gardening

Swiss Chard with Crisp Apples

January 15, 2013
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Before I get to today’s recipe, I have some exciting news: Yesterday I was quoted in an article called “How to Go Vegan” in the New York Times Well column. I was thrilled to have the chance to share my ideas with a wider audience, and I hope that those of you who are trying [...]

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Chili-Stuffed Peppers

June 30, 2011
Chili-Stuffed Peppers

My husband’s been suggesting for years that I stuff some bell peppers, and he always wondered why I would roll my eyes and tell him he could stuff them himself. The truth came out over dinner the other night. It turns out that both of our mothers made stuffed peppers, but while D remembered them [...]

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Brussels Sprouts and Shiitake Mushroom Soup

November 11, 2010
Brussels Sprouts and Shiitake Mushroom Soup

Brussels sprouts, rice, and perhaps some white beans.  I was planning a soup for dinner, but there seemed to be something missing.  Carrots?  No.  Potatoes?  No, the rice would provide enough starch.  I needed something to give the broth depth and flavor.  I was strolling through my back yard and considering my options when I [...]

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Fresh Chile Sauce

July 30, 2010
Fresh Chile Salsa

I’ve been getting ready for a much-needed vacation, cleaning out both the refrigerator and the garden.  Our tomatoes have about run their course, but the jalapeno and New Mexico chile peppers are thriving.  In fact, they’re doing so well that we can’t keep up; by the time we get around to eating them, they’re already [...]

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Summertime

June 9, 2010
Summertime

Summertime, and the living is…steamy!  While it may not be summer according to the calendar, my internal timetable says that summer starts the first time I have to turn on the AC in order to be able to sleep. I passed that milepost several weeks ago here in sultry Mississippi, but I’m really not complaining.  [...]

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Collards Stuffed with Red Beans and Rice

April 1, 2010
Collards Stuffed with Red Beans and Rice

I have a real admiration for collards and other greens because they are survivors. Tomatoes, eggplants, and other warm-weather vegetables are delicious, of course, but they have it easy, basking in the sun all day and not being expected to withstand repeated freezes. And while Mississippi isn’t exactly known for its cold weather, this year, [...]

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Sweet Potato, Okra, and Chickpea Gumbo

September 29, 2009
Sweet Potato, Okra, and Chickpea Gumbo

With okra, as with most things in life, size does matter. When you’re talking okra pods, smaller is better—tender and tasty. Let them grow too big and they become tough and woody. However, when it comes to the plants themselves, bigger is definitely better. After a summer of more garden failures than I care to [...]

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Little Creatures

August 7, 2009

A quick trip to my parents’ house in the country means three things: a time to catch up on family gossip, an opportunity to feast on my mother’s vegan lasagna, and a chance to tour my Dad’s garden with my camera in hand. My father, a retired horticulturist, has two gardening passions, azaleas and cacti. [...]

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Savory Swiss Chard Pie

June 1, 2009
Swiss Chard Pie

This year I got a little ambitious with my summer garden plans, and as a result, nothing’s really as it should be. By this time of year, I’m normally harvesting the first tomatoes and seeing the promising beginnings of eggplants and okra, but because I decided to try to grow heirloom varieties from seed this [...]

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Pumpkin and Black Bean Casserole

October 17, 2008
Pumpkin Black Bean Casserole

I’d like to begin this pumpkin recipe with an unintentionally Halloweenish photo: Look closely. I was trying to take a basic photo of our homegrown pumpkin–the accidental result of tossing last year’s seeds into the compost pile–when someone decided that she would make a better subject. So what you see here is an accidental photo [...]

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Sunday Garden Blogging

September 21, 2008

I’ve been outside a lot lately, enjoying my garden and taking a few photos when I can remember to bring the camera out with me. As it turns out, when I look closely enough I find that I’m not the only one enjoying the garden. I was admiring my basil, which is just now hitting [...]

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Top 10 Recipes and Earth Day

April 22, 2008

Erik Marcus over at Vegan.com has polled the top vegan cookbook writers to come up with the Top 10 Recipes of 2008. He started by compiling a list of ten of the best recent vegan cookbooks, including two that I’ve reviewed here in the last couple of months, Vegan Express and Vegan Fire and Spice, [...]

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Unexpected Storm

April 8, 2008

Friday morning started off like any other. After my morning coffee, I took the dog for a walk around the neighborhood, both of us glad to be out on such a beautiful day. When we got back to our yard, I grabbed my camera to take a shot of the first blooms on one of [...]

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Gazpacho with Roasted Tomatoes and Peppers

August 27, 2007
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It’s been a strange summer, as far as my tomato garden is concerned. On the one hand, our heirloom and yellow tomatoes haven’t fared well, not because they didn’t grow but because the villains from last year were back again this summer. Yes, the birds (and I don’t mean the ones that menaced Tippi Hedren!) [...]

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Garden Gumbo

August 12, 2007
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Even the best cooks can’t work their magic without good ingredients. I like to think I know my way around a kitchen, but I can say with certainty that without fresh ingredients, my cooking would be pretty blah. In the summer, cooking becomes very simple for me: walk outside, see what’s ripe, and combine it [...]

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The Very Hungry…Hornworm?

June 30, 2007

Subtitle: What’s Eating Susan’s Tomatoes If you grow tomatoes, chances are you’ve had to deal with these pesky creatures. The tomato or tobacco hornworm starts life as tiny larva, but very quickly it can grow to 4 inches long and as thick as your index finger as it munches through your garden. One hornworm can [...]

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Nasu Dengaku (Japanese Eggplants Broiled with Miso)

June 25, 2007
Nasu Dengaku

E. holding this summer’s first eggplants Over the weekend, we harvested the first of our Japanese eggplants, and I knew immediately what I wanted to do with them. Our favorite sushi restaurant used to have this eggplant appetizer that I loved until they slowly stopped serving it. I say “slowly” because at first it was [...]

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Questions and Answers

June 8, 2007

A friend of mine called me last night, saying “You haven’t blogged all week.” “Well,” I answered without thinking, “I haven’t eaten anything all week!” Of course I have been eating. What I meant was I haven’t eaten anything new or anything interesting. I’ve mainly been eating plain fruits and veggies in an attempt to [...]

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Roasted Tomato Bean Dip: A Garden Update and Recipe

July 7, 2006

I’ve been having to race against birds this summer. Not a flying race, of course, but an eating one. They want to eat all the best tomatoes in my garden just before they’re completely ripe, and I’ve had my heart broken several times when I’ve gone out to harvest the biggest, reddest tomato only to [...]

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What’s Cooking in…My Garden

January 25, 2006

Last night my daughter and I ate leftover Ethiopian food and Vegetable Couscous, so I have nothing exciting to report from the kitchen. I thought I’d use this space today to show you what tonight’s supper looks like about 10 hours before it’s cooked: The great thing about living in the south is that you [...]

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