Dinner with Kirsten

When I buy groceries, I like to pick at least two or three types of meat for weeknight meals, and I usually don’t have a clue what I’m going to do with them. But I never thought that my Trader Joe’s pork chops would end up floating in noodle soup.

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I’ve made and sampled a million different pumpkin breads, most of them tasting about the same. That’s why I pounced on this recipe – it’s different. It doesn’t knock you over the head with spices or turn into a dark brown loaf, but instead bakes up into a delicately flavored moist and dense quick bread. […]

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I love minestrone soup, and this version is quick, easy and healthy, making it a perfect weeknight meal. You can mix and match different seasonal vegetables and make it with or without meat, but don’t leave out the kale.
I didn’t even realize I liked kale until I tried this recipe. This member of the cabbage […]

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I’m somewhat of a cooking snob, but when a friend recommended Cooking Light as a great recipe resource and the opportunity to buy a discounted subscription came along, I jumped on it. The magazine has been delivered to my apartment monthly since June, most issues languishing neglected in my magazine wrack. But the October issue […]

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While I was in high school and college, I ran my parents’ farm stand during the summer months. We sold tomatoes, peaches, melons, but most of all, we were known for having the best sweet corn. Sometimes I would wake up at dawn to pick corn with my Dad. We would drive out to the […]

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I eat zucchini as part of almost every meal, especially in the summer. Geoff is getting tired of it. But this stuffed version is a great change from my normal steamed or sautéed dishes. A meatloaf-like filling is piled into the hollowed-out squash and baked until the topping is crispy and the zucchini is tender. […]

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I’m so proud of this dish that I’ve rattled off instructions on how to make it to a handful of people, including the check-out guy at Trader Joe’s. It’s one of those golden main courses that can be made a million different ways, depending on the ingredients you have handy and what you feel like […]

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My Dad has a soft spot for mills (as in flour mills). My family used to visit them everywhere, on almost every summer vacation, and we would always leave with bags of freshly stone-ground flour, cornmeal and buckwheat. They would sit in the refrigerator for indeterminate lengths of time, dripped on and squeezed to the […]

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I love hamburgers, but, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve been trying to eat healthy. So, I’ve been making turkey burgers about once a week for months. Faced with yet another package of ground turkey meat in the fridge, expiration date ticking down, I turned to epicurious.com for inspiration.
I’ve become a Sriracha addict, so I […]

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When my parents first bought the land that is now Vala’s Pumpkin Patch and Fall Festival, a pick-your-own pumpkin farm, they planned to sell strawberries. They planted acres and acres of the finicky sweet berries, placed ads in the local newspaper and sold them to whoever showed up. As an extra revenue booster, Grandpa Ernie […]

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