Splendid Summer Squash

On the Grill

Use any kind of summer squash for this delicious vegetable dish; patty pan, green zucchini or yellow crookneck work equally well. Remove the ends and slice them longitudinally into one-fourth inch slices. The patty pan squashes make a round slice and it’s easy to put a slice of tomato on top of them and grill the tomato and the squash together.

Make a mixture of 1 part olive oil and 1 part melted butter with salt, black pepper and chili powder in fairly generous amounts.
Lay the slices on a hot barbeque grill and brush with the olive oil mixture. Grill on medium heat for 7 – 10 minutes and turn over for at least another 5 minutes. How much time grilling takes depends on the temperature of the grill.
These can be eaten straight off the grill or can be drizzled with a sauce made of mayonnaise, creole mustard, and honey mustard. Any hot mustard mixed with mayonnaise will make a delectable sauce for these vegetables.
BETTER YET
Phase 2 of this grilling project is to layer the grilled squash in a 9 x 13 glass baking dish with bread crumbs and grated Parmesan. Repeat the layers about 3 times, and then top the whole casserole with grated mozzarella. Put into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes to melt the cheeses together. Cut into squares and top with warm spaghetti sauce and just a sprinkle of Parmesan. The smokey flavor and the texture of the grilled vegetables together with the cheeses creates a main dish that is easily as good as lasagna or eggplant Parmesan, and it is amazingly easy to put together.

The means are the end in the making. Mahatma Gandhi

Tofu Pasta with Mushrooms

Saute a 12 - 16 ounce container of tofu with some olive oil, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce for about 1/2 hour.

Also, in a separate pan saute diced garlic, chopped onion, and mushrooms: 1 small onion, 4 cloves garlic, and 6 - 8 brown mushrooms.

Cook 1 package of hollow pasta: penne, macaroni or small rigatoni noodles. There are some great quinoa pastas if you want to go gluten free.

Heat and add 3 cups of prepared or homemade spaghetti sauce and 2 cups dices stewed tomatoes.

Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, some crusty sourdough bread, and a nice Pinot Noir. Many people who would not identify themselves as tofu aficionados like this pasta dish. So go ahead and try it on your carnivorous friends.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page.
St. Augustine

Spicy Turkey Pasta

Cook 1 package pasta and set aside. Use penne, or large or small macaroni - wheat or quinoa.

Saute diced onion, garlic and carrots (1 onion, 4 cloves garlic, 2 carrots)

Add 1 cup sliced mushrooms.

Chop 2 1/2 cups cooked turkey. If you like a spicy casserole dish, saute the turky for a few minutes with some chopped Pasillo or Poblano peppers. This depends on who's coming to dinner! If you want to keep it gringo friendly, leave out this step.

Heat and add prepared or home cooked spaghetti sauce and 2 cups diced stewed tomatoes.

Grate Parmesan cheese and add at serving time. This makes a great take along lunch dish.

Optimists must draw a line between being optimistic and delusional, and pessimists must draw a line between pessimistic and paranoid.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Pumpkin Creme Pie

Pumpkin Creme Pie

3 eggs (If they are small, use 4)
2 cups cooked pumpkin
1 cup full fat coconut milk or 8 ounces softened cream cheese
1 cup honey, maple syrup, or sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon almond extract or vanilla

Use a 9 inch glass pie dish. You can use a nut crust, a flour crust or leave out the crust altogether for a gluten free option. See Pie Crust Options

1. You can put all of the filling ingredients in a mixing bowl at once.
2. Use a hand mixer or an immersion blender to thoroughly blend the mixture. Use a medium speed. This filling is good if it has a little air mixed into it.
3. Bake at 325º for about 1 hour. To keep your pie from scorching, set the pie plate on a cookie sheet filled with water. It cooks a little more slowly this way, which is good for an egg mixture. It keeps the bottom of the crust from scorching as well.
4. Chill and serve with whipped cream or whipped coconut milk fat or an ice cream of your choosing.

