Some recipes earn a place in our kitchens not because they are sophisticated or complicated, but simply because we love them. This apple crisp comes from the very first cookbook I ever bought as a eleven year old: Betty Crocker’s Cook Book for Boys and Girls. It was a simple recipe then, and all these...Read More

If you think sous vide cooking is mainly about producing a perfectly medium-rare steak, think again. A precision-controlled water bath is one of the most versatile tools in the kitchen. It can gently cook poultry, fish, meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit, custards, and cheesecakes; incubate homemade yogurt; and handle other foods and kitchen projects where accurate...Read More

Quince may be one of the most intriguing fruits at the farmers market. Golden yellow, wonderfully fragrant, and shaped a little like a cross between an apple and a pear, quince has been cultivated for thousands of years. It appears in ancient mythology, wedding traditions, and kitchens throughout Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East....Read More

Discover practical ways to turn coffee grounds, eggshells, food scraps, rinse water, and even a thrift-store colander into useful resources for a healthier, more sustainable garden.Read More

Few fruits deliver as much aroma and flavor in such a small package as passionfruit. Beneath its sometimes wrinkled purple or golden skin is a fragrant, jewel-like pulp filled with crunchy edible seeds. The flavor is unmistakably tropical—bright, tart, floral, citrusy, and sweet all at once. Even a spoonful can transform a bowl of yogurt,...Read More

Got tomatoes? Of course you do. By late summer, gardens, farmers markets, and kitchen counters seem to be overflowing with them. We turn tomatoes into sauce, salsa, salads, soups, and sandwiches—but dessert? Why not? Tomatoes are fruit, after all. In this old-fashioned style of spice cake, ripe tomatoes provide much the same magic that zucchini...Read More

There is something about a truly ripe tomato that makes you stop and pay attention. Juicy, fragrant, sun-warmed, and full of flavor, late-summer tomatoes bear very little resemblance to the pale, firm tomatoes found in supermarkets during the rest of the year. And here on the Central Coast, some of the very best tomatoes arrive...Read More

Many of the people who stopped by the Edible Paradise booth this past weekend at the Aptos Farmers Market asked about the focaccia we used for sampling. It is a bread I’ve made for years and years, and one of those dependable recipes I return to again and again — so, as promised, here is...Read More

If you’ve never eaten a perfectly ripe fresh fig, you’re in for a treat. With their tender skin, jewel-toned flesh, and rich, honeyed sweetness, fresh figs are one of summer’s most anticipated farmers market fruits. Right now, you’ll find beautiful figs at Minazzoli Farms, with Kashiwase Farms and Borba Family Farms bringing more as the...Read More

For generations, potatoes were one of the great workhorses of the kitchen: inexpensive, filling, easy to store, and endlessly adaptable. Somewhere along the way, though, the humble potato acquired a complicated reputation. It became associated with carbohydrates, blood sugar spikes, weight gain, and—perhaps most unfairly—with the nutritional baggage of French fries, chips, loaded baked potatoes,...Read More