Culinaria Eugenius

I've been working on a fermented half-sour dill pickle recipe for months. There is a certain art in making fermented dill pickles, since the environmental conditions matter so much. We don't have central air conditioning, so my house is subject to the vagaries of time and place. But it's pickle time, and the pickle eating...

This can only end in heartbreak. I just want you to know that I know. But until then, I am obsessively attached to my single volunteer pumpkin, the darling that grew from a seed dropped by a squirrel in an unused corner of my yard. It's now showing a bit of orange, a harbinger of...

And while I'm advertising classes, take mine! :) If you're like me, you now have a cupboard filled with jams, pickles, and vinegars waiting for the holiday gift-giving season. If you're not like me, you have batches of cookies and sweet breads planned. And if you would rather not be burned by a hot jar or...

Yesterday's "Preserving and Cooking Green" class went really well, and now I'm even more excited about the upcoming "Tomato Tango" class on September 20. Everyone in the class was presented with a booklet of hand-selected recipes and food safety handouts, and Hentze Farm generously provided the vegetables. After a full-class lecture about canning principles and...

Now that the rains are back, you didn't think I'd leave you high and dry about the panna cotta with blackberries, didya? This recipe is so simple it's almost a non-recipe, if you just have time the night before to make the panna cotta and the syrup. Imagine a silky, milky custard that coats your mouth...

I spoke to many people at the fair who expressed an interest in learning how to preserve local foods. Here's your chance! A reminder and warm invitation to cook with us: The Master Food Preservers are holding a class at Lane County Extension in Eugene this Saturday, August 23, from 9 am to 3 pm called...

We're close enough to the Fairgrounds to hear music if the wind is right, and Retrogrouch and I had been planning to lite-rock out to the brassy grooves of Chicago, Saturday's feature act at the Lane County Fair, for several months. My recent trip to San Francisco provided an excellent way to fatten up the...