Lemon Shrimp and Rice

Easy, tasty dinner.

1 pound (or more) shrimp (we always buy the frozen, peeled, and cooked kind for meal ease)

1 lemon

garlic powder

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 cup long grain white rice

2 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 tsp Zatarain’s creole seasoning (or other robust seasoning)

2 Tbsp chopped parsley

Juice the lemon.

Place olive oil in deep skillet and add garlic powder (or minced cloves) per your tastes. I use garlic powder from Penzey’s because it’s easy.

Saute garlic for a minute or so on medium heat and add the rice. Continue to sauté for a few more minutes, looking for it to brown up.

Add the chicken broth, the lemon, the seasoning, and parsley. Stir to combine.

Place a lid on the skillet and turn up the heat to medium-high. Allow the broth to come to a full boil and then turn the heat down to low. Let it simmer 10-15 minutes until most of the broth has been absorbed by the rice.

Life the lid and scatter the shrimp over the surface of the rice and stir, cooking for another five or so minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat and let it rest five more minutes.

Add extra fresh parsley before serving, if desired.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

This is Greg’s favorite cake– his dad’s, too– so when the family came to visit in February, I made two. One I made with this recipe (that I have altered from the original in a Cooking Light cookbook), and the other one I made from a more traditional recipe. The one made with this recipe, caramelizing the pineapple in its juices with rum, was definitely the more popular one.

Also, the original recipe called for gluten-free flour, but I used brown rice flour. It’s always a gamble what will happen when not using “regular” flour and how much is equal to each, but I figured with all the liquid (plus the butter and brown sugar), it would be fine. And it was.

Finally, my rum didn’t ignite, but none of that matters when it’s all about the flavor.

1/2 cup packed brown sugar; also 2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup unsalted butter, divided

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 can sliced pineapple and its juices

1/4 cup dark rum

cooking spray

Maraschino cherries, as desired

1 cup brown rice flour or flour of your choice- I used a one-to-one ratio but you can Google to confirm what is best with the type of flour you’re using

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used plain Greek as that’s what we usually have)

2 tablespoons canola/vegetable oil

2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine 1/2 brown sugar, 2 tablespoons butter, and vanilla in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook 6 minutes or until butter melts and sugar dissolves, stirring frequently. Add pineapple in a single layer. Carefully pour rum over pineapple. Tilt pan to ignite (or not!). Simmer 5 minutes on each side or until slightly tender and caramelized.

Coat a 9-inch cake pan with cooking spray. Arrange pineapple in single layer in bottom of pan (adding cherries to the middles), pour mixture over pineapple, tilting pan to coat bottom.

Combine flour with baking soda and baking powder, stir with a whisk. Microwave 2 tablespoons butter (about 35 seconds on high). Place melted butter, yogurt, and oil in a bowl, stirring well with a whisk.

Place 2/3 cup brown sugar and eggs in a large bowl. Beat with a mixer at high speed 5 minutes or until fluffy. Reduce speed to medium. Add flour mixture and yogurt mixture alternately to egg mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Spoon batter over pineapple, spreading evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes on a wire rack. Loosen cake from edges of a pan with a knife and invert onto a plate.

Roasted Potatoes

I’m not a person who walks around saying “best ever” very often, but I can make some pretty good potatoes. Use these as a side dish or sometimes we eat them topped with chile (green or red!), cheese, and/or maybe a fried egg and it’s a meal.

There aren’t really any hard and fast rules to these, just guidelines that have worked for me. Try it my way and then make changes to reflect your own cooking. Or keep making them my way. They’ll be great no matter how you do it.

3-4 potatoes (I allow at least one potato per person and add more if I want leftovers)

salt/pepper

olive oil

I usually spray the pan just to give it added slick for the potatoes to bake. Set oven to 425 degrees.

Cut potatoes into small pieces- less than an inch is good. The smaller they are, the faster they'll cook. Place them directly on the pan (if you’re in a hurry) or into a bowl and mix well with a few tablespoons of olive and salt/pepper (add other seasonings, as desired- garlic is always a win). Bake for about 45 - 60 minutes. Turn them about 30 minutes through baking when they’ve had a chance to crisp up on the outside. I tend to leave them in the oven a little longer so they are totally crisp on the outside, but you can take them out around 45 minutes, depending on how many potatoes you’ve cut up. Serve immediately.

