Seasonal recipes for today's kitchen

Seasonal Cooking

Rhubarb and Strawberry Crisp

Rhubarb and Strawberry Crisp

I count rhubarb among spring mysteries. It’s a vegetable that’s treated as a fruit. It looks like blushing celery, but is actually part of the buckwheat family. Its leaves are poisonous, yet its stems are edible. Paired with sweet springtime fruits, it becomes a worthy–Read more

Shrimp Salad à la Buttons

Shrimp Salad à la Buttons

My mother, known by her nickname Buttons, is a cookbook collector, recipe reader, and very talented cook. While her projects in the kitchen are simpler these days, the dishes she is known for are an important part of our family legacy. When I asked my–Read more

Monastery Soup

Monastery Soup

Like many friends and family, I’ve been working lately at how best to cook from my pantry stores. Almost serendipitously, I ran across a recipe for Monastery Soup while reading Caroline Eden’s latest book Black Sea: Dispatches and Recipes Through Darkness and Light. Before I–Read more

Baked Apple Cranberry Oatmeal

Baked Apple Cranberry Oatmeal

Waking up to a house that smells of apple pie spices is one way to welcome a day happily. When the spices are laced throughout an easy baked oatmeal brimming with tender apple pieces and tart dried cranberries, breakfast makes the day even better. My–Read more

Corn Maque Choux

Corn Maque Choux

Each year when corn is in season, I know it’s time to make maque choux (pronounced mock shoo), a comforting Cajun dish that is as colorful as it is tasty.   This braised stew has long been served at South Louisiana tables, and every family makes–Read more

Farro Salad with Peas, Limas, and Tomatoes

Farro Salad with Peas, Limas, and Tomatoes

Salads that combine something old with something new are fun to explore, especially in the summertime. In this case, the something old is farro, a grain in the wheat family that dates back to Etruscan times. When cooked, farro takes on a nutty flavor along–Read more