So easy, guys! Just toss together a few common pantry ingredients and you've got a creamy-spicy cocktail sauce for shrimp, veggies and more and maybe just maybe, an instant party. Better still? Make it to taste, make only as much as you need! But the recipe has moved to a new location, please see Five-Minute Shrimp Cocktail Sauce at Kitchen Parade, my food column. "Dear Heinz Ketchup, Please, will you make my life easier? You see, I take a lot of guff for your regular appearance on my table. You’re the stuff of my childhood and I really don’t want to give you up. Eggs, macaroni and cheese, hashed browns and of course burgers and ‘ dogs, they’re just not the same without your cute little red squiggle. And I might get away with it, truly, if you were just a retro indulgence. But please, I can’t defend the fact that your third ingredient is high fructose corn syrup. You make this public, why not make it go away?!! And oh yes, I’m well aware that not everyone

Today's vegetable snack: Frozen edamame, quick cooked and served still in the shell. A kid favorite! How long does it take to fill hundreds of eggs for the annual Easter Egg hunt? Hours! Nearing the end of the big job, the kids were fading and supper was still a long ways off. So I whipped out a bag of frozen edamame [pronounced ed-uh-MAH-may], still in the shell and threw them into well-salted water. Soon the kids (and a few hungry grown-ups too!) were digging into a big pile of shells. The older girls already knew the technique: dip a shell in a little salt, put it between your teeth and drrrraaag, popping the edamame beans into your mouth. Yummy! Thanks for being so willing to try something new, E, K and E (pictured) and also B, AJ and D! You all get A+! Edamame works great for grown-ups too, especially for casual outdoor gatherings. These are a real winner! EDAMAME in the SHELL Hands-on time: 2 minutes Time to table: 20 minutes Serves 6 hungry kids Well-salted water 1 pound fr

Today's easy-easy eggs-with-spinach recipe: A great way to use up leftover Easter eggs, hard-cooked eggs in a cheesy sauce, served over quick-cooked spinach. Beautiful color, hearty enough for supper. Low carb, high protein and for Weight Watchers, just PointsPlus 5. BACK IN 2009: Okay, so we tried, we really did. My friend Mary and I spent four hours on Sunday making what we hoped would be beautiful Easter eggs using natural dyes like turmeric and onion skins. Harumph. What did we get? Three dozen outright ugly amateurish-looking Easter eggs. And what else? Three dozen leftover hard-cooked eggs, many already cracked, needing to be used up. Anyone here share this pain?!! But whoa, was I ever happy with the first recipe, something created out of "air" but definitely to be repeated. There's just something magical about the combination of astringent spinach and creamy eggs. GETTING RID OF LEFTOVER EASTER EGGS If you too have a surfeit of hard-boiled pre-cooked Ea

Today, a guest post from an A Veggie Venture reader who's just finished Michael Pollan's book 'In Defense of Food'. His essay is a lesson in the loss of connection to real food (in just one generation!) and ideas on what it takes to return. I'd love to know your thoughts and invite you to join the conversation. ~AK The butcher’s rack in my kitchen shelves my cookbooks. To use a poor albeit irresistible metaphor, it groans from the weight of undigested manuals on the art and craft of cooking. Of late, the central theme of the books has been shifting from cookbooks about food preparation to books about food itself . To this reader and (I can’t help myself) consumer of such books, the sources, chemical composition, care, preservation and delivery of food have become as important as the preparation and presentation of the final product. [ Note to Vegetarians ~AK] Mine is a farm background. Much of my childhood food came from within a radius of a hundred yard

Today's recipe: Something old, something new. Mark Bittman's savory oatmeal, part of his new diet regime. Weight Watchers 1 point. Vegan. "Something old, something new. Something borrowed, something blue." If this were a bride's wedding day tradition, she'd be three out of four with today's healthy breakfast recipe. Something Old : Oatmeal for breakfast. (See How & Why to Cook Oatmeal Every Day . I'm an oatmeal fiend!) Something New : Oatmeal in a brand-new way, oatmeal with an Asian flair, with green onion and soy sauce. Sound weird? Um, yes. But is it good? Yes!! I'm not giving up my favorite oatmeal with peanut butter (or a new stir-in, tahini!) but I was surprised how hearty and satisfying this oatmeal tasted, and lasted, throughout a cold and blustery morning. Something Borrowed : Food writer Mark Bittman's diet strategy, Vegan Til Dinner. He used it to drop 35 pounds, lower his cholesterol and blood sugar. It's a simple idea, no

Asparagus and scallions gently poached together, then drizzled with a simple vinaigrette and tossed with hard-cooked egg. (Who else has leftover cooked eggs from Easter?!) Dreamy good plus low carb and low cal. For Weight Watchers, this substantial (lunch anyone?) salad adds up to only PointsPlus 2. ~updated & republished 2015~ ~ more recently updated recipes ~ How many children have gagged over boiled asparagus? What were we thinking, leeching all color and flavor from the earthy spears, leaving a mushy gushy slimy mess? Ish, no wonder. So please, stick with me here, I really truly want to sell you on this little salad which I completely adore. These asparagus are not boiled – nosiree, they are poached . What's the difference? Marketing, people, vegetable marketing. WORD DANCERS And one more thing. The asparagus are poached with – no turning up your nose, please! – scallions. Yes, other people call those little gems green onions, but me, I'm sticking to scallions i

How to fall in love with radishes: Toss together a quick medley of chopped radishes and tomatoes brightened with olives, capers, parsley and lemon juice. Add canned beans for protein. Skip the oil. Swoon. Turns out, every year I fall in love with a new vegetable. In 2009, the unlikely addiction is the radish. For the last few months, radishes are such a staple that like lettuce and milk, they need no mention on the grocery list. Texture-wise, I've fallen in love with their crunch, taste-wise with that slight bite of radish pepperiness, visually with those clean white interiors framed by clear red skins. All winter long, one salad after another, radishes add a special oomph. Forgive me, but am I truly writing an ode to the radish? What crazy person creates room for radishes in her brain? Aren't they always an afterthought, never the star? In this quick 'n' easy lunch salad, the radishes do take center stage, they're what turn a bean 'n' stuff salad into somet