junior kitchen

This is one of the kids’ favorite meals. It’s modified (no chilies) from the essential World Vegetarian Cookbook. It’s possible to toss other seasonings in as it simmers, but really, the simple flavors of the vegetables work together in this dish without any extra help. Ingredients 1 cup black-eyed peas (dry or fresh – we […]

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Our family likes foraging for food. Sometimes, we don’t even hike anywhere to do it. Just out the back door, we have a healthy stand of macho ferns, which scientists call Nephrolepis biserrata and New Guineans call dinner. (When eating plants you don’t find at the market or the farm, it’s a good idea to […]

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This is the recipe that is used on the days our littlest one asserts his free will and declines to eat anything healthy. But we know his weakness. He can’t resist cheese…any kind of cheese… and the creamy melted goodness of feta sucks him in every time. He never even notices he’s eating spinach with […]

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This dish, from one of Junior Kitchen’s favorite cook books, was modified slightly but was truly yummy. You know you have a hit on your hands when the table is silent because everyone is so busy eating. Don’t let the length of the recipe put you off! It’s not as involved as it looks at […]

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The junior kitchen family went camping over the weekend, (okay, Kitchen Mom’s idea of camping, because it was an air-conditioned cabin in the woods) and we had an opportunity to do some outdoor grilling. We took along a bunch of vegetables and this Asian cookbook. We modified a couple of the Indian recipes and came […]

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Roasting vegetables is an old standby that never really gets old at our house. My mother-in-law (Nai Nai) makes the best roasted vegetables and we’re all truly happy that she’s willing to share her kitchen secrets with her favorite granddaughter. Our favorite mix of vegetables includes – carrots, parsnips, bell peppers, zucchini, potatoes and onions. […]

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Recently I was given some poblano chiles – fresh peppers about as spicy as watercress – so I looked for a recipe for stuffing them. I found this Mexican recipe in this trusty cook book. The green rice sounded kinda spring like. By following this recipe, we wound up with a lot of extra rice […]

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  Eggplants from the farm are still producing so I decided to make an Indian dish with them. I found this recipe for Eggplant Bharta.         1-1.5 lb eggplant 1 onion – chopped 1 tomato – chopped, or 1 tbsp tomato paste, or 1 tsp tamarind paste 1 tsp cumin seed 1 […]

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Recently we were able to attend farm day at our CSA. This is one day out of the season when the owners host a tour of the farm and explain crop rotation, pest control and all the other good things that farmers know about. The best part for our little ones was being allowed to […]

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a.k.a. Hong Tang Dan Dan Mian. We modified the recipe from this book and were able to purchase all the Chinese ingredients from our local Chinese food market. Noodles (wheat noodles) 1 tsp cooking oil fake-it pork (a broken up veggie burger mixed with tofu) 1/2 cup salted radish (we used Fuling pickle, or zhacai) […]

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