Plant of the Month for September 3, 2023 – Stephanotis
I like to recommend lovely fragrant plants that seem to grow well here in Hawaii whenever I come across them. My stephanotis vine has been thriving and flowering for months now. This plant with tough dark green leaves and clusters of white flowers can climb a fence, trellis or garden wall and waft a sweet fragrance into the air wherever it is placed. When well located, it will produce numerous clusters of fragrant blossoms from early spring into late summer.
Kay Emel-Powell, a real-life Betty Crocker, dies at 76
Her name never made the cover, but Kay Emel-Powell was the creative power behind a number of popular Betty Crocker cookbooks that landed on supermarket shelves and other retail outlets in the 1980s.
Meant to be shared, paella is a colorful party in a pan
The last few weeks of August and the first of September are often bittersweet.
Let’s Talk Food: Etiquette at the supermarket
There is hardly a day that I am not taking shopping carts back to the cart return area. People just leave the carts in the parking lot, when the cart return area is only a few steps away.
Diabetes Quick Fix: Chicken-Mushroom Quesadillas with Corn and Black Bean Salad
These Tex-Mex sandwiches are pan-fried and served with a quick Corn and Black Bean Salad. The variety of textures and flavors from the earthy, meaty mushrooms to the soft cheese and crisp tortillas combines to create a tasty, satisfying meal.
Weed is just another nasty four letter word
A weed may be defined as any plant growing in the wrong place. Perhaps an even better definition is “a weed is a plant for which we haven’t found value”. Just like there is no such thing as a bad child, only bad behavior, there is no such thing as a bad plant. It is just that we haven’t yet figured out its use. Perhaps a better word to describe what we call weeds would be “pioneer species”, trying to heal the wounds created by man or natural events like lava flows and hurricanes.
Let’s Talk Food: Master chef from Hawaii
Last week was Julia Child’s birthday. She was such a powerful force in the culinary world, and to think: she didn’t really cook until she went to Paris!
Quick Fix: Five-spice powder is the star in this simple veggie stir-fry
Five-spice powder gives a pungent, aromatic flavor to stir-fried vegetables. The powder is a mixture of five ground spices usually consisting of cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, star anise and Szechuan peppercorns. It adds the exciting flavors of Chinese cuisine to this simple vegetarian dinner.
3 ways to use rotisserie chicken for your next easy dinner
Much as I love to cook, I am unwilling to feel as though I am working inside the oven while trying to get dinner on the table. I’m all about keeping the cooking to a minimum but still prefer to make my meals at home rather than eating out during the work week. My solution is this compromise: rotisserie chicken.
Emmerich Grosch’s Captain Cook Trading Company
Like many other small farmers, I met Emmerich Grosch about 20 years ago. His business, Captain Cook Trading Company, was selling exactly what we needed: small equipment to process our coffee, macnuts and cacao.
Tropical Gardening: The color of fall is already happening
The weather is a bit crazy now. The hot dry days caused by the passing of hurricane Dora created conditions that jumpstarted some trees to shed leaves prematurely. Temperatures remain warm but things are about to change.
From Armenia to Zambia: This TikTok influencer is eating a dish from every country (in alphabetical order) without leaving Chicago
When I met Cam Brenson the other day, he was deep into the E’s — Estonia, Eritrea, Egypt. We had Ethiopian for lunch. He was expecting to continue the next day with Ecuador. He had already picked through Chile, Cuba, Cameroon and Croatia, and was making plans to hit Finland, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia and France.
Let’s Talk Food: CDC names watercress the perfect food
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has named watercress the world’s healthiest food! It received 100 out of 100, with Chinese cabbage just behind at 91.99, Swiss chard at 89.27, beetroot at 87.08, and spinach (sorry Popeye) at 86.43.
Gretchen’s table: Spicy shrimp tostadas
Here’s the thing about 110-year-old houses. They ooze charm and character, but they also can be a royal pain in the neck.
Tropical Gardening: Hawaii Island cloud forests are threatened
Cloud forests, like the Kona Cloud Forest on the west side of Hawaii Island, are in jeopardy. Global warming is one culprit, and another is land clearing for development by landowners unaware of the impact forest destruction has on the eco-system and water-supplying aquifers. Trees produce oxygen, they supply shade, and sequester carbon that would contribute to global warming.
As Proposition 12 takes effect, L.A. pitmasters face a ‘once-in-a-generation’ pork price crisis
LOS ANGELES — It’s 10 a.m. on a hot Friday in July at Ray’s Texas BBQ in Huntington Park. Sebastian Ramirez, who oversees the smokers with his brother, Raul, has already been awake for five hours. The pork spare ribs, cooked low and slow, have been in the smoker for four.
Bethany Jean Clement: Grilled pears with ice cream, honey and pepper is summer’s best easy dessert
Too many pears is a happy problem to have. At a sad time recently, someone sent a box of bereavement pears, not something to belabor here except to say that the gift — with one pear, mysteriously deemed special, wrapped in golden foil in the center of the cushioned box — actually helped in a small way, which is kind of all one can hope for at a sad time. We put them in a pretty bowl on the table and admired their curvy beauty; we ate them, the first few at ambient temperature, then chilled as they ripened all at once and it became apparent we had too many pears. It turns out that when it’s hot out, eating a juicy chilled pear while standing in front of the open refrigerator can be a small moment of pure joy, if you let it be.
Gretchen’s table: Atlantic Beach pie with a salty twist
Some foods just speak to the season.
Let’s Talk Food: Chicken Wings
We grew up enjoying Korean chicken wings as they were affordable, unlike today when prices range from $3 for the whole wing, including the tips, to $7 a pound just for the drummettes! Yet, on Super Bowl Sunday, one billion wings are consumed!
Plant of the Month for August 2023 – Weeds with Benefits
Although a gardener might consider weeds their enemy, some that are commonly found in our gardens have beneficial properties. Instead of seeing them as evil, you might want to know ways they can serve as culinary treats or as medicinal remedies. Hopefully, knowing the benefits of some weeds will increase your respect for them, even if you decide to remove them rather than using or consuming them.