Banana Cake, Sara Lee Style

One of my favorites, the copy cat recipe for Sara Lee’s frozen banana cake that I don’t believe they produce now.

Recipe note: I use yellow to brown bananas for the cake itself, but the frosting tastes better using a banana that is just turning brown rather than all brown or barely ripe .

2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup buttermilk (I use a teaspoon vinegar and then the rest milk; letting it sit for five minutes before using)
4 ripe to overripe bananas, pureed in food processor (or blender) – this is important for the consistency of the cake!
2 tsp lemon juice

Icing:
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 banana, pureed
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9 x 13 pan. Combine flour and baking soda.

Cream butter, then add both sugars. Add eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Alternate adding flour and buttermilk until combined, finishing with the pureed bananas and lemon juice.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before frosting (I let it cool overnight).

For the icing: cream butter before adding the banana and lemon juice. It’s key to break these into two steps so you have a creamier, better mixed icing. Add powdered sugar and mix until the icing is smooth. Spread onto cake.

Banana Nut Breakfast Bars

Easy to change up with different nuts and sugars. Next time I’m going to make them with pecans and molasses.

2 ripe bananas

2 eggs

6 tablespoons olive oil

3/4 cup nut butter (I used peanut butter)

6 tablespoons honey or other sweetener

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

3/4 cup nut pieces, roughly chopped

salt, if desired

In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Add the eggs and whisk until evenly combined. Set the mixture aside for 15 minutes.

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat to 350 degrees. Grease (using oil or cooking spray) a 9-inch or similar pan. I used a small baking sheet with sides although the original recipe called for parchment paper and what would be a taller square baking dish. Either way will work.

Add the olive oil, peanut butter, sweetener, cinnamon, and vanillas to the banana mixture and whisk until smooth. Add the oats and whisk to combine.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and top with nuts. Bake until the top feels set when pressed lightly and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30-35 minutes.

Cut into squares as desired and store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Tuna Mayo Rice Bowl

I feel like I’ve lost years not eating much tuna or rice. I’m making up for lost time by trying to incorporate each more often into our weekly diets. This recipe is easily changed by making additions based on what you might have available or the staples in your pantry. The original New York Times recipe I used called for sesame oil but, as that’s not something I usually have on hand, I used olive oil. And if Siracha isn’t your jam, you have plenty of choices to give it a little pep– hot sauce of your choice, hoisin, chives….

Finally, feel free to change the amounts. They should only be a guide! Maybe you like more mayo and less soy or less soy and more mayo. Personalize it!

Two servings:

2 5 oz. cans of tuna (packed in oil is actually better here- then skip the oil later)

4 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 teaspoons olive oil (can skip if tuna was packed in oil)

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 cup cooked white rice

toasted sesame seeds

In a small bowl, stir tuna, mayo, oil, and soy sauce. Add the white rice to a bowl and spoon the tuna mixture on top. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and add a dollop of sriracha or other peppy sauce for flavor depth.

Prickly Pear Soda Coolers

While my freezer is filled with prickly puree that I’ve made from the cactus in my front yard, I also know that it’s becoming more widely available to people everywhere which makes it better for me to share ideas on what to do with it.

These soda coolers are meant to be sort of a mash up- my phrase for using ingredients you have and changing them around as seasons, moods, tastes change. The key with prickly pear is that it isn’t sweet at all, it’s more of a mild earthy flavor, so you want to pair it with something you really enjoy but not too powerful (chocolate will kill prickly pear flavor– not a good combination ever!). I make prickly pear lemonade most of the time because that does work well. Grapefruit is another option. However, when I took this photo, this one was made with orange juice because we happened to have some available.

I also haven’t had a lot of luck making prickly pear syrup so I used agave, which is basically a syrup, to add sweetness.

Prickly Pear Soda Cooler

Prickly pear puree

Agave or other sweetener

Fruit puree/juice– orange juice, lemon, grapefruit, a combination…

Seltzer or soda water (we have a Sodastream)

The amount you choose will depend on how many you want to make (how many servings do you want to have? as well as your specific tastes. The drink I made with the orange juice wasn’t very sweet as we don’t tend toward very sweet drinks. We also preferred things thinned out.

Start by pouring the puree into a glass or pitcher. Then add the sweetener and the puree/juice. Be sure to leave enough space in the glass or pitcher for the seltzer. And remember that icing something down will thin it out as well. Stir the prickly pear, sweetener, and juice before adding the seltzer and take a small taste. It will be thick but do you like the flavor? If not, add what you think you need. When you feel good about the flavor, pour the seltzer and let it sit for a moment before stirring.

