An old-fashioned recipe for coleslaw, just cabbage in a "boiled" dressing. ~recipe & photo updated 2010~ 2005 Original: The men and kids at the table loved the taste of this basic salad dressing recipe. "It tastes like real coleslaw," repeated one after the other. For the record, I loved its crunch but was so-so on the taste, wanting more zip. The recipe comes from Lost Recipes: Meals to Share with Friends and Family by Marion Cunningham, reviewed and adapted by Amanda Hesser in the New York Times Magazine in early July. And I have some real gripes with the recipe. It calls for soaking the halved cabbage in cold water for an hour in the fridge before mixing in the dressing. Why? Perhaps to crisp up the cabbage? Is it a necessary step with a fresh head straight from the garden? I did follow it but even then couldn't figure out if it made a difference. When unusual techniques are called for, "why" is an important question to answer. UPDATE : Want ...

A Veggie Venture's Favorite Summer Vegetables & Salads Tomato & Zucchini Salad ... though really, any vegetables with crunch would do ... a staple this summer as well as last ... just veggies tossed with green onion, a bit of cheddar, fat-free Italian dressing and fresh basil Chipotle Chickpea Salad ... this time with black beans (what grocery store only carries organic chickpeas at 3X the price? that would be St Louis' Schnucks ... ) and bulked up with corn and sweet peppers, a great summery salad, just a touch of heat from chipotles in adobo sauce From the Kitchen Parade summer archives Rhubarb Country Cobbler ... made with Minnesota's gorgeous fresh rhubarb (frozen works too) ... a simple unadorned cobbler ... in fact, making it again for the first time in a long while, I wondered if it might need lemon zest or cinnamon ... but no, it's perfectly simply and perfectly delicious ... this received grins and groans, all around ... Berry B...

Will you please just trust me on this one? This is a gazpacho like you've never had before ... and utterly completely spectacularly "summer". Packed with the sweet of fruit and the savory of vegetables, it's so special that it can be a starter, an entree and even ... yes, dessert. And ... kids and grown-ups BOTH eat it up! Find the recipe in this week's Kitchen Parade column . (c) Copyright 2006 Kitchen Parade

Remember the pithy wisdom of 5 a Day ? Forget it. It's not enough, not anymore. When it comes to fruits and veggies, More Matters. (I sn't it too bad that "veggies and fruits" doesn't slip off the tongue, or down the throat for that matter, more easily?) So says the Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) , which in 2007 will launch a big new campaign to encourage the consumption of more fruits and veggies ... what a good idea, yes?! (Who the heck is PBH? I wondered, too. It's a trade group that represents "growers, shippers, packers, merchandisers, commodity boards, trade associations, food industry organizations, health insurers, health professionals and retailers". That means it's all about promoting the produce industry ... you know, creating demand for produce, selling more produce, developing new markets for produce. But hey, at least it's not tobacco or gambling or ... ) The new campaign will match up with the new USDA die...

Setting: The wonderful St Paul downtown farmers market, which evoked a wistfulness for the Ferry Market in San Francisco, even if I've never been ... Farm Stand Sign: "If you like spinach, you'll love amaranth!" Thought Number One: "Ooo! Something new! " Thought Number Two: " Weekend Herb Blogging " at Kalyn's Kitchen! According to Wikipedia , amaranth greens go by lots of names, chinese cabbage, hinn choy, yin tsoi, callaloo, tampala and quelite. In my typical online and offline sources, there are virtually no * recipe * references to amaranth greens. Those I found indicated only, "Peppery like arugula or radicchio. Cook like any green." And so I did! Just garlic and ginger. The red color remains rather than washing away so it would be a great bed for broiled or grilled fish. And it doesn't cook down as much as spinach. I read that the beautiful purply-red color will withstand a soup. I did make a batch, but with chicken stock so...

My favorite way to truly savor that first hot beet, so simple, so sublime. From the size of the collection of beet recipes alone, it'll come as no surprise that there's a special spot in my palate for beets . But this recipe (if you can call something so supremely simple such) has changed my beet-cooking habits forever. You see, every few weeks, I roast a potful of beets, this is My Favorite Way to Roast Beets , usually while busy in the kitchen with supper but never intending to eat them til the next day or later. Now, forever more, as soon as they're cooked, I shall slice one warm beet, sprinkle the slices with good salt and sweet paprika, dab them with butter. Then I'll sit, better to observe the paprika and beet juice swirl orange-magenta with golden whorls of butter; then, only then, will I sllllooooowwwwwlllllllllly savor every bite. Many thanks to Kathy Manson from King Hill Farms in Brunswick, Missouri whose family custom harvests Missouri's ...

During summer's heat like this week's 100-degree temperatures, it's so easy to keep big jars of "no canning required" refrigerator pickles ready and waiting in the frig -- they'll keep for a couple of weeks, if they last that long! [Of course, power would help, something that's been absent at my house and in soooo many St Louis homes for 48 hours and counting ... a good reminder, if a sweaty and inconvenient one, that we just don't, really truly, control the 'light switches' ...] This week's Kitchen Parade column features two recipes, one with cucumbers and peppers and another with Brussels sprouts. Both are quick 'n' easy, fresh 'n' flavorful ... and low-cal and low-carb! (c) Copyright 2006 Kitchen Parade