natural foods and I thought I’d share my notes to her. Some of these are [...]
I am “over” boxed cereals. First of all, they are expensive for what you get. The little, impossible-to-open bag inside the huge box seems to hold a tiny amount of actual food product. Second, the food product contained in the tiny bags in the giant boxes is either filled with high fructose corn syrup, food [...]
I know I said I was not going to be doing any complaining this holiday season. I’ve been trying. I’ve been running and meditating and thinking positive thoughts and volunteering and generally trying not to be a complainer type of person. But I have to let out one big huge AAAGGGHHHHH!!! Our government is [...]
This one is a tradition on our Thanksgiving table. Fennel goes really well with turkey and everything else on your table on Thursday. The trick is to cook it covered for about half an hour, so that it slightly steams and softens up, then uncover and cook until you get some nice rich, golden color. [...]
Happy Thanksgiving week! I’m cooking like a mad woman this week for work and home. I’ve got a prep list running through my head 24/7 and I wake up feeling like I’m already chopping. I guess the holidays throw a lot of people for a loop–yesterday at the store, people looked dazed and confused. I’m [...]
My mother-in-law says that the pie is the queen of all desserts. Perhaps that is true, and a gorgeous pie is an amazing thing, but my allegiance lies with pie’s humble cousin, the crisp. I love the crisp beyond all other fruit desserts (obviously chocolate is in a world of its own)–they are easy, [...]
This weekend signaled the true arrival of Fall, marked by us ripping out our sad, dying summer garden to make room for the winter vegetables. The tomatoes were withering, the few abandoned zucchinis had grown to the size of small children and the squash plants had started to get powdery mildew. After looking at this [...]
This has been the summer of health and wellness here at the Harrach house. It all started with the summer “Biggest Winner” contest, which some friends and I thought up to motivate us to spend our summer in a slightly healthier way than usual (i.e. margaritas and chips). 14 people signed up, and much to [...]
In keeping with the theme of too much summer squash and also with the theme of not being rotund, here is a delicious use for those ubiquitous vegetables. If you want to make it perfectly perfect, you can use a mandoline to slice the squash very, very thinly. Or you can do as I did and [...]
Each spring Dave and I have a heated debate about summer squash. I always want to plant it, lots of it, in our summer garden. He argues that they are ungainly, they take over–choking out other plants, and that they produce an unreasonable amount of squash. He is right on all points, of course. But, [...]
This almond cake is like the little black dress of summer desserts. It is perfectly elegant, simple and understated. It can go with any accessory–fresh berries, sliced peaches, ice cream, raspberry sauce, candied orange peel, apricot lime compote, chocolate sauce. It is light enough to follow any meal but substantial enough to be a celebration. [...]
If you have a lemon verbena plant in your yard, you know that you need only one. They grow to be huge and gangly and one plant provides more tea than a family could possibly use. This is a simple recipe for a cold, refreshing drink to use up some of your backyard verbena. Simply [...]
