Favorite Summer Vegetable Recipes from A Veggie Venture's First Year Swedish Beets ... pickled beets, a refrigerator pickle, oh-so-easy with canned beets which are surprisingly good (I even use the local Schnucks private label beets which are nice 'n' small) Summer Recipes from the Kitchen Parade Archives Bloody Mary Salad ... jello for grown-ups, with a kick from horseradish and chives ... a great make-ahead salad for barbecue suppers, outdoor potlucks and family gatherings Chocolate Cinnamon Whipped Cream Cake ... an easy layer cake ... the chocolate- and cinnamon-laced whipped cream frosting is to-die-for delicious! (Confession: The chocolate whipped cream icing is so good it turns a box cake into something special ...) Alex's French Eggs ... slo000000OOOOOOw cooked eggs, savored bite by bite by ever-so-slow bite, as much for supper as for breakfast Slow-Roasted Tomatoes ... call these sloo000OOOOw-roasted tomatoes becaus

Today's vegetable recipe: The hard-to-find Romano beans, simply cooked in well-salted water, then tossed in a garlic- and rosemary-infused oil. Low carb. Weight Watchers 1 point. ~ recipe & photo updated 2008 ~ 2006: Oh if there'd only been piles and piles of these gorgeous Romano beans! Ron Jones from On the Wind Farm threw a few into my bag on Saturday, betting I'd love 'em. How right he was! Romano beans are also known as 'Italian string beans' or 'Italian pole beans' or 'Italian flat beans'. They're broader than "every day green beans" and have flat pods. They cook in a flash. And they're more tender, more velvety, more green-tasting, more alive-tasting than other beans. If I had a vegetable garden, I'd definitely grow these. If you have a vegetable garden, I recommend that you grow these and send piles and piles to me! 2008: Grab Romano beans whenever you can find them, they are really special! If the idea of garli

Wondering what to make with those tomatoes you've been roasting? Look no further because this is a superb way to invest those deep, dusky tomatoes. Whole Food, Fresh & Casual. Just Slow-Roasted Tomatoes + Zucchini & Pantry Ingredients! A Summer Classic. Not Just Easy, Summer Easy . Budget Friendly. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Low Fat. Weight Watchers Friendly. Vegetarian & Easily Converted to Vegan. Naturally Gluten Free.

[Many thanks to all who particpated, the round-up is live !] Lots of surprises to announce today! SURPRISE SURPRISE : The unlikely Veggie Evangelist is September's host for Sugar High Friday, the sweet grandmommy of food blogging events. [What's Sugar High Friday? In October 2004, Jennifer, Canada's very own Domestic Goddess , launched the first-ever blogging extravaganza for sweet tooths: all of ten food bloggers played with white chocolate. Then there were SHF2 - SHF21 . Fast forward nearly two years to Delicious Days' just finished SHF22, Can You Can?: 52 jams and jellies from all over the world !] SURPRISE : In September, Sugar High Friday makes an extra-warm welcome to cooks who feel tempted to participate but don't have food blogs (hello Connie?! Betty?! Alaska Carrots?! Nan & Anonymous?! I know you're out there!) or blog on other topics, like my pal Tamara Nicol at Luminous Lens who so graciously created the logo for this month's Su

Many thanks to self-described "faithful reader" Betty who recently shared a favorite tomato sandwich. She melts provolone cheese until crispy-crusty, then pairs it with tomato for a vegetarian BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) sandwich. Betty adopted the technique from an old vegetarian cookbook by Nicki and David Goldbeck who call the crisp cheese discs "cheeson" ~ get it? bacon? cheeson? It didn't taste like bacon to me but the sandwich was very good. Thank you, Betty, for the great tip!! KITCHEN NOTES ... To my taste, anyway, the cheeson doesn't taste good by itself. But once tucked into a sandwich, I half-wished I'd made more ... for calories' sake, good thing not! TOMATO SANDWICH with "BACONY" CHEESE Bookmark or print this recipe only Hands-on time: 15 minutes Time to table: 15 minutes Serves 1 Provolone cheese, about 1/4" thick (need to cut with a knife, not a cheese blade) Toasted bread Mayo Good tomatoes, sliced Salt & peppe

I just love this goat cheese spread! For an easy low-carb appetizer, it makes up in minutes with ingredients often already on hand. It's a concept recipe begging for adaptation and creativity. And people gobble it up, asking, What IS this? It's herbed goat cheese and it's featured in this week's Kitchen Parade column . PS For anyone with a dog, this is a not-to-miss column ... especially if you want to meet my dog, Lady Koira! PPS Recent Kitchen Parade columns are now on de.licio.us (c) Copyright 2006 Kitchen Parade

A long list of tips and insider tricks from an obsessive home canner. This is my "what I wish I'd known before I started canning" list. A few summers ago, I decided to can. What started as a few jars somehow turned into a root cellar's worth. Call it the Summer of Obsessive Canning. I stopped counting after the 145th jar and the 25th batch. All lined up on the counter, the glistening jars were immensely satisfying. I learned to love the POP sound as the seals set. It helped me grieve the loss of my mom, just weeks gone. That summer started with plum chutney and ended with pickled beans. In between came a red relish, dixie relish, piccallili, blueberry lime jam, banana butter, pickled mushrooms, pickled peaches, pickled beets, pickled peppers I call Pied Pipers , watermelon pickles, my grandmother's dills. That year, there were too many tears to make Ripe-Tomato Relish with Peaches & Pears (Sharon's Pickle) , my mom and I had always made it together.