Category Archives: pantry staples

All my Pretty Pickles and a Happy Announcement

By Vanessa | Published: May 17, 2009
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 DIY, Food and Drink, healthy | 2 Comments

Homemade Cultured Butter

By Vanessa | Published: May 3, 2009
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 DIY, Science | 2 Comments

Homemade Red Wine Vinegar

By Vanessa | Published: April 16, 2009
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 DIY | 6 Comments

January Events: Book Signing, Winter Soups and Stews Class, Fermentation Workshop

By Vanessa | Published: January 6, 2009
Hitting the New Year Running: Saturday, January 10th–book signing and food samples from Heirloom Beans at Omnivore Books3-4 PM Free! Wednesday, January 14–Winter Soups and Stews class at Sur La Table in San Francisco 6pm. $75 Saturday, January 24–Fermentation Workshop at The Cooperative Grocery in Berkeley. Time of day to be determined. Email or leave [...]
Also posted in Books, classes, community, food news, healthy | Leave a comment

Earthquake Preparedness

By Vanessa | Published: November 2, 2008
Are you ready? Most people I talk to are not. I had "earthquake kit" on my list of things to do for 7 years. What made me do it finally? Probably the free-floating anxiety due to the upcoming election, the economy, shorter, darker days. My anxiety needed a place to land. It landed at Trader [...]
Posted in pantry staples | Leave a comment

Something to Relish

By Vanessa | Published: August 22, 2008
I'm rarely compelled to blog about a product, but here's an exception. I found this at The Pasta Shop in Berkeley just as they were building the new display. They found it at the Unfancy Food Show in Brooklyn. I was smitten by the packaging first and that's about as far as it would have [...]
Also posted in Books, Current Affairs, Film, breads and pizzas, breakfast, community, entertaining, from the market | Leave a comment

Happy New Year

By Vanessa | Published: January 3, 2008
We had a fantastic open house and invited many friends old and new. Everyone came and feasted on vegan black-eyed peas, rice, and greens, mini corn muffins with ham and mustard butter, fantastic desserts provided by our party co-host and much much more. We made wild sauerkraut to go with our black-eyed peas, rice, and [...]
Also posted in entertaining, holidays | 1 Comment

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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.