What is it about chicken soup? There is a series of inspirational books titled Chicken Soup for the Soul, John Steinbeck mentioned it in East of Eden, Moshe ben Mainmon, a twelfth century Egyptian physician and philosopher, recognized it as a remedy for cold symptoms and his advice has been supported by evidence from a scientific study done at the University of Nebraska.

My resolution to cook simple food that tastes even better the next day and the first verse of Chicken Soup with Rice, written by Maurice Sendak and set to music by Carole King, inspired me to make my favorite chicken soup.

In January it’s so nice
While slipping on the sliding ice
To sip hot chicken soup with rice
Sipping once, sipping twice
Sipping chicken soup with rice.

Cooking chicken soup can be an all day affair but by beginning with chicken broth and a rotisserie chicken from the market, I had a full flavored, body-and-soul warming soup ready in less than an hour.  Here’s how I did it: … read more

I have been in the kitchen since Thanksgiving except when I was at the market gathering food to refill the fridge and pantry.

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve was a marathon of mixing, stirring, slicing, dicing, creaming and blending. It was time to make a change. I have resolved that until I get to Sicily in February, I will make meals that are simple to prepare, have a limited number of ingredients and are even better the second time around. Corn Chowder was my course changer.

Chowder is defined as any of a variety of soups, made with milk, enriched with salt pork and thickened with flour. It has been around since the sixteenth century when it was considered “poor man’s fare”. The word chowder may come from the French chaudiere, a pot used by fishermen in France to make a hearty fish stew by cooking fish with milk and vegetables, or it may come from jowter the Old English term for a person who sells fish.

Made with bacon, potatoes, corn and milk, the soup I made was chowder without fish because the closest fish to my pot was a twenty minute drive through the snow and eliminating trips to the market was part of my new resolve. I’m confident that the recipe police will not come to my post holiday kitchen to give me a ticket. Here’s how I made it: … read more

I was alone, sitting near the wood stove, feeling like Cinderella, but rather than wishing for a prince with a glass slipper, I was wishing for dinner.

I wanted comfort food that celebrated autumn, a dinner with complex flavors and one that was low in calories. Since the pumpkin carriage was out of service, dinner had to be created without a trip to the market. Wishing wasn’t working. I needed to think.

A baked potato dinner was a possibility. Preparation would be simple – washed and baked, the potato would be ready to top with yogurt. It was a low calorie meal but not wonderful. I wanted a dinner that looked as if my fairy godmother had been hard at work.

I considered macaroni and cheese but that required too much preparation, too many pots and I didn’t have a magic spell that would make it delicious AND low in calories. Microwaved popcorn and a grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich came to mind. But, even the mice in the kitchen expect more for dinner than that.

It was getting late and I was hungry. I looked for inspiration in the refrigerator and found carrots, turnips, a small butternut squash, half a cauliflower, a couple of parsnips and a handful of washed lettuce.  If a single pumpkin could be magically transformed into a carriage, surely this collection of vegetables could be transformed into dinner.

The clock chimed seven and a wizard idea occurred to me. I could roast the vegetables with potatoes, onions and garlic, season them with olive oil, butter, dried rosemary, salt and pepper and dine like a princess in less than an hour.  Here’s how I did it:

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When I see a sweet potato I think of my friend Pen who replaced her usual morning bagel or donut with a baked sweet potato. She wrapped a roasted sweet potato, still hot from the oven, in a thick layer of newspaper and tucked it into her pocket – it was ready when she was, a perfect breakfast on the run without crumbs or empty calories.

Sweet potato salad is another way to add this healthy vegetable to your diet and is great alternative to white potato salad.

It’s easy to transport and eaten at room temperature – a terrific addition to a potluck supper. Here’s how I made it:

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For a more casual meal, sweet potato fries are the perfect side dish with a juicy burger.

Not wanting a cauldron of boiling oil in my kitchen. I made oven-fried sweet potatoes. Here’s how I did it: … read more

A plant on the windowsill in my second grade classroom was my introduction to the sweet potato. I was seven and on the lookout for interesting experiments.

I had already perfected growing salt crystals on a chunk of coal and was confident that a leafy, green sweet potato plant would be more warmly received by my family than the garish blue and orange, ammonia scented salt crystals had been.

Sprouting the sweet potato was easy. I used three toothpicks to suspend a sweet potato, pointed end down, in an empty pickle jar and added enough water to cover about a third of the sweet potato. Then I put the jar in a dark closet. Roots appeared in less than a week and I brought the sweet potato out to meet my family. The jar sat on the kitchen table and it wasn’t long until it sprouted and the table was graced with heart shaped leaves on tangled green vines. In the dark days of winter, the sweet potato vine was a reminder of the promise of spring.

The sweet potato is a tropical plant that has been grown in South America for more than five thousand years. It is used in Japanese tempura, the edible leaves and vines are steamed and served with soy sauce and garlic in Taiwan, and sweet potato starch is used to produce Korean cellophane noodles.

Ranked number one in nutrition by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, sweet potatoes can be baked, boiled, fried or steamed, and seasoned in a variety of ways. I put sweet potatoes on the table, in a serving bowl rather than sprouting in a jar, at least once a week and hope you will be inspired to do the same without falling into that nutritional black hole of marshmallow and brown sugar.

Smoky sweet potatoes offer a welcome contrast to traditional Thanksgiving fare. Here’s how I did it: … read more