side dishes Archives - A Way To Garden

3 variations on baked beans: sweet, smoky, spicy

margaret — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 12:11:43 +0000

THE FREEZERS WERE too tightly packed till now to do anything but choose the forward-facing foods. (Sound familiar?) But I’ve happily eaten my way to some wiggle room, and it’s clear I have some cooking—a.k.a. restocking–to do. I’m running low on portions of my favorite food: three variations on a baked-bean theme, from sweet to smoky to spicy. The recipes, plus a nudge to try growing beans for drying next year, too. (In the slideshow above, toggle between slides by clicking a thumbnail image, or hover over the right edge of the big photos to reveal navigational arrows.) the recipes, and dry-bean how-to ALL THE RECIPES are easy, and delicious as a side dish or even as a whole meal-in-a-bowl, served over brown rice with something green tucked alongside. Bonus: My midwinter freezer check revealed a few bags of whole paste tomatoes that will go into the mix—meaning more room for the incoming bean concoctions, and for the soups I see I need to replenish, too. The recipes: Heirloom baked beans with maple, molasses, and mustard Smoky, spicy baked black-eyed peas with chipotle Barbecued baked lentils (minus the grill) How to grow and cook dry beans Dry bean 101 with […]

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cooking with what you have: ‘start simple,’ with lukas volger

margaret — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 20:33:06 +0000

JUST BEFORE THINGS SHIFTED in our world, I bought a new vegetarian cookbook called “Start Simple,” by Lukas Volger. Little did I know that just weeks later, its promise of “an uncomplicated approach to cooking that allows you to use what you already have on hand to make great meals you didn’t think were possible” would sound not just appealing, but really the order of the day. I called Lukas to talk about dependable, versatile ingredients and how to use them, about how to cook better no matter what ingredients we have on hand, and also how to make vegetables last. Lukas Volger is the author of three previous cookbooks, and the co-founder and editorial director of “Jarry” magazine, an award-winning biannual publication that explores where food and queer culture intersect. Plus: Lukas has shared a recipe for his Cheesy Cabbage and White Bean Soup right here, farther down the page, and we’ll also have a book giveaway (enter by commenting in the box at the very bottom of the page). Read along as you listen to the April 20, 2020 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on […]

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skins-on applesauce to freeze, can, and share

margaret — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 15:38:40 +0000

MY FAMILY CALLS IT ‘PO SAUCE, with the “po” representing the last syllable of the word “apple,” the way my beloved niece pronounced it when she was small. One fall weekend, as I hurtled by to give a lecture out their way, I met my brother-in-law at Exit 9 off I-90 to deliver the first load of Pink ‘Po Sauce that started life on my century-old trees. Sigh of relief: 11 quarts and 5 pints moved from my freezer to theirs. Another day that year, my friend Katrina filled the back of her car with my apples, heading home to cook them up, and many neighbors have been the recipients of boxes of apples, apples and more apples, too. It’s applesauce time, and here’s how that goes: Bountiful rains put regional 2013 apple crops—including fruit on my handful of ancient trees that I do not spray (that’s a 40-foot-wide one out back, above)—at bumper levels. The 2015 season didn’t feature much rain, but the apples were crazy-plentiful, after a 2014 when I had almost none. In 2016, almost a total bust, after a non-winter and a very dry whole year. Neighbors with old trees had none, either; I bought several […]

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