Posts Tagged ‘Gardening’

A Great Carrot Gratin

Posted 02 Mar 2011 — by chefshirle
Category Gardening, Organic Produce, Vegan, Vegetarian

I’ll admit it…I’m a Veg-aholic. I love all vegetables, even the lowly beet. I’m constantly on the look out for new ways of preparing old versions of veggie side dishes. So, after a day of cooking potato gratin for my clients and drooling over the decadence that IS all things “gratin,” I came home to a fridge full of carrots. The urge I had to make a gratin that night forced me to eye up those sweet, orange roots in a new way. I thought, “why not carrots instead of potatoes?”…and was pleasantly surprised at the creamy deliciousness that I had created.

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Sage Sizzle…No Shizzle!

Posted 25 Feb 2011 — by chefshirle
Category Gardening, Herbs, Organic Gardening, Organic Produce, Vegan, Vegetarian

I had a bumper crop of Sage last fall. It seemed such a waste to just let it die off as winter approached and, as you might know, I have an issue with “wasting” herbs. (see my “Herb Preserve” post to see how far I’ve gone to save some herbage)

Anyway, I noticed the trend of frying herbs about 2 years ago and hadn’t yet experimented with this idea until last fall.

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Stop Monsanto’s Genetically Modified (GMO) Alfalfa-NOW!

Posted 01 Feb 2011 — by chefshirle
Category Gardening, Organic Gardening, Organic Produce, Vegan, Vegetarian

HOLY HELL! Monsanto is at it again… Read this:

We just found out that “after years of bureaucratic wrangling, Secretary Vilsack and the Obama administration are only days away from approving Monsanto’s genetically modified (GMO) alfalfa. If approved, GMO alfalfa will fundamentally undermine the entire organic industry overnight. In addition, the USDA says American consumers don’t care about the contamination of organics.

Please join us in calling on Secretary Vilsack and President Obama to stand up for organic family farmers by rejecting the approval of Monsanto’s GMO alfalfa. Tell them to protect organic integrity and seed biodiversity over corporate profits.”

Go here and make your voice heard. It will only take a short second to save generations of Organic Farmers crops and livelihoods. DO IT!

Radical Riffs: From Produce Sack to Pot Scrubber.

Posted 16 Dec 2010 — by chefshirle
Category Kitchen Tips, Kitchen Tricks, Organic Produce, Recycled Merchandise

It began innocently enough, I had bought a couple netted bags of brussel sprouts, then came the net bag of small red potatoes. Next thing I knew it was clementine season and those little citrus gems came in a little net bag as well. And I couldn’t or wouldn’t throw the colorful bags away. They had to be good for some reuse, right?

Well, right on I was, one night at my kitchen sink…you see, I have a metal scrubby that I happily use on my stainless steel pots and pans, but I had nothing similar to scrub up my more delicate cookware. Until I started to look at that metal puff sitting there on my soap dish. Its construction seemed simple…layers of netted metal all rolled into a neat donut. Read More