Tag: <span>lemon</span>

Three simple ingredients make for a powerful concoction that can take on cold and flu symptoms.

There is something about the power of three. Many cultures have their own trinity: a combination of three ingredients that serve as the backbone for building flavor in their dishes.  In Creole/Cajun cooking, the Holy Trinity is a combination of onion, celery and bell peppers. The version in French cooking is called mirepoix and is made up of onion, carrot and celery. In Spain, their sofrito is typically comprised of garlic, onions and tomato.

I have discovered my own trinity of sorts which blends my cooking world and my medical world: ginger, lemon and honey. Instead of building flavors for a dish, I’m using them to build my immune system. As we are in the throes of cold and flu season, these three ingredients are the basis for a more natural way of managing the miserable-feeling symptoms that a virus can cause.

Inspiration

blueberries-myvegtable
14 CUPS of blueberries–methinks I’ve gone too far…

Ok, so maybe a bunch of blueberries: maybe even a truckload. Since it pretty much feels like varying degrees of summer all year ’round in Florida, I rely on produce to tell me when summer has officially arrived: corn, cherries, melons, and stone fruit are in abundance. Best of all, it’s finally time when organic berries don’t cost an arm and a leg for a half-pint. Florida’s strawberry season comes sometime between December and February, but summer is when blackberries, raspberries and blueberries come into their own here. Last month, I found an entire pint of blueberries for $3.99…I bought two. I should have bought four. I went back to Publix a couple of weeks after and they were $3.00…I bought six. Six pints of blueberries; that’s about 14 cups! I laughed as they practically filled an entire shelf in my fridge. I was feeling so ambitious, I didn’t want to freeze a single one. And so the baking commenced!

Inspiration Tidbits

cauliflower-myvegtable
Cauliflower and curry go together like peanut butter and jelly.

One day they eat it, the next day they won’t. If you have kids, or have at least been around kids, you know that when it comes to feeding children, there is a certain degree of trickery involved–getting them to eat veggies is perhaps the most difficult feat. I’ve gone so far as to hide pureed veggies in other foods–mainly smoothies–and I’ve used cheese or ranch dressing to jazz up those hard to eat vegetables. No matter your strategy, it’s hard catering to the most fickle creatures known to man; accommodating a child’s ever-changing palate is one of the great challenges every parent will face.

Inspiration

 

lemon-spaghetti-ingred

Many months ago, when I was first hatching the idea of starting a food blog, I sat with my friend in her kitchen. While our boys played together, we chatted and baked chocolate chip cookies for the kids. When I told her about my plan, we started talking at length about food. Typically, I could talk about food all day, but then she asked me a question that made me pause: “What is your go-to meal?”

Inspiration