Recipe for Chicken and Veggie Kabobs with Garlic and Basil

I really love the idea behind Alysha's Virtual Recipe Club, and I've always felt bad when the deadline gets past me and I haven't managed to participate, so this month when guest host Erika from Tummy Treasure announced Food On a Stick as the theme, I wanted to be sure not to miss it. I finally managed to make something on a stick over the weekend, when a friend came for dinner.

Recipe for Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage (Kalyn's Lower Carb Version)

Cabbage is a healthy choice no matter what kind of eating plan you're following. It's low in carbs and calories, and is one of the world's healthiest foods. I've always been a fan of Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage, and I had a great version of it when I was visiting Texas in April, but when I looked for recipes online, none of them sounded quite like what I had in mind until I found Elise's verson at Simply Recipes. If you're not concerned about carbs, you may want to just ignore my version and make Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage from Simply Recipes, since Elise's recipes are consistently good and well-written. But I wanted a version with less sugar, and used a blend of sugar and Splenda for the dish I came up with. I did make a couple of other minor changes. This turned out to be really tasty, and even with the one tablespoon of sugar I used, still very low in carbs overall. (One tablespoon of sugar has 12 carbs.)

Garden Update #2

If you saw my first garden update last Sunday, you're going to be amazed how much plants can grow in only a week. I think the surprising things you find some mornings when you're checking your garden is part of what makes it so fun to grow your own food. This weekend it's rainy and cloudy in Utah, but luckily on Saturday morning I got up extra early, full of the anticipation of three days off from work, and went out to the garden to take a few photos. Here are some things that caught my eye this week.

Recipe for Barley Salad with Mint and Lemon (and a bit about growing mint)

Hooray, it's time for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Lucullian Delights this week. This weekend I'm blogging about mint, an herb I first posted about for Weekend Herb Blogging #7, back in November of 2005. Since that time I've had a lot of people write to me or leave comments about how they'd love to be able to grow their own herbs. If you're one of those people, mint is probably the easiest of all herbs to grow. It doesn't seem to need much attention, and thrives in places where other herbs probably wouldn't last. In fact, about the only problem with growing mint is the tendancy it has to travel, sending runners under the ground, and if you're not careful a small mint patch can completely overtake your lawn or garden.

Weekend Herb Blogging Is On the Road!

Just a friendly reminder that this week Weekend Herb Blogging is being hosted by fabulous photographer and cook Ilva from Lucullian Delights. Ilva will post the recap on Monday (in Italy) which means if you want to join in the herb blogging fun this weekend, you need to send her your contribution by Sunday afternoon in the U.S. (Send your links to i_beretta AT yahoo DOT it). Also be sure to link to Ilva in your post with the words Weekend Herb Blogging so people can find the recap on Monday (http://lucullian DOT blogspot DOT com). Then don't forget to go back on Monday to see the interesting things people have sent. I've already noticed a couple of things posted on other blogs, and I'm glad people seem to like the idea of letting WHB travel around the globe.

Dining in D.C.: Merkado Kitchen.

This is the second in a series of reports on places I ate when I visited Washington D. C. recently. You can check my page of restaurant reviews to read others. Note to self: take better notes when you're going to write about a restaurant if you haven't been there before.

Dreamfield's Lasagna is in My Store!

No recipe today, but an exciting announcement. I was shopping this weekend and I finally found Dreamfields lasagna in my store! It was $2.99 a box, not cheap, but worth it to find a product where you can make lasagna with only about 10 net carbs per servings. For those who don't know what all the fuss is about, Dreamfield's makes low carb pasta that tastes just like regular pasta. That probably doesn't matter to some people, but to those who are trying to eat the lower carb, lower glycemic way, this product means that lasagna days are here again! I have a great recipe for Chicken Lasagna that I'll be sharing soon.

Weekend Herb Blogging #33 Recap

Hard to believe that this is week #33 for Weekend Herb Blogging, the food blog event that started as a joke and turned into a fun way to learn about new herbs, plants, veggies and flowers. Starting next weekend we're going to turn Weekend Herb Blogging into a traveling event every other weekend and the first guest host will be Ilva from Lucullian Delights. Ilva will post the recap on Monday (in Italy) which means you need to send her your contribution by Sunday afternoon in the U.S. (Send your links to i_beretta AT yahoo DOT it). Also be sure to link to Ilva in your post with the words Weekend Herb Blogging so people can find the recap on Monday (http://lucullian DOT blogspot DOT com).

Garden Update #1

Since last weekend, when I did a post about planting my garden, I've been amazed at the number of people who have written to me saying how much they wished they could have a garden. I guess I've taken my garden a little bit for granted, since I've always had one since the time I first bought my house.

Recipe for Grilled Tuna with Cherry Tomato Salsa

Let me just say right up front that these tomatoes are from Costco, a fact that I hope won't distress the Eat Local people too terribly, since some of my very favorite food bloggers are quite abuzz with the idea of eating local right now. Let's be realistic, in Utah the farmers markets don't even open until June, so there is no chance I could be doing that much eating local at this time of the year. Never fear, in July, August, and September I'll be eating produce from my very own garden, about as local as you can get.

Dining in D.C. at East St. Cafe

A few weeks ago I spent a fun five days in Washington D.C. and I promised I'd share my impressions of a few of the restaurants I visited. I'm starting with East St. Cafe, my all time favorite place to eat in D.C. This is a place I never missed visiting in D.C. back in the days when I was going to there four or five times a year.

