Inspiration can come from anywhere. On a recent trip to our West Seattle Trader Joe’s, I discovered an incredibly delicious reduced-fat Cilantro Dressing in the refrigerator section. Just one taste of this creamy, garlicky, cilantro-filled sauce had me thinking about … Continue reading
May is Guest Chef Month on A Passionate Plate! Today’s recipe comes from my friend, Jeannie Bastasch – an amazing woman who spends her days inspiring kids to exercise and make heathy food choices at Greenwood Elementary in Seattle. Not … Continue reading
May is Guest Chef Month on A Passionate Plate! Today’s Guest Chef contributor is Caroline Ellison. Post and Recipe by Caroline Ellison One of the fond memories of my younger years is a salad recipe my stepmother used to make. … Continue reading
Thank goodness the gloppy, sloppy, over-dressed Caesar salads everyone served in the 1990′s have all but disappeared. I love the new Caesars showing up with lighter dressings and different types of greens. Yes, the Caesar is back – and so … Continue reading
Here’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately – “the cycles of life”. As a kid, we grew up going to birthday parties for our friends, and to the weddings of our parents’ friends and family members. I still … Continue reading
Do you ever grab those cooking magazines at the grocery checkout? The ones with titles like 101 Low-Fat Chicken Recipes and 250 Dinners Under $10? I have to admit, those magazines are one of my guilty pleasures. While some people check … Continue reading
Oh, my! I’m soooo disappointed in the way Canlis’ Special Salad was portrayed in last night’s episode of Top Chef: Seattle. First of all, I really did want to get this post done before they filmed at Canlis (but I … Continue reading
This salad recipe is for my friend, Travis. A few weeks ago, Travis spent the night at our house. We sat around in the evening drinking wine and talking, and, as often happens in conversations with me, the subject turned … Continue reading
Sometimes, simplicity is the best recipe! Especially when you are working with beautiful, fresh, local ingredients. Check out this fabulous display of tomatoes I found at our local market yesterday: I just couldn’t help myself – I bought just over … Continue reading
Labor Day is less than a week away! Where did the summer go? I need a couple more weeks in August to finish up all of my “harvest” projects. I came home from my weekend of hiking and biking in … Continue reading
Do you love Thai food as much as I do? I just can’t get enough of it! The flavors are all so fresh. And bold. And healthy (unless I lose control and order that amazing “Crack Chicken” – listed as … Continue reading
I think I’ve mentioned that I’m not a huge fan of left-overs? I just find it boring to eat the same thing over and over, again. But, I’m also not a fan of wasting perfectly good food. Since I’m often … Continue reading
Are you looking for a new way to eat your greens? Is your garden bursting with fresh herbs? Are the tomatoes at the local farmer’s market calling your name? Then it’s definitely time to try this Roasted Tomato Galette. Oven-roasted … Continue reading
Ahhhh…the bounties of summer! Mind you, it really hasn’t felt a whole lot like summer around here (it’s a chilly 64° here in Seattle today), and I don’t have my own garden like Mary does, but we do have a really … Continue reading
Watermelon brings back so many memories from my childhood summers. Beautiful platters of red, white and green triangles dotted with shiny, black seeds. Standing in the sand on the beach eating as many of the juicy slices as I … Continue reading
Our book group met last night. It was a fabulously perfect day in Seattle, and we dined in Cathy’s gorgeous backyard amidst all of the blooming flowers, herbs, dogs. Yep! She invited my Yellow Lab, Charley, to hang out with … Continue reading
Joy and I recently attended BlogHer Food 2012 at the Olympic Fairmont Hotel in downtown Seattle. The food at every meal was fantastic – far better than anything I’ve ever eaten at a hotel conference event. One idea we fell … Continue reading
Basmati rice has so much flavor, it makes an excellent cold salad. We love serving this at parties and it makes a wonderful accompaniment for Chicken Breast Marbella. Fresh herbs and a refreshing citrus vinaigrette keep the flavor light. Citrus … Continue reading
