Grandmother Phillips’ Fried Okra

Grandmother Phillips’ Fried Okra

I remember my father’s paternal grandmother as a strong, Southern woman. She was a force. I only saw her on holidays but I will never forget her cooking, which we ate at home all throughout the year. She used to freeze her fresh-from-the-garden, hand-battered okra…

Crispy Cauliflower + Homemade Ranch

Crispy Cauliflower + Homemade Ranch

As a vegetarian, I have no appetite for a food like chicken. However, I’m not crazy. I like food, and I enjoy the enticing smell of fried chicken. I get a little hungry when the Publix fried chicken commercial comes on [let’s be honest– it’s…

10-Step Black Bean Burger

10-Step Black Bean Burger

As a long-time vegetarian I have explored the many meat alternatives available in grocery store aisles. I like a good number of them for their flavor, but always have some concern about the contents of what I am eating. For instance, the fake soy bacon…

Winter Veggie Stew

Winter Veggie Stew

Apologies for the absence- a couple things have happened in the past month or so, including a wedding (yes, ours) and a honeymoon (also ours!). We are back to cooking and today we are pining for the long, lost seasons! In California everyone raves about…

Vegetarian Vidalia Onion Soup

Vegetarian Vidalia Onion Soup

Several weeks ago, I found myself sitting across from my sister at an Alabama restaurant as she savoured every piping hot bite of a delicious French onion soup. Of course, it contained beef broth so I was stuck staring rudely. With every sip, I knew…

Smashed Potato Soup

Smashed Potato Soup

Whenever I want a hearty, vegetarian-friendly soup I go to this smashed potato soup. Recently, I spruced it up a bit to make it more flavorful and easier to actually make. Many potato soup recipes call for a blender or food processor. I have several…

Smashed Potatoes

Smashed Potatoes

Smashed potatoes always look so delicious, but before making them I worried that the potatoes would dry out and end up tasting chalky. This recipe solves that problem by boiling them in broth prior to pan frying. As a result it imparts a spectacular flavor…

Minestra con pasta e fagioli

Minestra con pasta e fagioli

Pasta e fagioli is a very traditional, Italian stew (pasta and beans), and I want to talk a little bit about the terminology here. I have labelled this post in particular as minestra. Any students of Italian will naturally question this, because the word that most commonly refers to…

Ginger Spice Cookies

Ginger Spice Cookies

Ginger Spice Cookies originally posted in 2014. Updated in 2019 with new pictures and recipe card. You can always tell when a recipe has been loved and tested many times. Little notes are written in the margins, sometimes with different handwriting. The evidence from years…

Chocolate Pie

Chocolate Pie

Original recipe for chocolate pie posted in November 2014. Updated with recipe card and new pictures October 2019 as part of the Eat Joyfully Vegetarian Thanksgiving Series. I must confess– I have never made a pie before. Pie is not really my favorite thing to…