Serve on ice, especially if you want to thin it out. It’s always good to make extra for the following day. Remember, flavor is best after it has time to meld!

Oregano Dip...Really!

I’m really trying to use what we have and that generally changes as the weather warms because of the herbs we’ve grown before come back. And sometimes come back bigger and leafier. This is the case for oregano that I weirdly seem to only use dried. I’m known to dump it onto pizza, something I remember my brother doing when Mom would make Chef Boyardee boxed pizza kits. I believe I got used to the flavor (and the same for when Mom began to drop dried red pepper onto pizza and it always landed on the pieces the rest of us were going to take).

This year we have so much oregano though, I knew I had figure out a way to use it and I thought a dip might be good. As with the basil dip I posted some months ago, I wondered if this was something people did so I Googled it. Not this time– I just thought I’d make it and let the oregano fall where it would.

I took my usual dip recipe and substituted the oregano where I might have used basil or parsley. I recommend some sort of white bean– Great Northern is my favorite but others will work. And I also add nuts, usually walnuts. When we’re at the bottom of our “nut canister” I keep the broken pieces and crumbs in another container and use them for dips. They lend a nutty (haha) flavor as well as extra nutrients.

When we have ingredients already growing in the garden or backyard, those are opportunities to expand our meal ideas and inspire us. Take advantage of it!

Oregano Dip

1 can Great Northern Beans, partially drained (do not drain the whole can– save some liquid or the dip will be too dry)

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 to 1 cup walnuts or another nut

garlic, salt, and cumin, as desired

hot sauce if you’d like a kick

Place it all in the food processor and spin until your desired consistency. We like ours a little chunky.

Mushroon Vegetable Fajitas

I love fajitas and I have been making them almost as long as I’ve lived in Albuquerque. I believe the marinade recipe I started with came from a cookbook that belonged to a boyfriend’s mom. This is a very “loose” recipe, meaning you can make changes to suit your tastes, but I’m hopeful that I’m giving you a good place to start. It’s a little work to cut and marinate the vegetables, but remember, then you can make enough for a crowd and/or to have for a few nights.

Marinade:

6 limes

Olive Oil

Chile Powder

Garlic

Salt

Mexican Oregano

Squeeze the limes (about a half cup to a cup is good) and add at least an equal amount of olive oil. I go heavy on the chile powder (I keep it in abundance) while using just a pinch of the Mexican oregano. This is really a taste mixture- do you want it more acidic? Add more lime. Do you want more salt, more garlic flavor? Add more of those. Also, it depends on how much you want to marinate. See below for the vegetable amounts that I use that are usually enough for several meals for the two of us.

1 pound mushrooms

2 zucchinis

3 bell peppers (I prefer the orange/yellow/red combination)

1 onion

Slice and chop into small to medium pieces. Marinate the mushrooms separately because they should be cooked separately as they cook the quickest. I have read you shouldn’t marinate vegetables overnight as they start breaking down, however, that’s never happened to me. I have sometimes started the marination in the morning, but I prefer the night before. I use long, flat Tupperware containers to marinate everything and try to shake the containers several times– like when I open the refrigerator to do something else.

The vegetables can be cooked on the stove in a grill pan or on the outside grill in a vegetable basket (the reason you don’t want the pieces too small!). They are ready when they begin to brown and have char marks.

Serve with warm flour tortillas (warm those on the grill, too!) and with sliced/smaashed avocado and other toppings of your choice.

Pumpkin Bread 2.0

I love love love pumpkin bread, going right back to my early childhood. I have posted this recipe in the past, however, I recently made two changes that I wanted to share– in this version I have swapped out the white sugar for raw sugar or coconut palm sugar (I’ve used both) and I also exchanged the all-purpose flour for brown rice flour. They were done on a one-to-one switch and I believe the pumpkin bread is actually moister. It’s a little more crumbly, probably from the rice flour, but the benefits outweigh the worry about that.

Ingredients:

1 cup raw sugar or coconut palm sugar

1 to 1 1/2 cups pumpkin (note: if you open a can and make one loaf, you have leftover pumpkin so I tend to use half a can each time I make it)

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 2/3 cups brown rice flour

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan. Combine the sugar, pumpkin, water, oil, and eggs, beating them with an electric mixer until well combined. Combine cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and flour and then combine with the wet ingredients until just combined. Bake for about 45 minutes when the toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in the loaf pan before removing to finish cooling on a wire rack.

