Wow. 97 degrees! I don’t want to do much more than lounge in the air conditioning and read a book. I spent an hour or so watering plants this morning, and it just about did me in. Now, I’m enjoying the water pictured above. Just add cucumber and lemon slices and a few sprigs of […]
Spring completely blindsided me this year. I still thought I might try cross-country skiing some weekend, and I had a bundle of root vegetables that I was planning to roast on a chilly evening. It took three near-80 degree days for me to realize that the window of opportunity for these events had almost […]
Today in Pittsburgh was a bit more like a typical winter. Cold, snowy and wet. A perfect day for a warm cup of ginger tea. Use about a 1/2 inch nob of fresh ginger and thinly slice it – you want as much surface area as possible. (You can peel it first if you like, […]
Since I’ve been proclaiming the benefits of warm foods during the winter, I thought I’d share this tasty split-pea soup I adapted from various recipes on the web. It’s vegetarian-based (although I doctored it up with bacon which I highly recommend!) Here goes: olive oil for pan sea salt (I used smoked salt from Trader […]
Congee! Otherwise known as jook. Or to be really obvious, rice porridge. Whatever you call it, it’s a traditional Chinese food (although many cultures do something similar) that is very simple to make and extremely nourishing. The basic recipe is 1 part rice (you can use any kind although whole grain is best) to about […]
I shared this recipe with my clients last year (indebted to herbalist Rebecca Snow for this), and wanted to post it here again for those that haven’t seen it. I’m a big believer in prevention – strengthening the body so it doesn’t succumb to the germs that it will inevitably come into contact with is […]
This is so good and simple. I don’t even know if I can call it a recipe with so few ingredients! It’s a tasty, surprisingly creamy drink, and it’s also medicinal. One of the patterns of disharmony that Chinese medical texts speak of is “summer heat” – it shows up as a throbbing headache, a […]
Kale is such a nutritious, delicious food – it has the most protein of any of the green leafy vegetables and is loaded with lots of other vitamins and minerals. I actually didn’t start eating kale until my early 20’s. My brother always fed it to his pet iguana – never knew it was good […]
