Love Your Veggies

With kids in the kitchen, there’s always room for more veggies. The kids in this cookery have test-driven the Love Your Veggies online game and they’ve awarded it a 20-carrot top rating. Veggie lovers can grow their own food, harvest the vegetables, make deliveries, and serve a grand selection of virtual veggies. Grow your own with Love […]

Pick of the produce

This Chinese eggplant may catch your eye in the produce section. It caught mine, and at $2.49 per pound (this week at H-E-B), try it grilled and folded in a tortilla. Spritz sliced eggplant with water, then drizzle slices with extra virgin olive oil. Add salt and pepper to your liking and grill, turning once for golden brown […]

Drop this in your shopping cart

Need a gift idea? Recycle this one from one of Austin’s earth-friendly peacemakers. This colorful bag cheers Central Texas with its bright floral design. I don’t know if these bags are still on the market, but H-E-B used to stock this recycled product. We like this concept for gift giving — the bag and the attached refreshments!

Surviving on tomatoes

Thanks, Miss E., for sharing the fruits of your garden. We finished off this beautiful garden tomato, but before I sliced it, I thought of a friend who really struggles to eat tomatoes these days. She’s grateful for this fleshy, juicy fruit, but for a long time, she ate nothing but tomatoes. On her family’s rooftop […]

Pasta Pagoda

Looking for an affordable summer filler for the family table? Pasta can take on many forms, but twisty, curly pasta always seems to keep the kids focused on meals around our picnic table. The Cookery likes gluten free Ancient Harvest Quinoa Garden Pagodas, but any pasta will do. Here’s our take on Pasta Pagoda: Cook […]

Strawberry Strategy . . . Cubed

From a friend of The Cookery’s across Austin:  Here’s a quick flavor favor for strawberry lovers: “I probably mentioned already that with this glut of wonderful strawberries, I’m whizzing them in the blender by the pound, pouring them into an ice-cube tray (1 lb. = 1 tray) , freezing them, then packing them in a freezer Baggie for smoothies […]

Strawberry price chop

Strawberries at 88 cents per pound? Sun Harvest? I’m confirming this local Austin price chop, and if I’m not too late, The Cookery will be stocking up on fresh berries (per customer limitations). Any room in your freezer?

That’s lunch?

I’ve spent the past week almost entirely outside (before the extreme Austin heat arrives) and away from the Cookery (not braggin’–just sayin’). Aside from steaming vegetables and slicing watermelon, the Cookery’s been quiet. In keeping with our light mission for June, here’s a crunchy option. We tried the spinach & artichoke hummus from Out to Lunch […]

Straight from the horseradish

Where’s my special reserve horseradish when I need it? Thanks to you in horseradish country, Roger, for sharing the heat on the International Horseradish Festival. It looks as if I’ll miss the festival this weekend, but in honor of this root plant and Collinsville’s commitment to keeping life fit and trim with the cultivation of an […]

Siding with Goldilocks

Serve it hot, chilled, or just right, but we sided with Goldilocks and finished the last drop of this bowl at room temperature. Nathalie Dupree inspired this version of roasted red bell pepper soup in her Matters of Taste cookbook. I’ve grown to love several of Nathalie’s later recipes from her Comfortable Entertaining cookbook, and when I came across Matters […]