To celebrate the holiday season, we prepared a comforting chestnut soup and a festive fruit salad.
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We cut fruit wedges from a variety of citrus fruits… |
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…and combined them with cherries, kiwi, pomegranate seeds, and slivered almonds into a colorful fruit salad.
Here is the recipe. |
| …Then, with the help of some friends, we embarked on the laborious task of peeling rare American chestnuts grown in the Frame farm nearby… |  |
| … and prepared a hearty chestnut soup.Here is the recipe. |  |
Today, we prepared two simple dishes that are mainstays of their cuisines.
The first was pan-roasted plantain, a staple in Latin America and the Carribean. The secret of this dish is to wait for the plantain’s skin to turn black as show by the left picture. Black = Sweet.
The second was baba ghanoush, a roasted eggplant dip that is very popular in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
Here are the recipes.
Today, we gently poached Michigan peaches and prepared peach compote and peach conserve.
We served the compote with strawberry and chocolate sauces. We served the conserve in light sugar syrup.
Here are the recipes.
Today, our Coop organized several demonstrations for children. Strider, our produce manager, asked us to take advantage of a new shipment of cantaloupes from California and baby spinach from our neighboring town of Farmington. Kathy, our grocery manager, asked us to use a soy milk product on promotion.
To combine the various themes, we prepared three kid-drawing dishes:
| image | the cantaloupe into a refreshing drink |
the spinach into a creamed sauce, and the soy milk into a honeydew smoothie. Kids and grown-ups relished the results.
Here are the Horchata de Melon, Pasta With Creamed Spinach, and Honeydew Smoothie recipes.
Today, we started our our culinary adventure producing curry powder from whole spices. We continued by using the curry to flavor green beans and chick pea (garbanzo) flour. Freshly grated coconut and cloves sweetened the dish.
We culminated the adventure by explaining how to separate the coconut meat from its shell.
Here are the recipes.
Luigi Cooks 