Today's vegetable recipe: Easy roasted zucchini recipe. Tossed with citrus zest and juice. Low carb. Weight Watchers 1 point. Spring is upon us: any day now, really truly positively. Already my seasonal sensibility for vegetables and other foods is doffing the winter, donning the spring. This easy zucchini hit just the right spot on a cusp-ish day, spring-ish in the morning, wintry-ish in the afternoon. Laffodil-daffodils, where are you?! NEXT TIME I will try-try-try to remember to line the baking sheet with foil! THE QUESTION IS Will Freddie and Alex like the zucchini? Their Mum, my pal Charlotte, is collecting "S is for summer squash" recipes this week. Big news! Their own veggie venture will soon be a book. "The Great Big Veg Challenge" -- how to get your children eating vegetables happily -- will be published in July. Congratulations to my vegetable-curious friends all the way in England! I couldn't be prouder! THE ANSWER IS Apparently Freddie likes it

Today's recipe: Fresh artichokes stuffed with a simple bread-crumb mixture, then baked. Until now, anyone searching A Veggie Venture for artichoke recipes might well come away disappointed. In three years, I've collected only four recipes -- not one calling for fresh artichokes. Nil. Nada. Zip. Zilch. I just didn't 'get' artichokes. They were eeeh, okay, hardly worth the fuss. "Here, just eat the heart," I heard time after time. Eh. I did buy artichokes, half-writing posts in my head right there in the produce department. Two years in a row, their spiked leaves dried to nothing in the fridge. This year, they languished a good week before I forced myself to do something -- anything -- with them. Suddenly, one warmish spring evening, I was inspired to pull out the weapons that anyone veggie averse should have at hand, bacon and cheese . And oh glory, I get it, I finally get it. And yes, artichokes are a tad fussy (especially stuffed) but way easier to tr

One of my favorite kitchen gadgets, a tall narrow pot to steam asparagus. By today's standards, my kitchen is small. Whenever I peer longingly into beautiful new kitchens and wish mine were bigger, more open, more something, I think of my 70-something west-door neighbor who cooked and fed husband and six kids in the same space -- and once again feel content with my kitchen, just the way it is. Few kitchen tools are allowed a permanent home in my kitchen, especially tools that are single-purpose. But my commitment to an asparagus steamer started early in this vegetable recipe odyssey. On Day Three's Lemon Asparagus , I sang the praises of an asparagus steamer. By Day Seven's Asparagus Tapenade , I'd finagled a decent alternative using a 9x13 pan. By Day Seventeen's Ginger Asparagus , I'd rigged one up -- very inexpensively -- using a tall narrow pot from Target and an everyday expandable vegetable steamer. Now, upon the first asparagus sightings, I move this mak

Today's recipe: Homemade cornbread made supper-substantial with ham, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese. A 'concept' recipe. Who's looking for good ways to use up leftover ham? Me too, it seems, always. Add a bowl of soup and this homemade cornbread makes for a filling supper. [ Note to Vegetarians ] NEXT TIME I'll use bigger chunks of cheese so there are pockets of cheesiness. LEFTOVER REPORT Don't forget to refrigerate any leftovers, there's meat in this cornbread! This cornbread remained fresh and moist for the second day. NEW PRODUCT ALERT I love-love-love what I call 'fresh' sun-dried tomatoes. They're not the dried and dusty sun-dried tomatoes that require reconstituting in boiling water, neither are they the sun-dried tomatoes soaked in oil and calories. 'Fresh' sun-dried tomatoes are fat and plump, more like dried plums/prunes. They last in the fridge for several weeks - except that they're easy to snack on, too. Good news,

Even though pickled beet salads are traditional Christmas food in Scandinavia, today's recipe works for a quick Easter vegetable, too. It's just pickled beets and orange slices in a light mayonnaise, sour cream and horseradish sauce. Just look at that bright pink color! Very tasty! Naturally Gluten Free. ~recipe updated, first published way back in 2008~ ~ more recently updated recipes ~ This easy beet salad was one of three favorite new recipes last Christmas. It works so beautifully with ham, it's already on our Easter menu. The combination of beets, sour cream and horseradish makes it much like Borscht Beets . But Swedish Pickled Beetroot Salad is special (better? perhaps!) because of the extra spark from pickled beets and the texture/flavor/color contrast from orange slices. WHERE TO FIND PICKLED BEETS? Our Christmas salad used up the last of some homemade pickled beets but look for pickled beets in the grocery store alongside canned beets. I also supplemented t

Today's recipe for a savory pie, my contribution to a collection of pie recipes at Kitchen Parade, in celebration of Pi Day. Crust made with whole wheat flour and lard. First, the innards: good but not outstanding. I did feel like quite the farm wife, creating supper out of 'air', just cabbage, onion and hard-boiled eggs, especially here on the cusp of winter and spring when farm cellars would be running on empty. Second, the crust. I experimented with two new ingredients, farm-rendered lard and whole wheat flour. (Do these strike anyone else as incongruous, one not as good for you, one very good for you? Do you suppose they cancel themselves out to a neutral?) LARD in PIE CRUST Forever and ever, lard crusts have been coveted for their tenderness. But for the last 20 or so years, lard, as an animal fat, was considered 'bad' for us. These days, the belief is that lard is as good for us as -- butter, say -- so long as it's not hydrogenated. (Want more info about

Say ¡Hola! to the new Weight Watchers zero points soup recipe, the "Mexican" soup. It has a delicious tomato broth with lots of vegetables and some underlying heat. Weight Watchers Friendly, Duh! Low Carb. Gluten Free. Whole 30. Paleo. Not just vegan, " Vegan Done Real ".