Ward Street Bistro

Maple-Orange Granola

I've been making homemade granola since the 1970's when I was literally a granola-munching (and vegetarian) college student. Over the years, my granola recipe has evolved, but now it's settled quite nicely into this maple-orange version. And I eat a lot of this stuff--almost every morning, in fact--with yogurt and fruit.

I'm posting the recipe now because I think granola is a tasty and healthy food gift for the holidays--an alternative to all the sweets and other rich food.  Just pack it up into a pretty container or wrap it up in some decorative cellophane. You could include the recipe on a hand-written recipe card.

You can go directly to the printable recipe--or I'll show you how to make it step-by-step...

Kitchen Basics

The past month I've had a lot of fun building a Ward Street Bistro store with my favorite kitchen items and items top-rated by Consumer Reports, Cook's Illustrated, and Fine Cooking. I purposely decided to keep the number of items in the store small--a collection of versatile items that can serve as a backbone of a well-equipped kitchen. As you can see, our kitchen is cozy and compact; we don't have room for much in the way of specialized equipment. So what you'll find in the store reflects how we equipped our kitchen, with multi-functional basics that allow us to tackle almost any kitchen task.

I've organized the store into six task areas:

• Cutting & Chopping
• Measuring, Mixing & Blending
• Stove & Countertop Cooking
• Oven Roasting & Braising
• Baking
• Food Storage
  

When you purchase something in the store, I receive a small percentage of the sales price. But because this blog is a labor of love (rather than profit), I'll be donating any store proceeds to two charities that my mother was particularly fond of: The Salvation Army and Little Brothers - Friends of the Elderly. (The same applies, by the way, to any advertising revenues.)

So I hope you'll take a look around the store. And I'd love to get any feedback on what's there.

Weekly Meal Planning

Through our 25 years together, my husband Drake and I have been avid meal-planners. For us, that means we start the week with an idea of what will have for dinner each night, using Sunday as time to get a running start on "food for the week." I hadn't given our system much thought until a year or so ago, when I read an article in the New York Times written by a working mom who uses a remarkably similar system.  She had "drawn a line in the sand," unwilling to surrender home-cooked meals for her family.

Given current times, it seems more people are cooking at home. I'm completely sold on the advantages of home cooking from a cost, health, and pure food enjoyment perspective.

For this post, I'll take you on a quick tour of our meal-planning routine--and share some great resources for developing your own meal-planning process...

Pasta with Roasted Radicchio

I love the warm and cozy flavors of Fall, which I think come together perfectly in this pasta with roasted radicchio, sun-dried tomatoes, and olives. To complete the meal, I serve it with classic baked acorn squash.  The flavors are a study in contrasts: the slightly bitter radicchio, the sweet tomatoes and acorn squash, the salty olives. To top it off, the pasta is garnished with Parmesan cheese, toasted pine nuts, and some fresh basil.

You can go directly to the printable recipe or I'll show you how to make it, step-by-step...