The Mix-Fix: Super Quick Green Grain-Free “Oatmeal”

Hello, fellow food fanatic! How’s your Labor Day weekend going? Busy with family get-togethers and barbecues?

The Mix-Fix: Date Paste as a Peanut Butter Substitute

He took up his book again. “Very good, electricity and heat are the same thing; but is it possible to substitute the one quantity for the other in the equation for the solution of any problem?”

 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

 

Can you believe it’s December already? We were just making resolutions for 2016; now Thanksgiving is over, and Christmas is upon us.

Which brings us to date paste.

10 of My Favorite Fall Fruits and Vegetables

Anne reveled in the world of color about her.

“Oh, Marilla,” she exclaimed one Saturday morning, coming dancing in with her arms full of gorgeous boughs, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn’t it?” Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery

 

 

Autumn has finally arrived, and I’m all atingle and aglow with sheer happiness!

I know fall officially arrived in September; however, the heat and droughty summer in my neck of the woods hadn’t left me with much foliage to feast my eyes upon.

But in the past week, things have begun to brighten up. Splotches of bronze and crimson are flaring up here and there; muggy days and heat waves seem to finally be behind me; and grocery stores and farmers’ markets are bursting with fall produce. Yippee!

To celebrate, I’ve put together 10 of my favorite fall fruits and vegetables (in no particular order, as that would be almost impossible to decide—and this post would never get up!).

You’ll find links to some of my own recipes, and also recipes from great sites from around the web. Get ready to set your kitchen buzzing with the smells and tastes of autumnal delights.

Lets dig in!

Two Great Ways to Enjoy Summer’s Bounty into Fall

 

 

“When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food, and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer.” –“The Ant and the Grasshopper,” Aesop’s Fables

 

I can’t deny it any longer.

Summer is winding down.

Hard to believe August is nearly halfway done! Where did the summer go?

Cauliflower Fruit Salad with Banana-Peach Balsamic Dressing

I’ve come to the conclusion that my kitchen appliances don’t like me.

At all.

In my green smoothie bowl post, I mentioned the wonky fridge. But there’s only so much wonky-ness you can take. One minute, stuff in the freezer is rock-hard and yogurt in the fridge is icy; the next minute we’re dumping out rotten, chunky milk and soupy ice cream.

Enough was enough. So we got a replacement, and all is well.

Sadly, though, the damage was already done. The super ripe bananas and peaches I had frozen—having undergone cycles of freezing and defrosting—were basically a mushy, unrecognizable mess, good for one thing . . .

No-Bake Miso Peanut Butter Granola Bars with Miso Honey Glaze

Get ready for granola bars with a dose of umami.

Umami. Umami! That’s a fun word to say (and spell). Thanks to my venture into the world of miso paste the other day, I got a very intense hit of umami.

Have you tried miso paste? The darker the color, the bolder the taste. So what did I do my first time dabbling in the world of miso?

The Two New Foods I Tried (and What I Went Through to Eat Them)

“You are like a chestnut-burr, prickly outside, but silky-soft within, and a sweet kernel, if one can only get at it. Love will make you show your heart some day, and then the rough burr will fall off.” Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

 

 

In the spirit of eating more new foods in 2016, chestnuts and artichokes are officially scratched off my “Never Tried” list. And let me tell you something about chestnuts and artichokes:

Chocolate-Rosemary Savory Granola

My love of granola—the personification of crunch perfection floating in a pool of almond milk, cupped in my hand and snacked on after a long, exhilarating walk, swirled in a plop of Greek yogurt, or studded atop my peanut butter-smeared wholegrain bagel is . . . hmm . . . let me see . . .

Green Tahini Coconut Smoothie Bowl

I don’t mean to brag or anything, but this is one of the best recipes I’ve ever created.

And that’s no joke.

While many are using this first day of April as an opportunity for pranks and joshing around, I’m busy analyzing the components of a smoothie bowl as my mind wanders and my pulse throbs with the joy of what April 1st means to me:

What Ancient Kitchen Appliances Do You Keep Using?

What happened still has me fuming.

We’ve talked about them before—my ancient pots and pans.

Other essentials in my kitchen aren’t much better.

A few days ago, I mixed up a smoothie . . .