When I was offered an opportunity to review the book “Viva Vegan!: 200 Authentic and Fabulous Recipes for Latin Food Lovers” by Terry Hope Romero I was intrigued. Knowing latino cuisine as I do, the thought of a vegan adaptation of this heavily pork laden foodway boggled my mind. You can see from the...

[This was cross posted at my raw food blog Raw+Simple] I had an opportunity to dive into the book, written by by Mark Reinfeld, Bo Rinaldi, and Jennifer Murray, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Eating Raw. I had not previously read one of these Idiot’s Guides but I found that they use uncomplicated first person language that...

Some time ago I reviewed a cookbook called “Tassajara Cookbook: Lunches, Picnics, and Appetizers” by Karla Oliveira where I covered Tassajara, a magical mountain retreat for the San Francisco Zen Center. Today’s review covers the related book Tassajara Dinners & Desserts by Dale and Melissa Kent, a beautiful and delicious cookbook that shares simple go-to vegetarian...

Tassajara Zen Mountain Center is the famed mountain retreat of the San Francisco Zen Center. SF Zen center was founded by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in the 60s. It is a vibrant Zen community (sangha) that has been instrumental in bringing Zen to the West and has served as an important crucible in the inevitable forging...

I have been looking forward to doing this project for several years. I have distinct memories of when I was a child in Iowa, down in our basement in the bathroom we always hid in when the tornado sirens went off several times a summer. In that bathroom, near the shower, was an...

(This is what you are really getting with conventional and Big Ag Organic food – depleted foods) Who has not stood before a pile of organic vegetables or fruits and compared their price to the price of the conventionally grown ones next to it? Who has not asked, on some level, is there some real...

(Asparagus fronds) Can I tell you about a secret thing I learned recently? We planted asparagus last year and this spring we have been sampling a few spears from the 1st year growth. The production quantity is meager in the first year so its sampling, by definition. (Grilled asparagus) No, thats not the secret. (Asparagus crowns before...

Egg, potato, Nabisco Crown Pilot cracker Yikes, I have been so blocked with both of my blogs this past week. I can not put my finger on exactly why but that is the way writing is. For me its a double block because its both writing and shooting. Part of the problem, I think, is...

If you have come here by way of Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger Birthday Giveaway, you will find details on my prize at this post – “ProBlogger Birthday Bash event: Nikas Peppermint Marshmallow Puff Pastries“. Growing eggplants can be a speculative enterprise. I planted two types, purple and Turkish eggplants. The purples seem to go into...

(Tomato tart) (Red Calabash, microgreens, cherry tomatoes, tomatillo) Other people had tomatoes WEEKS ago, some MONTHS! We live in an area where the growing season dictates setting one’s tomato plants out on Memorial Day. Its been quite a rollercoaster ride with endless weeks of dark rainy days and then now drought conditions (it turned around...