I am always up for trying new things but somehow missed out on black quinoa until just recently. It was an unusually hectic end of the week and I was scurrying through the pantry looking for a quick last minute dinner. I was drawn to a bag full of black sesame seeds (or so I thought). I pulled out the bag and realized it was black quinoa. I recognized the shape and knew it couldn’t be anything else. How had I forgotten about these intimidating little grains in my pantry? I need to try them. Now. I was feeling very capricious. Maybe things have gotten too complacent. Or maybe it […]
Fermented Beet Pasta with Creamy Sage Mushroom Gravy
Beets, yes beets! There’s a lot to get excited about when it comes to this gorgeous hearty vegetable. It’s been used in cuisines for thousands of years and is the centerpiece for many famous dishes all over the world. In some countries it’s a staple food. My love and appreciation for beets was a long journey. Growing up I was usually served beets from a can. Soft and mushy, it wasn’t the stuff beet dreams are made of. Needless to say once I left home beets were abandoned. It took a lot of beet knowledge and some food wisdom to finally bring them back into my life for good. Poor […]
A Simple and Tasty Raw Polenta Lunch
My mother was a fabulous cook…..she could make almost anything and she often made it from scratch. Many evenings Mom would spend a good two hours preparing our family dinners. We didn’t have small kitchen appliances like blenders and food processors so all the chopping, mixing and blending had to be done by hand. It was a lot of work. No wonder I grew up not liking cooking. My attitude changed once I started cooking myself. What started as a necessity became a hobby and ultimately a passion, sprouting in all directions from complex gourmet dishes to simple dishes like this one. One extraordinary and simple meal my Mom would cook […]
Italian Style Pizza with Quinoa Pizza Crust
With so many Italian pizza recipes out there I just had to add my own recipe to the mix. I created this incredible pizza several years ago; in fact it was about 11 years ago. I made it originally for my soon-to-be-husband shortly after introducing him to fresh foods. At first he went through some major convenience food cravings so I went all out to create a few comfort foods to ease his transition. One dish he was missing in particular was Italian pizza. Before long he was enjoying another kind of pizza. The pizza crust for this pizza is a variation of my Cauliflower Flat Bread Pizza Crust which uses buckwheat […]
Cauliflower Flat Bread Pizza
This incredible pizza was a work in progress for quite a while. I had wanted to make a soft flat bread pizza crust and thought cauliflower would be perfect for it. I was intrigued by the idea of using a vegetable I normally didn’t like (yes, I know it’s so wrong to dislike cauliflower) and turning it into a dish I would absolutely love. Funny, how vague ideas can turn into scrumptious reality Rosemary Cheese Crackers with Oregano Hemp Dip. I found plenty of cauliflower pizza crust recipes but they all included eggs and/or grains which wouldn’t work for me. I also wanted to dehydrate my crust instead of baking it […]