The cold, hard truth will fall on stony ground, whereas your trashy rumor will flourish like a weed.
Sue Grafton in Yesterday

Gourmet Potato Soup

Most of the time I cook with whatever I need to use up. Sometimes the result is so good that it would be worth gathering up those same ingredients intentionally! This soup was created because we harvested potatoes from our garden and were eager to use them.


1 can condensed milk OR 1 1/2 cups half and half OR 1 1/2 cups almond coconut milk

1 1/2 cups water mixed with 2 rounded tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup frozen artichoke hearts

1 cup frozen corn

1 - 2 cups cubed raw potato

1 cup cooked wild rice

2 rounded Tablespoons chicken bouillon powder

1 small finely chopped onion and 2 cloves minced garlic - sauteed

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper


Step 1 - Cook wild rice.
Step 2 - Saute onion and garlic in olive oil.
Step 3 - Cook frozen artichoke hearts, corn and potato in 1 cup water until potato is done.
Step 4 - Combine above ingredients and add milk, water with cornstarch, salt, pepper, and bouillon.

Cook on low heat until soup thickens. Serve with crackers or bread.

This is a small recipe because our potato harvest was small. It made about 4-6 servings. To make a larger batch, just double everything.

I don't know why we measure a person's wealth in terms of dollars when we all know the richest people are those with loyal friends. Philip Gulley

Macadamia Nut Pie

On our most recent trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, Mike and I visited the Pu’unaluhu Bakery in the village of Na’alehu. We had a piece of macadamia nut pie that was divine. It had what I thought was a hint of butterscotch and a dense and creamy pudding consistency. I came home determined to try and make this delicious pie. I did make a delicious macadamia nut pie – twice as of this moment – but it is not quite the same as the one we shared at the bakery. It is, however, quite marvelous.

1. Use a flour crust, a nut crust or no crust at all.

2. Rough chop enough macadamia nuts to make about 1 ½ cups. Put these into the bottom of the pan/crust.

3. Combine ½ cup butterscotch caramel, 3 large or 4 medium eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla, ½ cup raw honey, and 2 cups full fat coconut milk or whipping cream in a mixing bowl. Stir.

4. Pour filling mixture over nuts and mix gently, without marring the crust.

5. Bake at 325º for 45 - 50 minutes. Remove from oven when the center is slightly spongy to the touch.

It’s great served plain, but whipped cream or vanilla ice cream make it especially festive.

It is true that the happy effects of tolerance are sometimes long postponed.
William Comfort

Salmon Cakes

I have often agonized over what to do with leftover salmon, because I really do not like it the next day. This is a Perfect and Delicious Solution.

1 ½ cups cooked salmon
¼ cup tartar sauce
¼ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup melted butter
2 eggs
1 ½ cups chopped, cooked potato*
1 quarter sauteed onion
3 cloves sauteed garlic
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice
Spices: ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon beau monde, 1 teaspoon crushed red chili peppers
1/3 cup bread crumbs (coconut or soy flour instead if you want to avoid wheat or gluten)
1/3 cup olive oil

* A mixture of mashed parsnips or turnips with mashed potatoes give this recipe even more flavor.

Chop the cooked salmon and the cooked potatoes. Melt the butter. Mix all ingredients except olive oil.

Put a generous 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a stoneware baking dish. Spoon 8 patties of salmon mixture into the pan. Sprinkle remaining bread crumbs over salmon patties.

Sauce: Mix equal parts of mayonnaise and Inglehoffer Sweet Hot Mustard with Honey. If you don’t have that, any spicy mustard or horseradish sauce will work. The idea is to create a creamy, spicy sauce.

Bake these for about ½ hour at 350 degrees.

Serving Suggestion

Sweet potatoes peeled, sliced and baked in olive oil make a great accompaniment to the salmon. Conveniently, they also bake in about ½ hour at 350 degrees:)

Without its daydreams, the self is apt to shrink down to the size and shape of the estimation of others. Michael Pollan, A Place of My Own