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The recipes and images on this site belong to Vanessa Barrington. Feel free to link here and if you’d like to use a recipe or image, please ask permission first. Thank you.Twitter Updates
- DIY Delicious and Heirloom Beans both featured on Amazon as a Kindle Big Deal until Aug 23rd http://t.co/YupbnPbB get them digitally! 2012/08/18
- New Recipe on the blog: Antipasti-style calamari salad http://t.co/vxAzXQfh 2012/06/11
- RT @ethicurean: Nice plug form @CKummer for great anti-waste cookbook "An Everlasting Meal" by @tamaradler #cfs12 2012/05/18
- RT @twyspy: My response to @Chef_Keller's "radical" take on flavor vs. sustainability http://t.co/IVTqJuXb @grist (please chime in!) 2012/05/18
Category Archives: DIY
Curtido & Raita from the Eat Real Festival
Thanks to everyone who attended my fermentation demo on Friday at Eat Real. I had a blast and it was great to see so many enthusiastic fermenters out there. As promised, here is the curtido recipe for those who did not get one and following that, a link to Nishanga Bliss' blog post about fermenting [...]
Also posted in classes, community, healthy, pantry staples Leave a comment
Vittles for the Great Outdoors: Camping Food
What do you eat while you’re camping? Do you go easy and already prepared? Do you make up soups, stews, chilis ahead? Do you grill? Do you plan to the last detail or do you wing it? Camping food is one of the best things about camping, in my opinion. A week or so ahead [...]
Also posted in Latin American, from the market, hearty, seafood Leave a comment
Recalibration Eating
Let’s just say I’m not the “cleansing type.” I like to think of myself as a self-indulgent healthy eater. I don’t deny myself anything I want (though I never want to eat fast food or most processed food) and eat a great variety of mostly very healthy stuff. But after a months-long period of intense [...]
Also posted in Asian, breakfast, healthy Leave a comment
What to cook when there's nothing to eat
One of my favorite MFK Fisher books is How to Cook a Wolf. The wolf, of course, is hunger. The point being that a resourceful cook is one who can find something to eat when the larder is empty and the wolf is at the door. I cooked my own wolf the other night. True [...]
Also posted in gardening, healthy Leave a comment
Homemade Buckwheat Pasta with Cabbage, Bacon, Brown Butter, and Sage
You wouldn't know it was June from what we've been eating around here. It's cold in the Bay Area this week. Creepily so. So Sunday night I figured why not test a recipe from the book that fits the "season"? Sorry about the heinous picture in bad light but I wanted to get down to [...]
Also posted in from the market, hearty Leave a comment
A Photo Essay from the Grain Chapter
I'm all out of words. Three weeks to manuscript and I don't feel like writing. So here are some photos taken over the last few months. This is the wood-burning Alan Scott oven at Headlands Center for the Arts. My friend Eduardo Morell has generously shared his sourdough bread baking skills and methods with me [...]
Also posted in breads and pizzas Leave a comment
All my Pretty Pickles and a Happy Announcement
It's been pickling pandemonium around the homestead these last two weeks. Why, you ask, am I making pickles with not-quite-in-season vegetables when summer is just around the corner? Yes, they look delicious, but definitely out of character. The reason is because I'm working on a new book and deadlines don't care what's in season when. [...]
Also posted in Food and Drink, healthy, pantry staples 2 Comments
Homemade Cultured Butter
I love the tangy, complex taste of cultured butter, but I rarely buy it since it is pretty expensive. It's pretty easy to make regular butter (just overwhip some cream) but that seemed too easy. When I started researching how to make cultured butter, I realized that the technique for culturing it is the same [...]
Also posted in Science, pantry staples 2 Comments
Homemade Red Wine Vinegar
So I got a line on a 100 year old vinegar mother from the old Cribari wine family. I got my instructions and I'm ready to go. Truth be told: I was a little apprehensive about the wooden barrel. They are expensive, require curing, and though picturesque, they're not the best thing for vinegar. The [...]
Also posted in pantry staples 6 Comments
Brisket Success!