As I foraged through the freezer on this snowy morning, I found a bag of pears harvested a few months back. Lots of fruit trees line the streets of my neighborhood, yet no one seems to pick the fruit. I’m not about to let those apples, apricots, plums, and peaches go to waste; I harvest on my morning walks. And this morning, I turned my suburban-foraged pears into a delicious wild-spiced pear butter, using some of my favorite foraged spices. Read more
With less than two weeks before Christmas, there’s still plenty of time to make some wild Christmas cookies, whether you plan to leave them out for Santa, or to eat them all by your lonesome. Here are some of my favorites, each with a different wild ingredient.
Carob powder doesn’t dissolve in water the way cocoa powder does. If you’re baking with carob, that’s fine, but if you’re making a carob-beverage, you might prefer the silky smoothness of carob syrup made by boiling the whole pods. It’s simple to do, and you’ll have the pods leftover to use in other ways. Read more
How did I live this long without Swedish pancakes? Read more
The black raspberries are coming in strong! Crazy strong. So strong there’s no need to ration this delicious fruit. I can eat it every day if I want to, and still have plenty to dip into next winter when fresh foraged fruit isn’t a possibility. Which means I’m experimenting with a whole bunch of recipes, and this black raspberry pudding cake is number one on the runway. It’s not too sweet, very fruity, and has the consistency of a thick clafouti. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in between…it’s low sugar, low fat, and comes together quickly and easily. Read more
When you get a last minute dinner invitation and you ask what you can bring, and your host suggests dessert, and you say sure, then wonder what the heck you can throw together quickly that will impress your friends, well, I suggest a wild blueberry fool. Read more
Magnolias are glorious. Period. When they’re in bloom, they punctuate the landscape with gigantic bursts of color and fragrance, and some of these flowers are quite wonderfully delicious. This past weekend was a magnolia bonanza, and there will be LOTS OF recipes coming your way. But the very first (and yes, my favorite) is this Magnolia Blossom Cream Cake. It’s a surprisingly simple recipe with a unique flavor that no one will be able to guess without a clue from the cook. Read more
The fragrance of plum blossoms is intoxicating, and something I look forward to every spring. Plum blossom season is brief, usually lasting only a few days. Early spring snow, wind, and rain wreak havoc on these delicate blooms, so get out there and harvest as soon as you see them. Usually I make plum blossom liqueur, but this time I thought of infusing the flowers in cream for a floral panna cotta. What a good idea! Read more
It doesn’t take long to get addicted to the flavor of carob. Taste it once and you’re hooked. And if you’re lucky enough to live where carob trees grow, making your own powder is easy to do at home. It takes a little time, but it’s not difficult, and the flavor and smell of fresh carob make it all worthwhile.
Every year for my birthday, my pal Cayce sends me a box of Meyer lemons, foraged from her Bay Area neighborhood. What a great gift! This year I’ve been using them to perfect a lemon bar recipe. But it’s no ordinary lemon bar. This lemon bar has lavender baked into the shortbread crust. Read more