Grilled Halibut with Basil Vinaigrette

This is the last in a series of ideas about what to do with leftover basil vinaigrette, but this was so wonderful that I'd make basil vinaigrette just to make this recipe. The idea of combining basil with halibut came from the recipe for Grilled Garlic Basil Halibut in my recipe archives. That dish was something I used to make at Lake Powell, years ago when I was catering houseboat trips, and people were crazy over it.

A Day Without Food Blogs (Help Save the Internet)

Food blogs all over the world are uniting today in posting this message instead of showing photos of food or writing about recipes. We're asking our readers to get involved. The future of the internet could be determined by a small group of big companies. Imagine this scenario:

You've come home after a hard day of work. You've had a nice dinner, and now you're ready to turn on the computer and catch up on blogs. You go to your bookmarks, and click on one of your favorite food blogs.

Then you wait for the page to load.
And wait.
And wait.
And wait.

Weekend Herb Blogging #32 Recap

It's Mother's Day, when we acknowledge Mothers for their ability to love unconditionally. My own mother died in 1998, so this is a kind of bittersweet day for me. On Friday I visited her grave and spent a little time recalling how truly I had one of the most incredible Mothers anyone could hope for. I still think about her all the time, and often wish I could be more like her (more patient, more loving, and more generous with other people.) It's something I'm always working on.

Weekend Herb Blogging #32 - Time to Plant the Garden!

In my mind, the best day of the year is the day you get your garden tilled. I love seeing the dark earth turned over, ready for new beginnings and promising so much goodness to come. Today was garden tilling and planting day at my house in Salt Lake.

I totally admire those disciplined folks who buy seeds early and start them indoors or in greenhouses, but for me, that hasn't ever been something I've managed to do. Every year I buy plants for at least 90% of my garden, and plant them, along with a few seeds, sometime in late April. This year I'm several weeks behind getting things in the ground, but the weather in Salt Lake has been kind of rainy, and I've been traveling. Here's a peek at my garden and what I'm growing this year:

Signs of Spring in Salt Lake: Kalyn's Kitchen Becomes Kalyn's Garden

Originally I left these photos for my brother Rand, to post while I was off having fun in Washington D.C. However, Rand wrote his own food blogger post instead, which was was great fun. Now I'm posting the photos due to another sign of spring: I've been so busy working in my garden every night after work this week that I haven't really even had time to cook! It's hard to blog about food if you're not cooking!

Kalyn's Low Carb Coleslaw Recipe

Possibly I'm not sophisticated, but I have to confess I love coleslaw, just the basic sweet-sour stuff you make with the already-shredded mix from the grocery store. It's a salad I think is the perfect side dish to have with anything you've cooked on a grill. Last summer, after I'd been eating the lower carb way for a while, I experimented a bit and created this recipe for low carb coleslaw. When I served it for a family barbecue, several people commented that it was the best coleslaw they'd ever had! Now that grilling season is here again, I decided it was time to give this recipe a photo.

Out of the Kitchen, Into the Classroom: National Teacher Day

In the U.S. yesterday was National Teacher Day. This is the day once a year that everyone is supposed to honor teachers, which is what they do in this country instead of paying us anywhere near what we should be getting paid for job that requires such a complex set of skills to do it well.

Grilled Asparagus with Parmesan

In April 2007 I posted an updated version of this recipe with a photo.   (At that time it wasn't possible to move the post forward without breaking the link, so that was a new post.)   I have removed this old post so the recipe doesn't come up twice in search engines, bit I am leaving this page here in case anyone has a bookmark for the old recipe.  If so, you can still find it by using the link above. 

Weekend Herb Blogging #31 Recap

I'm home from a whirlwind trip to D.C., where I had some amazing dinners which I'll be blogging about over the next few weeks. D.C. is really such a restaurant town, and this trip I went to my all-time favorite spot and tried out a few new ones. The weather was delightful, and I visited the Museum of the American Indian, where I tried their legendary wild rice salad. It's fun to get away, but it's always nice to be home.

Gadget bloggers don't have to garnish.

We gadget bloggers have it easy. With a capital E. When my sister Kalyn asked me if I'd publish a few posts she had prepared (while she was off painting Washington D.C. blue), I agreed. I even asked her if she'd mind if I did a post or two. How hard can the cooking blog thing be, right? Wrong! This is HARD. I tip my wooden spoons to every last food blogger on the planet. You all deserve a vacation. You all deserve a foot massage. And you all deserve a month off from cooking, and from doing the dishes. Make that two months. Seriously.

Salt Lake City Tulips

I'm off in Washington, D.C. having fun with a good friend. This person is a total foodie like me, so you know we'll be having some amazing dinners while we're there. Believe it or not, I'm totally away from the computer, but I'll catch up on e-mail and comments when I return. I'll be home in time to post the recap for Weekend Herb Blogging on Sunday. Thanks to my brother Rand for agreeing to post these photos that I took last weekend so my blog is not completely boring while I'm gone. I've also given Rand permission to create his own post if he wants to, so stay tuned to see if he decides to try being a food blogger.

My Favorite Summer Tomato Salad with Goat Cheese and Basil Vinaigrette

This salad is something I've been meaning to republish with a photo for quite a while, and it really is my very favorite way to eat tomatoes in the summer when they're ripe and juicy. I picked up a package of tomatoes from Costco which smelled good and ended up being very flavorful, and I had a few that needed to be used up before I go away. And since my version of Eat Local is going to be (1) grow as much of my own food in the garden as I can and (2) don't waste food, I needed to use the tomatoes, especially since they were rather pricey. I also had some Basil Vinaigrette in the fridge from the Lightly Steamed Asparagus with Basil Vinaigrette that I contributed for Asparagus Aspirations, so I needed to use that up too.