Hmmm…If you read my  prior post, you will know that Darina Allen is predicting that popsicles will rival cupcakes this summer. While trolling through the frozen food section of the Greenwood Market yesterday,  I  had to follow an impromptu lead.
The frozen food manager, Ray De Couteau, was stocking the ice cream section and was telling [...]

Darina Allen’s Popsicle Prediction!

Here in Seattle, temperatures are hitting sky high levels. The city generally melts under this kind of heat, hence I thought I’d offer one of my favorite tips for chilling beer, wine, soda, bottled water and juice quickly.
Get a large galvanized bucket, cooler or even a stockpot. Fill it with ice,  add water and about a [...]

Do you want to make jam but resist the idea of stirring a hot cauldron on a beautiful summer day? Although I do make cooked jam during the summer, I recently decided to experiment with freezer jams.
I had never made freezer jams. But after perusing the recently released 100th Anniversary Edition of The Ball Blue [...]

I always like to think of how many ways I can do something. And, this is exactly what I do when I am overwhelmed with an abundance of seasonal fruits. Making jams and jarring are one option, but when I buy 40 to 50 pounds of stone fruits on sale, I usually run out of [...]

There’s been lots of discussion that American’s
are going back to basics by canning and preserving foods when in season.
I’ve been doing this for years now. It’s economical and many of the foods I preserve, such as stone fruits and berries, taste even better when I serve them during the cold dark days of winter. [...]

Attention fish lovers. Fresh Wild Alaskan sockeye salmon is now on deck and we are seeing a lot of it being sold here in Seattle.
The 2009 season has been shaping up quite nicely in America’s Last Frontier, and I’m anticipating an official report from Alaska soon.
In the meantime, consider the all natural attributes [...]

On Friday afternoon, I headed up to my Central Market. It’s my favorite grocery store in the neighborhood and I shop there often, practically daily. I noticed that the fish counter looked really good that day.
The fish department is quite large at Central and they offer an enourmous selection–live oysters, clams, Dungeness crabs [...]

Five years ago this month, I was off on a very special adventure.
As a tenth wedding anniversary gift, my husband had arranged to send me to County Cork, Ireland, for a one week hands on cooking class at the Ballymaloe Cookery School. It was a fabulous trip that I eventually wrote about for The [...]

Here in Seattle, the lavender plants are in full bloom. Thanks to our mild maritime climate, lavender tends to grow beautifully and abundantly. And, when it does, everyone seems to seize the day.
My plants are enormous and laden with blooms right now. Because the weather is predicted to be warm and dry this [...]