Summer grain salads seem to be all the rage right now. I keep seeing recipes for these healthy, yummy salads in every food magazine I pick up! PCC Natural Markets in Seattle has been way ahead of the curve on … Continue reading
Remember that Spicy Korean Grilled Pork from last week? Well, look what happened to the left-overs! This Rice Vermicelli Salad with Spicy Korean Grilled Pork is light and refreshing, yet satisfying with the addition of the pork. Let me just … Continue reading
Cabbage, like a lot of green leafy vegetables, is made up of mostly water. When combined with salt or vinegar, cabbage weeps – and all of that water seeps out, which is why coleslaw often turns soupy. But, if you … Continue reading
Last week I shared a couple of recipes that feature two of my favorite grains, wild rice and quinoa. There is one more grain that makes my top three list and here it is… FAVORITE GRAIN #3 – FARRO Are you … Continue reading
Aloha! I am writing this from our home-away-from-home in Maui, Hawaii. I’m always on the look-out for light, easy, limited-ingredient recipes to enjoy while we are in the condo here. On the flight over, I found the perfect recipe in … Continue reading
Yesterday I wrote about one of my favorite grains, Wild Rice, and shared a protein packed recipe for Wild Rice Salad with Edamame & Tofu. Today it is time to move on to: FAVORITE GRAIN #2 – Quinoa (keen-wah) The … Continue reading
Making the Perfect Potato Salad on Sunday just got me thinking about how much I love making salads – especially the hearty grain-based kind you can turn into a complete meal. So this week I’ve decided to share some of … Continue reading
Naming this recipe Perfect Potato Salad is a bold move. Potato salad is such an iconic American food and there are so many variations, perhaps the title is a bit of a stretch… your Gramma’s potato salad was probably perfect, … Continue reading
After making the fava bean salad from Hell last week (can I say that? It’s true…), I decided there must be a better, faster, easier, and just as tasty salad out there waiting to be discovered. Sometimes you just have to … Continue reading
It’s cold outside. I should be craving something warm and thick, like chowder or stew or curry. But I’m not. I’m hungry for summer. Ripe tomatoes, baby new potatoes and green beans. Tuna, olive oil, anchovies, hard cooked eggs and olives. … Continue reading
Beets are a love or hate kind of food. Marvin and I both LOVE beets, especially pickled beets. Toby thinks beets taste like dirt and pickled beets taste pretty much like pickled dirt. This salad did not change his mind, … Continue reading
Mary is SO right! We are really lucky to have some really great markets in West Seattle. I’m a sucker for those stores that offer a wide selection of freshly made soups, sandwiches and salads because, quite honestly, I firmly used … Continue reading
Marinated cucumbers are refreshing any time of the year. During the winter, choose English cucumbers, if available, for best results. Asian Cucumber Salad Print Recipe type: Salad Author: A Passionate Plate (from Helen Oswald) Refreshing cucumber salad tossed with with … Continue reading
Remember that old saying about a man and his stomach? Well, I think this is the recipe it was referring to. This salad is a man-catcher! Every time I make this salad, the guys gobble it up and ask for … Continue reading
A recipe from Bluebird Grain Farm’s January newsletter inspired me yesterday and I just had to try this. It’s a winter salad featuring apples (which happen to be another great power food) along with Bluebird Grain Farm’s farro which is “sown, grown, … Continue reading
Avocados and I have only recently become friends. Like just in the last year, which is strange since I grew up in California – a place where everybody loves avocados! I used to tell people it was the texture that I … Continue reading
Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! Did you check out Joy’s incredible Peppermint Ice Cream Cane Lane Cake recipe yesterday! Beautiful! I can’t wait to see what other creations come out of Joy’s kitchen in the coming months. If you read my Betty … Continue reading
A simple winter salad composed of crunchy apples, celery and fennel, tossed with grapes, onion and parsley – served on a bed of tender Bibb lettuce… We had a lot of celery in the fridge, and a Honeycrisp apple in … Continue reading
Mary and Joy are two long-time friends and foodies from West Seattle who share their love of cooking on A Passionate Plate!