Marianne's Tuna Salad

I didn’t eat tuna for a long time. I have to be honest, I sort of forgot it existed and I think it’s because I thought I was too refined, too cool to eat it. It felt so old fashioned.

And yet when I decided it might be time to try it again, I realized I’d been missing out on something. I used a few recipes and they were good, but one day I thought I would try my mom’s tuna salad. That’s when I realized what I had been missing out on – making a basic recipe that can be enjoyed as-is or adding various ingredients when I have then or want to try them. Parsley is good added to many things like this. Chickpeas (garbanzo beans), too. And if you want to spice it up there’s garlic and chile powder.

But for now, start here. Added bonus– it’s Lent!

2 cans tuna, drained (I usually buy the kind in water, but I’ve noticed some tuna salad recipes talk about adding oil so I’ve bought the kind in oil, too, although water will give you less fat, obviously)

2 slices onion, diced (I used white here but red gives it a more intense flavor)

2 celery stalks diced

Mayonnaise

Salt and pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Adjust seasoning, as desired.

Blueberry Apple Galette

Galette is a fancy word for free-form pie and it’s one of my favorite ways to use up fruit that might be teetering on questionable or when we’re craving something sweet. And it’s much easier than a pie because you’re rolling out the dough and topping it with the fruit mixture, finishing it by folding up the sides and brushing egg on top of it before baking it. No perfection expected when one is doing free form.

The pate frisée (another fancy word– this one for butter pie dough) is from Martha Stewart and it’s my go-to dough. It makes enough for two pies that don’t get covered so I stick one in the freezer for later.

Pate Frisee

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

• 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds.

With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream through feed tube. Pulse until dough holds together without being wet or sticky; be careful not to process more than 30 seconds. To test, squeeze a small amount together: If it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time.

Divide dough into two equal balls. Flatten each ball into a disc and wrap in plastic. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 1 hour.

Chill the pâte brisée for a minimum of one hour before using. You can make it up to one day ahead and store it in the refrigerator. The pâte brisée dough can also be frozen for up to three months. Let it defrost overnight in the refrigerator before using.

Marianne’s Fruit Filling

5 apples (Granny Smith are best) and/or 1 or more cups of blueberries as shown in the photo

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, room temperature, diced

1/2 cup flour

1 egg, beaten lightly

Slice apples and place in bowl with blueberries. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon, butter, and flour. Mix well and add to fruit mixture.

Roll out dough on pastry sheet and place greased baking sheet on top of it. Flip so dough lands on the baking sheet and top with fruit. Fold up sides and brush egg across top. Bake for approximately 45 minutes at 375 degrees until top is browning. Cool in pan.

Ricotta Vegetable Pasta Bake

I realize that many people are afraid to veer from a recipe and I admit I used to be one of them. I would follow it as exactly as I could, trying not to leave out any ingredients, finding myself at the store buying things we didn’t usually use. This can be a good thing in a way, for a time, because it’s how we learn to cook, how we learn what we like, and it’s also how we realize we can make changes based on what’s available in our kitchen. I have written before that our cooking lesson in Morocco taught me the importance of using what you have rather than running out all the time to buy more items when your kitchen is already stocked.

This pasta bake originally came from the New York Times and I made several alterations, especially because we had our first freeze and we had quite a few small yellow tomatoes plus a nice amount of fresh basil, oregano, and thyme. I added mushrooms and zucchini, but halved the pasta. This also can be put together one day and placed in the fridge overnight. That gives the flavors more time to meld and will make it more flavorful when you bake and serve it.

Ricotta Vegetable Pasta Bake

2 pints small tomatoes

1 onion, diced

1 pound mushrooms, sliced

2 zucchini, sliced and then quartered

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper

Fresh or dried oregano, basil, and/or thyme

Garlic Powder

Half pound pasta of your choice (my choice is almost always elbows)

1 pound ricotta cheese

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup bread crumbs

Heat oven to 425 degrees. In a bowl, combine the tomatoes, onion, mushrooms, zucchini, olive oil, salt pepper, seasonings of your choice, and garlic. Spread in a greased baking dish and bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the tomatoes begin to split and the vegetables look roasted.

While that bakes, cook pasta and drain.

