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Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salad

This black bean and corn salad began in a small garden in Woodburn, Oregon. On Wednesdays I drop Benjamin off at his Grandma & Papa’s house. We execute a trade. They get Benjamin for the day, I get a box full of fresh vegetables from their garden. Ok, it’s not really a trade. Benjamin loves going there and would get to with or without a box a vegetables returning home with me. It just sounds more dramatic that way. In the box is usually some combination of corn, bell peppers, zucchini, squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers. My drive home is largely spent thinking about the donuts I am going to buy on the way and what I’m going to do with the amazing produce sitting in the backseat of the car.

Potato Basics: Getting the Most from Your Potatoes

Potatoes are such a staple of our diet that improving the quality of the potato dishes we cook means greatly increasing the quality of our meals in general. Think about the weight of a brick. Every year the average American eats the weight of 17 bricks worth of potatoes. That’s 110 pounds of potatoes per person, per year. It’s easy to see how it happens. Hash browns at breakfast, chips with our sandwich at lunch, and roasted potatoes with dinner. The next day it’s home fries, a bowl of potato salad, and mashed potatoes. I could easily create a menu for a week without repeating a potato dish once.  Maybe it’s because we eat them so frequently and in such quantity that potatoes are so easily taken for granted. Whatever the reason, it’s time we start paying more attention to the potato.