Gluten Free
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Steak with Béarnaise
As June comes to an end, I think a lot about the nature of rituals in our lives. Every morning on these summer days, I make my coffee and go visit my garden, sometimes to water, sometimes to smash cabbage worms or pick a few strawberries, usually I do the heavy garden work later, saving my morning visit just for that, to visit, while I sip my rich coffee out of my favorite mug and breathe in the scents of roses and lavender drifting to me. I rub my basil leaves, take a photo in my mind of each new tomato blossom, admire the inches the sunflowers have stretched overnight,…
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Chive Vinaigrette
A month or so ago I made some Infused Chive Blossom Vinegar. I let it sit for almost two weeks, then strained the chive blossoms out of it, and was left with this beautiful, purple, oniony scented vinegar. At first I wasn’t sure I liked the scent. It’s such a gorgeous color that I wanted the smell to match that beauty. But then I started pulling out all my vinegars, the white wine, champagne, apple cider, and smelling them. Vinegar isn’t necessarily the best smell in the world, is it? But oh what the right amount of vinegar does for a recipe, how it pickles things, the way it can –…
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Strawberry Lemonade Popsicles
Yay! The school year is over. Finally!!! It was a rough one for us and right now I’m just glad summer vacation is here. And it’s hot here, people, am I right? Not blisteringly hot, not sweltering Midwest hot and sticky, just hot enough that the grass around us is starting to dry out and lose it’s emerald green quality for the summer, hot enough that when Jasper sprays me with his squirt gun it feels great, perfectly hot enough for popsicles!! We have had so many strawberries this year, like bowls full every morning for weeks. I almost can’t keep up, it’s almost too many! It seems absolutely crazy…
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Strawberries with Brown Sugar & Sour Cream
Every year for the past few years we have picked a bounty of strawberries from our own garden. And each year seems better than the last. I’ve said it before, the Hoods are my absolute favorite. Like any homegrown fruit or vegetable they beat the store bought kind any day. To me they taste better than any candy, and they absolutely ruin me for strawberries the rest of the year. Even Lily and Jasper are becoming strawberry snobs and hardly touch any I buy from the store. For a gardener with kids, strawberries are such a fun crop, as they grow really well in our climate, and the kids can…
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My Mom’s Shrimp Scampi
One evening about two weeks before my mom died, after helping her get comfortable in bed, I walked out into our living room to my aunts’ shrimp scampi. Our nine-foot long table was full of people, Aunt Trish, Aunt Mimi and Uncle Tim had arrived that week from Ohio to say their goodbyes to my mom. My 3 1/2 year-old daughter, Lily, and my 15 month-old son, Jasper, were there; I know Greg, my husband, was there because he was there through it all with me, my mom’s sickness, her death and after. I honestly can’t remember if my brother and his wife were there yet with their 2 1/2 year…
