Originally Posted on 12/30/2013 for Huffington Post Meatless Monday: First Fruits of the Harvest As they say in Swahili, “Habari gani?” This translates into a combination of “How are you?” and “What’s shakin’?” It’s about the limits of my Swahili, but it’s useful now, being the traditional greeting at Kwanzaa. Any holiday that takes its…
Ratatouille
Posted originally on 08/13/2012 for Huffington Post Meatless Monday: True Stories “From Malawi to Michigan, people and organizations are building better ways to eat today so that all of us can eat well tomorrow,” says food activist and author Raj Patel. “This knowledge demands to be shared and spread.” With “Hoops Dreams” director Steve…
BEAN AND FENNEL STEW
Posted originally on 01/06/2014 for Huffington Post Meatless Monday in the City of Pleasant Living To start the new year off right, a true story in which the seemingly impossible comes to pass — and in my ‘hood, of all places. Sprawling Miami-Dade County may be best known for Miami, where I live, but it…
Summer Surprised Us
“Summer surprised us,” writes T.S. Eliot. The phrase comes early in “The Wasteland’ and it surprises the reader, too, already so lost in the poem’s rich layers as to be startled by these five simple syllables that come in the seventh line. Summer always surprises me, especially September, which I still associate with fall, with…
Hopping John
Call me a bit of a rebel, I’m not a big on holiday traditions. For obvious reasons, I’m fine with a turkeyless Thanksgiving. I’m likewise fine with a treeless Christmas, a menorahless Chanukah. I do like New Year’s though, with champagne on New Year’s Eve and hopping john New Year’s Day. There is nothing glamorous…
Ghent — On Board for Vegetarian Day
On Board for Vegetarian Day Can you legislate a meatless life? The folks in Ghent are trying. According to a United Nations report, livestock is to blame for nearly a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions. The mayor of Ghent has taken this to heart and has launched Veggiedag, in which civil servants and school children will…
Heretical Vegetable Tagine With Turnips
What you’ll probably never see on a Gourmet cover — “Our top ten turnip recipes!” Face it, turnips are no one’s favorite vegetable (are they yours? Talk to me.). And yet they’re as much a part of the vegetable kingdom as the more popular potato, they’re almost indestructible, they last for ages, the staple of…
Ital Vital Farmers Market Caribbean Stew
In his poem, “To His Coy Mistress,” metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) wrote, “Had we but world enough and time/My vegetable love would grow/Vast as empires and more slow.” By this, he meant in a perfect world, we’d have the luxury of time and a love that would grow exponentially, organically, unfolding and revealing itself…
Lovely for Lent Black-Eyed Peas With Fennel and Kale
Some people (and you know who you are) do not share recipes. It’s time to give, darlings. Wouldn’t you rather be known as a big-hearted person who shares the wealth? And even if you write out your prized recipe in painstaking detail, your friend’s version will come out different. Different stove, different cookware,…
