http://lemonsprig.com/home detailing the plant-centric plate Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:59:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Pickles are one of my favorite ways to make a meal feel special.  An otherwise unispiring bowl of the ordinary seems cheerful when it shares the spotlight with contrasting bites of pickle.  It's especially true when the pickles are just a little offbeat from the usual cucumber-based suspects. These particular pickles ... http://lemonsprig.com/home/?p=546 I know everyone has spent all their time thinking about what to make for holiday meals, but I'm still eating dinner every day.  Having the resources to nourish ourselves is reason enough to celebrate with something tasty.  It's New Year's day but I'm celebrating something else: It's a good day ... http://lemonsprig.com/home/?p=497 Never sure what to do with familiar sounding root vegetables that I didn't grow up eating (turnips, rutabagas, parsnips) I came up with this technique after seeing something similar on Emeril Green.  The variety of color, flavor and texture helps me appreciate the unique vegetables available during the winter, and ... http://lemonsprig.com/home/?p=507 It's a great time to invest in a bottle of roasted nut oil to use through the fall and winter.  Just a drizzle transforms simple baked acorn squash, but it's also good with sweet potatoes, in a creamy cauliflower-apple soup and in vinaigrettes.  Just make sure you add after cooking ... http://lemonsprig.com/home/?p=487 Sometime I can't resist buying produce because of it's color: neon-green cauliflower, fire-red carrots or golden beets.  This time it was an old friend, purple cabbage.  I knew I shouldn't have bought it for the meal I was making because I've only used it with German or Eastern-European ... http://lemonsprig.com/home/?p=480 A couple things are left in my garden.  Some leafy greens and herbs mostly.  I didn't get enough use out of my tarragon this summer, but a week or two ago I made tarragon vinegar and my family went through a bottle before it even had time to cure properly.  ... http://lemonsprig.com/home/?p=473 Last year before the neighbors cut down their apple trees (sigh), I went onto their property without asking (maybe that's why), and picked up fallen apples, cut off the bad spots and made the most delicious applesauce I'd ever tried: just apples, fresh lemon juice, and a few gratings ... http://lemonsprig.com/home/?p=463 The nasturtium plants have taken over a portion our backyard, climbing their way onto our deck with hundreds of blooms and even more beautifully dark and circular leaves.  We grew the nasturtium for the edible blossoms, but a month or so ago, I found out the leaves could be ... http://lemonsprig.com/home/?p=446 Inexplicably delicious and blissfully simple.  It can't get any better than that.  Oh, wait: my kids were fighting over bites from my bowl the next day. This is a great basic recipe -perfect on it's own, but it is also great for improvising if you're into that.  You could go very ... http://lemonsprig.com/home/?p=423 I don't know if I'm the only parent who routinely forgets to save food for the kids.  Around here it happens at least once a week: I get carried away enjoying my food and *expletive* it's gone and the kids are still hungry.  After managing to cook a meal for ... http://lemonsprig.com/home/?p=411