• authors,  books,  fiction,  literature,  madison,  recipes,  seasonal,  summer,  sweets

    A French Dessert and a Fresh Read

    For me, one of summer’s great joys is scarfing down mass quantities of berries and stone fruits. Another one of the season’s pleasures is sitting in a shaded spot, curled up with a good book. When the two converge? Serendipity. Last week, the fruit box delivered by my CSA farm was packed tight with eight pounds of sweet cherries. My husband, son, and I stuffed as many into our mouths as we could. Immediately. When we wiped the red juice from our faces, though, we still had quite a few cherries left. Enter, The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane, the delightful debut novel by Kelly Harms that I happened to be…

  • beer,  cooking,  kitchen,  moms,  parenting,  peanut butter,  recipes

    Crock Pot Recipe: West African Spicy Peanut Stew

    I love to cook, but lately finding the time between work, writing and parenting has been a challenge. Enter, crock pot.  I’ve been trying out a lot of crock pot recipes lately for weeknight dinners. I prep the ingredients the night before, after my son is in bed, and stick them in a ziplock bag in the fridge overnight. Then, the next morning, I dump the bag into the crock pot, turn it on the “low” setting, and leave for work. When I get home, it’s ready to eat and there’s no need to hem and haw over what to make for dinner. This spicy vegetarian West African-style recipe is…

  • fall,  recipes

    The Soup Solution to a Gray Day

    Dreary days call for hot, hearty meals. Here's one I cooked up the other day with fall veggies from my CSA share from Vermont Valley Community Farm. I highly recommend the recipe if your appetite and attitude need a little warming up.

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  • drink,  edible madison,  kombucha,  local,  recipes,  writing

    The Flavors of Summer

    The summer issue of Edible Madison magazine is out, both in print and online. For this issue, I met with the fun and fabulous ladies behind NessAlla Kombucha. I didn’t know a whole lot about kombucha before interviewing them for the article, so I learned a ton, including how to home-brew kombucha. You can get a recipe and read all about it here.

  • booze,  bourbon,  food,  recipes

    Cooking with Bourbon

    Last summer, I discovered that I like small-batch bourbon. But I also don’t have the tolerance to sit around sipping it, which I suppose is probably a good thing. The solution? To cook with it, of course. This is a super simple flank steak recipe that my husband and I made on a weeknight. It took less than 5 minutes to throw the marinade together, then just a few minutes on the grill after we’d given the marinade some time to soak in.   Flank Steak with Bourbon Marinade (adapted from a recipe from Fountain Prairie Inn and Farm) 1 flank steak (1 ½ pounds) 4-6 cloves crushed garlic 1/2…

  • food,  recipes

    A hearty one-pot meal

    Despite the fact that Glossing Over It is subtitled “a blog on fiction, fashion, food & wine,” there hasn’t been a whole lot of food blogging going on here lately. It’s probably because, even though I love to cook, I haven’t been doing much of it since a certain little bundle of joy arrived last July. These days, most of my dinners come from the frozen section at Trader Joe’s. Mmm… pot stickers. On the weekends, though, my husband and I usually try to make at least one big meal that we can eat as leftovers during the week. Actually, to say that “we” make the meal is kind of misleading.…

  • art,  food,  handmade,  recipes,  writing

    A spicy recipe for the solstice

    The winter solstice is upon us, but before we can look forward to incremental surges of sunshine, we first need to get through the darkest day of the year. If you need a recipe for comfort food to ease the way, chef Dani Lind has a recipe for sweet potato and black bean chili in the winter issue of Edible Madison magazine that might help. The recipe goes along with an article I wrote on how local potters are organizing grassroots events to fight hunger by donating their artwork.  The sweet potato chili recipe was served at one of such events. Besides being delicious, the recipe is healthy, too. Perhaps I’ll whip up a…

  • beverages,  booze,  bourbon,  food,  recipes,  seasonal

    Hot Toddy Time

    I hate to see summer end, but there are a few things I like about fall: football, tall boots, pumpkin bread, and hot drinks. My husband, son, and I recently visited an apple orchard near Lake Kegonsa just outside of Madison. Since our son is only 3 months old, we eschewed apple picking for simply buying a few bags of fresh McIntoshes and Empires and a half gallon of fresh cider. At our house, cider is the main ingredient in one of our favorite fall beverages. My husband modified his recipe for hot toddies from an episode of Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee that he caught while flipping through the channels. I wonder…

  • farms,  food,  green living,  recipes

    A Seasonal Recipe with Swiss Chard

    I’ve been busy these past few days taking care of my brand new baby boy. I wrote this post last Sunday, the day I went into labor! I didn’t have a chance to post it then (for obvious reasons), so I’m posting it now in case anyone is looking for a good recipe to use up summer veggies. I’ll be back soon! Back to baby cuddles and kisses… At this time of year, big bunches of green things arrive in my CSA box from Vermont Valley Community Farm. Some of them have obvious uses, like lettuce for salads or pea pods for stir fry. Other veggies require a little more…