When the vegetables and pasta are ready, add the pasta to the vegetable mixture in the baking dish and combine. Add the ricotta– you can mix it up or layer it on top (what I did). Then spread the Parmesan and the bread crumbs. Bake for approximately 30 minutes, until the top begins to look golden.

One-Pan Chicken Shawarma

Recipes often don’t give people enough understanding in how you can alter them with ingredients you have on hand. I used to spend too much money at the grocery store buying items I didn’t necessarily need. The original recipe for this chicken shawarma that I’ve used multiple times is a good example of that- buy boneless skinless chicken thighs it said. I forgot to tell Greg that when he went to the store for me and I ended up with bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs.

No worries, I thought, cutting them up and removing the skin, but leaving the bones on. The cooked bones give the meat extra flavor. The next time I made the recipe (using the rest of the thighs from the package), I marinated the thighs whole with the skin. In the pan I also placed diced potatoes. Next time I’m going to add preserved lemon into the marinade for an even better flavor.

While this recipe is already fairly easy, sometimes making little changes will also make it a recipe you’ll add to your rotation.

1 Tablespoon ground cumin

1 Tablespoon turmeric powder

1 Tablespoon coriander

1 Tablespoon garlic powder

1 Tablespoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

3/4 Tablespoon cayenne pepper (or less– I love the subtle heat this creates)

Salt

The juice of one large lemon

1/2 cup your choice olive oil

1 onion diced into small pieces

6 chicken thighs

4 potatoes diced into small pieces

In a bowl or whatever you’ll be marinating the chicken in (I use the long, flat Tupperware deli stor), mix all the spices, the lemon, and oil. Add the onion and chicken. I marinate it overnight, however, you can do it for as little as 30 minutes if time is short.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a baking pan (I use a metal pan for this) and add the chicken and spices plus the potatoes. Mix it up a bit to give the potatoes some of the marinade. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, until the chicken is done and potatoes and onions are starting to brown.

You don’t need to serve it with anything (a salad would be refreshing though!) although we like it with sides of naan bread and tzatziki sauce.

White Bean Basil Dip

If your house is like ours, basil grows abundantly all summer. This is a good thing, however, we aren’t people to freeze pesto like most do. Instead, we try to enjoy basil as much throughout that growing season and when it feels a bit overwhelming, that’s when I know it’s time to stretch my brain for a new way to use it.

Meet the white bean basil dip– we do a lot of pesto and white beans so why not a dip?

Here’s the recipe:

1 can great northern beans (or other white beans), no need to drain as there isn’t a lot of liquid in great northern beans

1 bunch basil

1 lemon juiced

salt, to taste

garlic

1/2 cup or more olive oil (more if you want it creamier)

Optional: hot sauce…. add a dash of your favorite for a twist.

Mix all the ingredients in a food processor and serve with vegetables, chips, etc.

Mushroom Chipotle Tacos

I like meat. Not a lot of meat, but some meat. Yet I still believe there are so many other options and that meat should be a treat. Mushrooms are a great alternative if you’re looking for a change. Add the right seasonings/marinade and you’ll be asking yourself, “Meat? What meat?”

I made these mushroom tacos last week and the recipe below is how I adapted the one I found online (it didn’t have enough marinade for one). Also, as we’ve been trying to back off on cheese (again, a treat!), I mix plain Greek yogurt with chile powder, garlic, and salt for a creamy sauce to spread on the tortilla. We opted for flour tortillas so you could say it’s a burrito but either flour or corn will work and taste great.

Greg also adds, the mixture is great cold.

Marinade:

2 tablespoons oil (I used olive oil)

4 tablespoons canned chipotles sauce and pepper

2 tablespoons agave nectar (adds a nice sweetness to counter the chipotle heat)

1 tablespoon granulated garlic

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon coriandar

salt to taste

For the tacos:

1 pound mushrooms of your choice

2 bell peppers (red is preferable, but I had orange so I used orange)

1/2 red onion

1 can black beans, rinsed

1 cup corn kernels

tortillas (either flour or corn)

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Mix marinade per ingredients above. Slice mushrooms, bell peppers (removing seeds), and onion. Place them in a bowl and add the marinade, mix well. Spray sheet pan (it never hurts!) and then spread ingredients on pan and place in the oven. Roast for 20 minutes, remove from oven and return to bowl, adding the black beans and corn. Mix well.

Make tacos per your preference. We like to spread the tortilla with the yogurt sauce, add the mixture, and then top with sliced avocado.

