Tuesday, September 27, 2011
The baby bella mushroom goes by many names, but no matter what you call it, this nutritious mushroom makes one delicious fall appetizer.
The Bounty: Baby Bella Mushrooms Few types of produce have as many names as the baby bella mushroom. In fact, it can be seriously confusing. Baby bella mushrooms are, quite simply, the common mushroom—Agaricus bisporus—cultivated and consumed all over the world, but names for this familiar fungus change with its stages of maturity and where you’re shopping. When the flesh is a white or light brown, it’s known as the common mushroom, button mushroom, white mushroom, table mushroom, and in strains with darker flesh, it’s called the champignon mushroom, crimini mushroom, Swiss brown mushroom, and the Italian mushroom, among others. When it is fully mature, we call it the Portobello mushroom. Who knew, right? Anyway, here in California the …
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
The end of the summer’s yellow crookneck squash with the early harvest of fall’s sweet bell peppers pave the way for the season change.
The Bounty: Summer Squash and Bell Peppers It’s that time of year. Here is Southern California it can be easy to miss, with our lingering heat, year-round sunshine and ubiquitous perma-tans, but the produce doesn’t lie: the season change is upon us. The summer bounty is dwindling, and where there were once peaches and cocozelle there are now late-summer tomatoes and beans. This week I spied my first butternut squash. Fall isn’t here quite yet, but it’s a-comin’. In a nod to the ebb and flow of the seasons and their gifts, this week I made a simple dinner with vegetables-in-transition, if you will: the tail end of the summer’s yellow crookneck squash with the early harvest of fall’s sweet bell peppers. The meal had a definite fall feel to …
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Late summer's fennel can be an intimidating thing in the kitchen, but all it needs is a simple grilling to become one of your new favorite vegetable sides.
The Bounty: Fennel Where I grew up in the foggy hillsides of the San Francisco Bay Area, fennel is a prolific, wild weed. Hiking trails through the Marin Headlands will weave you through a maze of unruly fennel at least shoulder high, its soft, delicate leaves brushing against your arms and its sweet, licorice-like scent filling your nostrils as you trudge along the rocky coast. Long before I was acquainted with its culinary delights, I loved the plant for its gentle feel and winsome scent, and for its untamed insistence on growing wild and free in the fog. Now I still love it for those reasons, but also because it is such a mind-bogglingly delicious, bright, tangy, crunchy, familiar yet altogether unusual addition to a meal. Many people …
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
These light, easy squash pancakes are just like potato pancakes, only nutrient packed and oven-cooked.
The Bounty: Yellow Summer Squash Summer squash is one of the most bountiful produce items of the season, widely available in a broad range of shapes, sizes and colors. Happily, the seasonal veggie has a capacity for diversity in the kitchen to rival its diversity of nature. The term "summer squash" is a bit generic, of course, including zucchini, cocozelle, patty pan—the list goes on. Generally speaking, when someone is referring to summer squash, they mean yellow straightneck squash, and that’s what I mean for the recipe below. High in fiber, magnesium, potassium, and vitamins C and A and low in sugars and starch, summer squash are a great way to make a meal feel substantial without adding a ton of unnecessary calories and sacrificing …
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
This healthy, whole wheat zucchini loaf gets a kick from lemon zest and cayenne, and plenty of moisture from Greek yogurt.
The Bounty: Zucchini When I was a kid, I loved to say ‘zucchini’ but I hated to eat it. Until, that is, I was introduced to two things: parmesan-baked zucchini and zucchini bread. Zucchini bread, in particular, stole my heart. Seriously, what’s better for a kid than healthy veggies disguised as baked goods? For that matter, what’s better for an adult? And healthy it is. Zucchini is high in vitamins C and A, manganese, magnesium, folate, potassium, copper, and riboflavin, and it is known to help reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke as well as help improve the health of male sex organs. Loaded with fiber and antioxidants, this familiar squash is as diverse as it is distinctive, and should be a staple in any home. This zucchini bread is…
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Here is California, kale is available year-round, and with a simple, flavor-packed saute, this delicious super-veggie is easy to include in your diet.
The Bounty: Kale In most of the world, kale is only in season during the winter through early spring. Here in California, however, our mild summers facilitate year-round local kale, which makes us lucky geese indeed. Kale is delicious (it is my personal favorite green, in fact), and it is one of the healthiest things you can add to your diet if you want eternal beauty and health—or something close to it, anyway. Kale is a member of the Brassica family and boasts of phytonutrients that have been a hot topic of health research in recent years. Studies have shown that these phytonutrients reduce the risk of cancer dramatically and may actually help the liver neutralize potentially cancerous substances. Kale is also an incredibly rich source …
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Eager attendees can find body butters salts, jewelry and musicians—not to mention tasty eats.
With such vendors as Freshgenet for women and men's clothing; Sonam Dolma with her Tibetan jewelry; Shabbazz Designs selling organic body butter; and musician David Alexandrou, the farmers market exhibits an eclectic flair. Click on the pictures to meet some of the popular vendors at the Farmers Market. The market is held every Tuesday on Main Street in downtown Culver City from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Summer's large, creamy Reed avocados put the year-round and ever-popular Hass avocados to shame with their sinfully good texture and flavor.
The Bounty: Reed Avocado Fuerte, Gwen, and Zutano; Pinkerton, Bacon and Reed…whoever said an avocado was just an avocado is clearly not from California. Here in the Golden State, ideal growing conditions of abundant sunshine, cool ocean breezes and rich soil make for some the best avocado fruits in the world. While there are some 500 varieties of avocado, just seven are grown commercially in California, from the little recognized Zutano—a pear-shaped, thin-skinned avocado that reaches its peak in early fall through winter—to the ever-popular Hass, the year-round, dark greenish-black, round fruit with a distinct, almost nutty flavor that accounts for about 95 percent of California’s total avocado crop. I tend to favor the Fuertes from fall …
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Fruits, veggies and fun abound at Culver City's Tuesday farmers market.
From picking strawberries to baking bread, it's all in a day's work at the weekly Culver City farmers market. Click on the pics to get a glimpse of the hardworking vendors—and don't forget to stop by on Tuesdays from 3 to 7 p.m.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Early season's mellow spring onions give you all the goodness of onion without all the bite. Cooking them up with some sweet bell peppers into a simple peperonata is one of the best ways to enjoy this early summer treat.
The Bounty: Spring Onion Spring onions, like spring garlic, are young onions that are harvested before they are fully mature. They can come in a range of poignancy, from sweet and mild to as pungent as any onion ever was, but in general they tend to be much more smooth and gentle than their full-grown counterparts. Thus, they are often eaten raw, alone as a snack with a little dip or seasoned salt, or chopped in a salad or as a garnish to any multitude of things. Only available a short time each season, they are a tasty alternative to your year-round onion. Peperonata is a classic Italian dish that can be eaten as a side, as a sauce, as a dip—basically however you like. It is typically made with mature onions, but I like the extra …
Marvin Lunder
10:41 am on Tuesday, August 2, 2011
I just paid $22.87 for an iPad2-64GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $675 which only cost me $62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, http://BuzzSave.com more ›