Here’s another simple layer and bake dinner option, using some great early fall local food. The focus of this dish is the amazing pastured chicken from Link’d Hearts Ranch. Which turned into some delicious sweet and sour chicken with three simple steps: The first, was to chop onions, garlic, red peppers and carrots, all from local sources like Tonnemaker Farms, and our last Omache Farm CSA share, and toss them into a 9×9 baking dish. *you can add or substitute other veggies,

As leaves crunch under my feet on the way to farmer’s market, I’ve been getting the urge to snack more than usual. Finding myself in pursuit of more quick mini-meals, I’ve been challenged to find simple, healthy, quick and easy options, fitting my dietary restrictions, especially those that are local. Fortunately, fresh food isn’t gone from the Palouse-Clearwater region just yet and the amazing folks at Aichele farms are still bringing their beautiful strawberries to the Mosc

As much as I love the bounty and freshness of the summer harvest, as we transition into autumn season meals, I love the richness and higher prevalence of umami flavor in fall meals. Have you heard of umami? Described by the Japanese word, it has been discovered as the fifth primary taste, right along with salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. Umami flavor is attributed to the amino acid glutamate, present in meats, mushrooms, parmesan and other rich cheeses, red wine, soy sauce, an

WSU Family-Graduate Housing, has a lot of great programs, but one of my favorites has always been the fall apple picking at Bishop’s Orchard in Garfield, Washington. This event was last weekend and it was a beautiful day for it! We came away with 12 pounds of apples –  some of them, of course, have made their way to the dehydrator. Last year we got even more and canned some really delicious applesauce, this fall has just been a bit too hectic to make that happen. Instead, thi

As we move past mid-September, the Palouse-Clearwater region has been experiencing some hints of the transition from summer to fall. I find this a bittersweet time, because I love the changing fall leaves and their crunch and shadows on the sidewalks, the abundance of harvest season, and when it is a bit cold and rainy it is a perfect excuse to start making soup again! Especially after we spent a chilly weekend afternoon pressing some early apple cider with our friends, at Bi

I’ve been mentioning lately that things have gotten pretty hectic. Between crunching data for the home-stretch of my Master’s Degree, recent traveling, a health issue that had me laid-up for a couple weeks and moving, I’ve really had to use planning ahead as my friend, to create short-cuts and make things easier later- to keep us eating local, healthy, economical meals at home. One of the things I came up with, was this protein-packed walnut-pate to have on hand for use as a

Tuesday night is time to get ready for the next infusion of delicious veggies in our weekly basket from our CSA membership. Another point of inspiration, is that my friend and office-mate Jason, always has the best smelling lunch. It is because he makes a lot of vegetable curry dishes. These tend to be highly flexible dishes, allowing the swapping out of different proteins, (like lentils, chicken, chickpeas or tofu), vegetables and flavor variations with different curry blend

Who loves moving? Moving when it is above 90 degrees, is just about as fun as it sounds. Having done this recently, I had a fun challenge coming up with quick and easy meals, while generating as little excess heat as possible. Enter – this saucy creation with some of the usual chick (-en and -pea) favorites, and many goodies from our week’s veggie box from Omache farm – doesn’t it look amazing?! I was already drooling over the Sun Gold tomatoes and fresh basil at the market.

At the height of summer in the Palouse-Clearwater region, we’ve got lots of amazing goodies that can be put together for a simple evening meal. Maybe you are working extra hard during harvest time, or to welcome the students back or maybe you’ve been out playing hard and want to throw together a quick “square meal” when you get home – This is when we use the grill, everyone knows it is hot in the summer and the grill is a great way to cook great food and keep that heat outsid

It is that time of year – the field crops are being harvested, there is an unfortunate amount of smoke in the air from nearby forest fires (though I can’t complain about the smoke-intensified sunsets), and of course – so much amazing local food is available all around the Palouse-Clearwater region. Late summer is the time to get big boxes of tomatoes and peaches from the farmer’s market, and then sweat through the weekend in a steamy, fragrant kitchen (hopefully with family a

This salad is intense, delicious, and what’s more – it’s purple! The deep and vibrant colors are often an indication of lots of antioxidants. It seems super-gourmet, but don’t let that put you off, it is pretty easy and doesn’t break the bank. Give it a try, and maybe use it to impress some friends who don’t usually like beets… and let us know the outcome in the comments section! There are a few do-ahead steps (1 & 2) with this recipe, but they can be pretty quick and easy to

With weather in the high 90’s last weekend, it was pretty important to not make our house any hotter than it was by trying to cook something. We were also moving, so having something quick, easy and heartier than a standard salad was a win. (Look for our apartment “kitchen remodel” results- coming soon!) I’ve got a line-up of quick and easy salads coming down the pipeline, made with yummy fresh veggies from our Omache farm CSA share. If you are looking for something like a CS

We were just visiting my mom over in Western Montana, she loves food too and, has a great garden. She ended up kind of “Iron Chef” challenging me to cook her dinner. She brought in her big basket of kale from the garden, added some other stuff from her fridge and wished me luck making dinner! When I finished – there was a consensus that this meal was excellent, and should be shared – so, here goes: Summer-veggie Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms with Polenta This yummy summer dish

We went camping last weekend- which included a great time incorporating salads made with a whole bunch of good local and seasonal foods. This included three kinds of lettuce from our CSA share! I threw the cut up greens into our awesome collapsible salad spinner for a quick rinse and into the cooler the whole thing went. Various toppings went into an accompanying mason jar. I threw all of the toppings together, but could be separated for your picnic. They included fresh, baby

This should be my last morel-specific post for awhile. If you are interested in morel preservation and general mushroom hunting make sure you check out the previous posts. Also, this great article from WSU news, on the “Shroom Boom” of the PNW, can attest that we are not the only ones obsessed with these amazing fungi this year! Stuffed Morels – these recipes to me feel like they are approaching some pretty serious gourmet decadence. At the same time, they were actually prett

This one is NOT a Morel! Don’t eat the brainy ones… To top it all off -we went out to cut a lovely bouquet of flowers from Sunshine Flowers. The dinner this all inspired was rich and delicious! A couple of small, grilled, slider-esque hamburger patties made with local beef. These were accompanied by a nice big slice of baked sweet potato (not local, sorry – but if you have regular potatoes, carrots or some winter squash still in storage, those can just as easily accompany thi

This time of year can be a particular challenge for eating locally in this part of the world. The stores from last year’s harvest are dwindling and we can watch this year’s seedlings come up and dream of their bounty – which is not yet available. This has led to us digging into our freezer for – meat. We are not particularly carnivores, we really do eat a largely plant-based diet. Not being able to eat gluten, dairy, soy or eggs between the two of us has led us to frequently

Just a bit of inspiration today! Quick and easy for two or at the core of a larger brunch for family and friends. Bacon bits, carmelized onions, and mushrooms with spring asparagus and seasonal grapefruit with some bread on the side. This can easily be made vegetarian or vegan, it can be pumped up with other things, like eggs and/or parmesean cheese, and even adjusted for most special needs diets like dairy-free, gluten-free and paleo #lunch #brunch #Grapefruit #asparagus #pa