Good For You

Hey, Sweet Pea, is that you? Why, I hardly recognized you, you look so fresh and fabulous, even downright stylish. Let’s face it, peas have come a long way since we were kids. Their humble beginnings, from the box and can, got them off to a poor start in the fashionable vegetable world. But now,

Popping a few handfuls of blueberries in your mouth every day is a brilliant idea. Blueberries are brain food, they’re E=mc2 personified. Consumption of these prodigious prognosticators may even cause you to factor algorithms or start calculating the sum of the sides of an isosceles triangle. Okay maybe that’s a bit of a stretch. Although

If you can’t take the heat then you better get out of my kitchen, because I love my peppers. I love them hot, sweet, roasted, dried, flaked, fresh, ground, stuffed, sauteed or sauced. In fact, one of the first adventurous dishes I ever made was a very bueno chile relleno (stuffed pepper). I was so proud. These

It’s three o’clock and I am working at my computer. I hear a soft voice calling, “chocolate.” A little louder it repeats itself, “choooocolaaaaate.” No, go away I say, I’m trying to be good. “But chocolate is good,” the voice whispers musically. It proves too much to resist. I give in and find that dark

It’s really a subtle form of torture not eating crab. I love crab. There is nothing else that has the succulent fibrous texture of those sweet lumps of white. When my family moved to the Northwest from Minnesota decades ago, we went from thinking fish sticks were seafood to celebrating Christmas Eve dining on the

I‘m excited because this month my white cardboard box will arrive. It’s an early Christmas present sent from my Aunt Diane. Thoughtfully each one of my siblings gets the same parcel and every year the question at hand is, “What are you going to do with yours this year?” Shake the white container and it

There are certain vegetables I depend on to save me in a pinch. Because my favorite way to cook is to combine whatever I have in my refrigerator and pantry, I am vulnerable to what remains fresh. But when my cauliflower has the measles and my arugula has gone funky, who is always there to

Reel down then pull up with all your might, reel down again and pull up until your arms fall off! That is what it was like landing my first tuna. I was with my family bobbing off the tip of the Baja in white-capped seas, some folks down below super seasick and others burning up

Juicy, local berries are sensational performers this time of year, putting on quite a colorful show. But what publicity hounds blackberries are! It’s not enough that they are the big attention-getters in the season’s crumbly cobblers, pies, smoothies and cereal toppers. The latest flash is that they have convinced researchers on another stage that blackberries

The Pacific Northwest is in its prime growing season and our colorful local bounty is coming to market. We have fabulous farming here, our soils are dark and rich providing fertile ground encouraging vibrant growth. With the carefully timed planting of seeds, delicate sprouts carefully nurtured, cooperation of weather, all fingers crossed and farmer prayers