Dena's Recipe Exchange

A Quick Garlic Spear Pasta Recipe

2009-07-03T10:57:00.001-07:00

Here's a yummy pasta dish I cooked up last night, recipe requested by Katie* in a comment on my last post, who got garlic spears in her CSA and is wondering what the heck to do with them. (See? This is a full-service blog: you ask for it, we serve it right on up.) A quick...

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Menu Plan for the Week

2009-07-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

Whoa, did this week get away from me or what? And how on earth is it that it's nearly the freaking 4th of July?!?!?! Anyway.... here's what we've been and will be cooking up around here this week! (Anything in pink with an asterisk* is from the Farmer's Market.) Sunday:...

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My Sesame-Soy Soba Noodles Are Famous!

2009-07-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

Er, or something. But my recipe did make it onto the New England Fine Living website, in their Healthy Summer Recipes section! Check it out: http://www.nefineliving.com/Sesame-SoySoba-Noodles.html It's true, I don't live in New England and I probably don't live what most...

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Green Bananas? Green Coffee? Green Tea?

2009-06-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

Sure, all of these exist. But what about environmentally-friendly tropical fruit, coffee, and tea? Grist has a great Q & A on this topic today. I myself try to follow the "doom-mitigating action steps," like always buying organic and trying for as close to sustainably...

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Menu Plan for the Week

2009-06-23T15:22:00.000-07:00

This is a little belated, I realize, but -- we just got back from camping in the Willamette National Forest right alongside the McKenzie River! It was fantastic and gorgeous and I promise to post photos and recipes of our camp food soon. For now, here's what we're eating...

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Top Chef Master Indeed!

2009-06-16T12:18:00.000-07:00

So...remember I was in San Francisco a little while ago? Well, I got to meet a few really awesome people when I was there. And one of them is a personal hero of mine, whom I've met before but have always been a little starstruck over. This time, I just talked to her, and...

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Almond Biscotti

2009-06-09T17:46:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to get three recipes from the sweet Chef Mike, kind of a triptych -- today's is the last, which follows up on this one and this one, using the vanilla extract you made at home. Almond Biscotti Adapted from Williams Sonoma's Savoring Desserts Yields 2...

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Menu Plan for the Week

2009-06-07T20:57:00.001-07:00

Aaaaaactually, hubby and I are on a mini-vacation in Bend, Oregon for most of this week, so our menu plan is pretty sparse! I definitely plan on making a spring version of my Quinoa Pilaf (with yummy Italian soy-sausage) and perhaps one last ode to asparagus with this when...

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Dan Tobin's Breakfast Nachos

2009-06-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

Remember this post? Well, we've got a follow-up, with an honest-to-goodness recipe for Breakfast Nachos. And the scary part? They sound goooooooood. Kinda like chilaquiles. There you go, Dan -- you've perfected Boston Chilaquiles. I'll send you 10% for referencing the...

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Learning to Eat

2009-06-03T10:46:00.000-07:00

How many parents do you know who make separate food for their children? Who bargain with their kids at mealtime ("If you eat one piece of broccoli, you can have dessert")? Who are constantly struggling with trying to get their kids to eat anything? I feel like I see this...

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Sesame-Soy Soba Noodles

2009-06-01T21:26:00.000-07:00

I promised a delicious summer evening dinner, and boy do I have one: Sesame-Soy Soba Noodles. Full of flavor, really easy to make, and not too hot to eat on those summer nights when it's so warm and lovely, you're still in tank tops, skirts, and flip-flops at 9:30pm as...

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Traveling & Recipe Coming Soon

2009-05-30T11:29:00.001-07:00

I've been in San Francisco for most of this week for work, so I apologize that this blog has been quiet these past few days. But I promise a delicious recipe is on its way very soon -- perfect for hot summer night dinners. You know, where you can't bear the thought of...

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To Live Free

2009-05-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! Hope you're taking this day and beginning of this wonderful season to spend some time outside -- and hopefully cooking outside! Nothing is better than grilled food on a beautiful Memorial Day. And in honor of living free....here's a little...

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Jack Daniel's Ice Cream

2009-05-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

While you're out vanilla bean shopping to make your own homemade vanilla extract, you may as well pick up an extra bean to make some homemade ice cream, especially now that summer is well on its way. Might be a great Memorial Day weekend treat! This recipe is also...

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The Thing With Feathers

2009-05-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

Hope doesn't come from calculating whether the good news is winning over the bad. It's simply a choice to take action. ~ Anna Lappé Anna Lappé and Frances Moore Lappé are the authors of Diet for a Small Planet and Grub (among other books) and founders of the Small Planet...

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Homemade Vanilla Extract

2009-05-15T11:25:00.000-07:00

*Plus a bonus recipe for vanilla sugar! Just say NO to the insanely overpriced stuff you get in the store in the teeny little bottles -- and especially skip the faux vanilla extract that's not even made with real vanilla. Now you can make your own! I am so going to do...

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Breakfast of Champions

2009-05-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

OMG I just had to share this with you. My best friend's sister's husband (uh...yeah), Dan, is one half of the hilarious genius mastermind team behind this new comic called the Urban Blah. And today's is priceless. Because I love love love me some nachos. The thought of...

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Still Tasty

2009-05-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

Still Tasty. No, that's not the working title of my memoirs. It's an awesome site that I heard about from a friend blogger that gives you the answer to the eternal question we've all asked ourselves after leaving pizza out overnight by mistake: "Can I still eat...

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Meal Planning for Beginners

2009-05-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

How do you make a menu for the week? I realized, after posting my menu plan on Monday and receiving the following comment from my friend Nzinga, that I've been just assuming meal planning comes easy and is something everyone knows how to do automatically. "Seeing this...

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Menu Plan for the Week

2009-05-04T21:18:00.000-07:00

Here's what we're eating for the week. Someone asked me recently how I can manage to plan out what we're eating for the week here at Casa Dena, and I had to tell them the truth: I can't imagine not doing it. Honestly -- how else do you know what to buy when you go to the...

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Hello, Lover....

2009-05-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Good morning! P.S. Extra bonus points to anyone who can name the city in which this latte was brewed. A hint: it is not Eugene.

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Ah, All-Clad. But is it worth it?

2009-04-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, look. I drool over All-Clad cookware like the rest of us. I often wonder if it's a scam and I am merely falling for a pretty pan. But I don't think that's true. Every test and comparison I've ever seen or read about always puts the All-Clad at the top. And this is...

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Menu Plan for the Week (belated)

2009-04-29T14:02:00.000-07:00

So remember when I mentioned I travel to San Francisco regularly for work? Well, guess where I am this week. :-) But I still have a menu plan -- in order to cut costs while I'm gone, I always cook up a storm of food to leave in the fridge for hubby. The trick with these...

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I Won, I Won!

2009-04-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

Omigosh! Look what I won: a copy of Eating Close to Home by Elin England! THANK YOU, Our Home Works! Yay! Here's what I'll be reading and what I promise to share with you as I make my way through this book: In this book, local author Elin England put together a compendium...

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So Whaddya Think?

2009-04-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

There certainly have been a lot of changes around here lately! What do you think of the new look? I loved this template when I first saw it. And now I've looked at it for so long I no longer have an objective eye. I can't tell if it's the right look for Dena's Recipe...

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