Whole Wheat and Oat Focaccia

We don't eat bread very often, but when we do, it's gotta be good.  No supermarket sandwich loaves here - only a freshly baked ciabatta from Caputo's or a bagel from Court Street Bagels will do.  Recently, we've added homemade focaccia to that list.

Bread baking is often thought to be a daunting task, but ever since I made the revolutionary no-knead bread, I've been less intimidated. 

Vegan Coconut-Oat Pancakes with Blackberry-Peach Compote

It’s January, which means many of us are attempting to eat healthier to negate the many calories packed on over the holidays.  I'm trying to eat better this year, but not because I overate this past month (or did I, hm), but because my detox diet last year made me more attuned to the types of grains I eat, so my sort-of resolution for this year is to eat less gluten and, if I do eat gluten, it should be of the whole grain variety.

Although there is no way I am giving up pizza at Roberta’s. So when I made pancakes for brunch last weekend, I started to scheme about how I could make them healthier. Add to that the fact that, for the past few months, I’ve been getting a number of requests for egg-free recipes, and I came up with this.

Quinoa with Green Summer Vegetables and Herbed Yogurt Dressing

My fridge is overflowing with CSA produce – a result of having been out of town for many weekends in a row – and it is too hot to even think about how to creatively use it all, much less turn on the oven or have the stove turned on for longer than absolutely necessary.

As much as I love the crispness of raw summer produce – sugar snap peas, green beans, tender zucchini – sometimes you just want it to be cooked a little bit. However, heating up a pot of water to blanch green beans or using a skillet to sauté the zucchini would make our already-hot apartment even hotter and, after having blanched a few sets of vegetables last night (in addition to boiling pasta), I was not in the mood to have sweat dripping off my forehead and my shirt soaked through again tonight. And that’s where the microwave comes in.