kitchen adventures
Rhubarb is a treat of the early spring, and my CSA was generous with it this year. While it’s long gone from the farm-stand, I kept a bit in my refrigerator, and produced amazingly good and easy rhubarb tarts. You will need baked tart shells. You could make your own,
Sometimes you need to work a bit of household magic: make a meal appear out of nowhere, fast. This quick and splendid spaghetti with clam sauce for 2 is a perfect example. Keep spaghetti and a can of clams in your pantry, and if you also have garlic, a lemon, a bit of
My idea of a perfect summer meal is a great salad and home-baked bread. But who wants to turn on the oven on the hottest days of the year? Relief is at hand! Use what you might think of as cold weather equipment: bake in your slow cooker (crock pot).
There’s something about baking for the holidays that’s relaxing and exciting at the same time. It’s a great pleasure to bake in anticipation of sharing good things with friends and family. Brownies with Jammy Bits are a very special brownie at my house. They are intensely chocolatey, moist and chewy, and
Gingerbread hedgehog cookies are undeniably cute, and they’re a favorite in my family.  They’re a simple spicy gingerbread cut-out, decorated with icing and sprinkles. They ship well and taste great, and will last quite a long time in an airtight tin. This is a basic gingerbread cut-out cookie, good to
This is an unusual cake: it’s baked with the frosting right in the pan! Chocolate upside-down cake is not only odd, it’s delicious, and has become a family favorite. Equipment is important here. I use a contour pan, which is rounded at the bottom edge. That pan makes the cake easy to
I’ve been meaning to write about making ratatouille for a few weeks now. I don’t mean the beautiful baked version from the cartoon movie – wonderful though that is, it’s not the one I make every year, late in tomato season, when all the ingredients are ready fresh from the
We’ve been home from vacation for a few weeks, now. I’ve been making a LOT of bread from the wheat we brought back from Montana, including this no-knead bread. I’ve marked this particular post “Local Harvest” – while the wheat wasn’t grown in Michigan, we were 20 miles from the farm when
Tomato beef is one of those summer dishes that uses garden produce and what’s on hand. It’s a fake stir-fry: things are cooked one layer at a time, bundled into a large bowl, then mixed and served. Don’t be alarmed by the length of the recipe – it’s all chop
Everybody loves fresh bread, right? It tastes amazing. Now imagine really fresh bread made with freshly ground flour – flour that you grind yourself. And imagine it being easier than you ever dreamed of. I was offered a Mockmill to work with – and of course I said YES, and I’m going to tell
It all started with a vision: a nice round loaf of country French bread, full of flavor and goodness. With the Mockmill attachment, I finally had the means to grind my own grain. I wanted to make bread in a fairly simple way – no sourdough and no four day procedure here! I
This blog focuses on what’s local and in season. I do make some exceptions, though: my wheat and flour do not come from local growers. I like bananas, avocados, and ginger, none of which grow anywhere nearby. And I love peaches from the Peach Truck – glorious peaches, trucked from
I’m Maurita Plouff, and I write about cooking and preserving the local harvest in Southeast Michigan. Any recipe you find here is something I have cooked myself, and enjoyed, and think you might like too. I invite you to try the recipes, and leave comments.