Today's vegetable recipe: Scalloped potatoes and rutabagas. A 'concept' recipe. Weight Watchers 3 points. What, you're worried that a veggie evangelist bears a grudge against Scandinavians? Not me! It's just a little Leap Year fun, something allowed once every four years on the 29th day of February -- but of course, this really is for scalloped swedes & finns because ugly rutabagas have a pretty second name 'swedes' plus the potatoes were of the yellow Finn variety. Besides, a dish this simple, this reliably delicious, this variable -- well, it deserves a clever name, yes? to receive its just due. Happy February 29th, all! May your day stand out! CONCEPT RECIPE It's easy to 'scallop' root vegetables. Grease the baking dish, then wet the bottom with cream or half & half. Add a layer of thin-slice root vegetables (a Japanese mandoline / benriner helps), another small splash of cream, salt & pepper, a tiny sprinkling of cheese. Repeat

Today's healthy appetizer recipe: Carrots cooked with cardamom and bay leaf, then puréed with orange syrup and yogurt. Weight Watchers zero points. Earlier this month, Lara from the beautiful Seattle food blog Cook & Eat shared recipes for some tasty vegetable dips. I could have dipped a chip into any one of Lara's dips but somehow, the simple carrot dip called to me most plaintively. It was the cooking method: chunks of carrots oven-simmered with cardamom pods and a bay leaf. Oh people, let me tell you, the scent that filled the house was heavenly ... Even with the cardamom and orange syrup and yogurt, the dip remains distinctively 'carrot', just slightly sweeter, slightly lighter, slightly ... may I say, improved? MORE VEGETABLE RECIPES ~ appetizer & snack recipes ~ ~ vegetable dips & spreads ~ ~ more carrot recipes ~ ~ one year ago this week, my recipe for Homemade Mushroom Soup ~ ~ two years ago today, Sun-Dried Tomato & Fennel Salad , the last

Step aside, cabbage slaw, there's a new vegetable for slaw in town! The vegetable called "kohlrabi" makes an unusual and refreshing coleslaw, especially paired with tart apple and fresh mint. And this creamy coleslaw dressing? It's made from scratch, whisked by hand in seconds and tastes n-o-t-h-i-n-g like the stuff from a bottle. Fresh & Seasonal. Weeknight Easy, Weekend Special. Great for Meal Prep. Weight Watchers Friendly. Low Carb. Low Fat. Naturally Gluten Free.

Today's product tips: Jarred peppers from the grocery and fresh mini peppers from Costco. Today's recipe: A 'vegged up' ham sandwich with an easy goat cheese-red pepper spread. Pound for edible pound, fresh peppers are increasingly expensive. Here in St. Louis, the everyday supermarket price ranges from $1.50 to $2.00 a pepper -- per pepper ! Demand is high, so sale prices are rare. For a few weeks in early fall, locally grown peppers are plump and plentiful (and cheap, say $.25 each) at the farmers market -- even while the grocery stores are charging the same $1.50 to $2.00 for peppers imported from somewhere. (Wouldn't you know it? This week my local supermarket has peppers on sale for $1 apiece. I bought several!) So I keep my eyes peeled for pepper products -- and have two to recommend. JARRED PEPPERS - For $2 to $3, I find jars of (slightly pickled) peppers and jars of roasted peppers. Each jar holds six or more whole peppers, so they'll go a long way. But

Today at KitchenParade.com, look for one of my oldest favorite recipes, one for tiapinno, the classic Italian fish stew . It's perfect for meatless Fridays during Lent, also for dieters since a hearty serving has only 3 Weight Watchers points. It's making me hungry, just looking at the photo! Note to Vegetarians Who missed last week's recipe for Cinnamon Sugar Cookies ? If you learn about new Kitchen Parade recipes via an announcement here on A Veggie Venture (which didn't happen last week, by accident), may I suggest a separate subscription? I'm going to phase out making Kitchen Parade announcements on A Veggie Venture since the two sites have increasingly different readers. Just sign up for Kitchen Parade via e-mail or Kitchen Parade via RSS . Many thanks! Don't forget the special event for Pi Day the week of March 10 - 14th at KitchenParade.com. SO WHAT IS KITCHEN PARADE, EXACTLY? Kitchen Parade is the food column that my mom started writing for ou

Today's 'concept' recipe: Cooked brown rice stir-fried with edamame, bell pepper, bok choy, then tossed with tangerine and cashews. What a great rice dish! With cooked rice using the great oven-baked brown rice from Kitchen Parade, it flew from stove to table in just 15 minutes. I call it a 'concept' recipe because it will adapt easily to what's on hand. But the combination of edamame beans, bell pepper, bok choy, tangerines and cashews was as flavorful as it was colorful, a definite keeper. THE COOKBOOK Today's recipe comes from the brand-new cookbook from Nava Atlas, Vegan Express . During my vegetarian years, I cooked one recipe after another from Nava's Vegetarian Celebrations ; later, it became the one vegetarian cookbook among many that continued to appeal to a new omnivore. I think the new Vegan Express will have similar cross-over appeal, in part because recipes call for ingredients that are 'whole' and 'real' (i.e., no proces

An easy, romantic side dish or entrée. Pasta tossed with lemon zest, lemon juice, crème fraîche, Parmesan and broccoli rabe. Vegetarian. All my favorite California food bloggers rave about Meyer lemons , those little 'droplets of California sunshine' that appear in their back yards and roadside orchards this time of year. Thanks to the miracle of our modern food distribution system -- aka the non-local bandwagon that sustains a 2000-mile diet -- some appeared right here in the middle of the country. Just like that, I snapped up a dozen. Lemon curd, yum. Lemon meringue pie? Oh yes. And now, here, a lemon pasta dish. If you happen onto Meyer lemons, perfect. But honestly, this recipe is as much about the magical blend of toothsome pasta and slightly bitter broccoli rabe and creamy crème fraîche as lemon. Use any lemon, I think you'll fall in love. (Valentine's Day, anyone?) HOW TO MAKE CRÈME FRAÎCHE AT HOME Don't waste $5 when all it takes to make crème fraîche a