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Purple Bell Peppers

Stuffed purple bell peppers

Summer Sunshine

“Late in the summer Lee came in off the street, carrying his big market basket.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

The best summer cooking revolves around as much glorious fresh sweet corn as possible. Piled high with summer vegetables our dinner salads have been graced with the addition of corn barely cooked in butter. A scoop of fragrant corn melts into the salad greens and no dressing is needed to compete with the blast of summer sunshine that adorns our dinner plates. There have been no complaints regarding my interpretation of salad for dinner. But if you must add dressing to your salad, a vinaigrette with a very light touch of vinegar leaves the sweet corn plenty of room to shine. READ MORE . . .

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Spiced Banana Faro Muffins with Ginger Streusel Topping

Spiced Banana Faro Muffins

Lounging Bananas Cause Disturbance

“He lay hidden during the day and went in search of food at night–turnips, a few ears of corn from a crib, a few windfall apples–nothing that would be missed.”

East of Eden, John Steinbeck

Inspiration

Ripe bananas have a haunting quality. In the beginning they hold such great promise as a snack tucked in a lunch bag or perched atop cereal for breakfast. They lounge in the fruit bowl until green becomes yellow— and then brown. When the brown spots appear I wonder where the sunny topical escape went? Still lounging and now forgotten in the fruit bowl I must decide the fate of the very ripe bananas. It is disturbing to throw them away and yet Banana Bread often sounds too mundane. Besides I need three bananas for my Banana Bread recipe, and sometimes I only have two bananas. Bananas can be frozen and I did that once. I ended up with a huge bag of frozen bananas. I just kept adding bananas to the bag. I wasn’t using the bananas, I was storing them. With an inventory of two ripe bananas I decided muffins were to be made. And not just any old boring muffin, I wanted a muffin to cure the lounging banana disturbance. READ MORE . . .