Lime Mint Sensations

This drink was inspired by one on our recent trip to Bali. While it’s hard to know exactly how much of the ingredients to add, especially given there’s a difference between serving twenty people (as I was on the Fourth of July) versus just making it for Greg and I, use the information below as a guide.

The crux of the drink is these ingredients:

lime juice

sugar

pineapple juice

mint

water/ice

We grow mint in the backyard (along with several other herbs), partly for this reason– if it’s there, I need to figure out a way to use it. It’s forced experimentation that helps lead to fun new items to serve. I also have learned that when we each make drinks, we have favorite flavors. I like to add a lot of mint because the freshness of it brightens the drink. By starting with small amounts, you’re able to decide if you want it to have more of a lime slant (our house) or a pineapple slant.

I tend to go lean on the sugar, especially because pineapple is very sweet on its own. I also make my drinks thick, letting my guests water/ice them down and giving them the option of adding tequila if they choose.

Warmed Greens Salad

My acupuncturist is from China and we often have discussions about various ways Chinese culture and American culture differ, especially regarding food.

“When you have a salad it’s usually some sort of cold lettuce,” she said to me one day. “For us it’s warmed greens.”

She has always told me that my vegetables should be either warmed or at the very least room temperature to ease digestion. And there’s always talk in the media that the heat allows the release of more vitamins and minerals.

But there is another reason for warmed greens at my house– we always seem to have some spinach we haven’t quite finished. And last year the lettuce and swiss chard was hidden under the quickly growing (and towering!) sunflowers. By making warmed greens, we extend the life of the greens for a few days if we can’t get to them right away. And we don’t waste what’s growing in our garden.

I made a promise to myself that we’d eat more warmed greens and what you see in the photo above is last night’s wilted green salad.

It’s unbelievably simple- heat up a little oil (we tend to use olive but any oil will work), add a lot (remember, they will cook down to very little so overdo it!) of greens, some salt, a little garlic, and mix it up. I usually add one set of greens, stir them well with the oil and seasonings, then add the rest.

When they are mostly wet, I’ll put the lid on the pan, let it sit over the medium heat a few minutes, then remove the covered skillet and let it sit on a cool burner until we’re ready to eat. They don’t have to be perfectly anything, just warmed enough that they wilt and release that warmed flavor.

Black Bean Carob Brownies

1 can (15 oz.) black beans, rinsed and drained

2 tbsp carob powder

1/2 cup quick oats

1/2 cup molasses (or maple syrup or agave)

1/4 cup vegetable coil

2 tsp vanilla or almond extract

1/2 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup carob chips

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 8 x 8 pan. Combine all ingredients except the chips in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add chips and mix until dispersed evenly. Pour into greased pan. Bake the brownies 15-18 minutes; let cool at least 10 minutes before cutting.

Makes approximately 9 brownies.

Retro Punch with a Prickly Pear Twist

I love a good retro punch– the memory takes me back to real glass punch bowls with real glass punch bowl glasses. I usually serve prickly pear lemonade at my parties, but for Christmastime I like to pull out at least one punch bowl (yes, I have two– and glasses, too) and this year I thought I’d twist the retro punch with prickly pear.

The punch is easy– just mixing rainbow sherbet, ginger ale, lemonade (usually Hawaiian punch), but here I’ve added prickly pear puree. As most of you might not have access to puree (it’s how I freeze prickly pear after I’ve processed the tunas), you’ll probably be using syrup instead. Keep in mind that puree is only that, just prickly pear. Syrup has the addition of at least sugar and maybe citric acid and other flavors (we’ll explore this in the new year!). That said, watch the amount because it might get too sweet. And remember, if you need to dilute it, just add ice. As the party shindigs on, the ice will take care of itself.

Ingredients one bowl of punch that will serve approximately 25 people:

1 frozen concentrate lemonade (store brand is always the most flavorful- leave the Minute Maid behind)

1 2-liter ginger ale

1 half gallon rainbow sherbet

Prickly pear puree or syrup

Let the lemonade defrost and follow the directions on the side of the container for the correct amount of water. Mix in the punch bowl with the ginger ale. Add the prickly puree PER TASTE (syrup is much sweeter than puree!) and mix. Taste and color test. When you’re satisfied, add scoops of the sherbet. You also can add some as the party goes on to keep the bowl looking fresh. And who doesn’t love rainbow sherbet?