I know it’s the dead of winter, but I’m already thinking about gardening. I just sent away for more seeds Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds than I will be able to plant unless I expand my garden again this year from which means I’m also thinking about canning. This is kind of a long story, but last spring, my generous neighbor, owner of two very old and prolific rhubarb plants, told me I can go over there and take as much rhubarb as I wanted. So I started doing some research about rhubarb treats besides pie, crumble and my usual rhubarb... Continue reading

I’ve always loved summer, but now that I have a garden, this time of year is my favorite. Right now, I can go out to the garden and get enough vegetables and herbs to actually make a full dinner (sans meat, of course – I don’t have a sausage tree yet). After the work and cost (hopefully, most of it a one-time cost now that we’ve built the beds and installed the irrigation system the) it’s finally producing things! The plants that have been most productive so far (despite a groundhog invasion) are cucumbers. I’m getting about five or six... Continue reading

I've always liked making bread. But I never had the focus or time to develop a practice or method to making bread that would assure some level of consistency. There always seemed like there was an element of chance and risk. Will it rise? Will it taste good? Will the crust be crispy and crunchy or will it be blah and chewy? I figured it was just a matter of time (that I didn't have) and practice, as well as finding a method that was easy enough that multiple variables wouldn't make a huge difference. Most bread baking doesn't generally... Continue reading

Wow. It's actually been more than a year since I posted anything here. Shocking. I do have good reasons, but really, do you need to hear them. Let's just say I have had other goings on that have kept me from writing. I have been cooking though! The main reason I haven't been writing is because we got a house (!) upstate in the spring, and we've been spending lots of time doing homeowner type fixes and work. One of the many, many great things about the house, is that there are many mature plantings on the property, including lilacs,... Continue reading

Zucchini is another one of those much maligned vegetables (along with beets and brussel sprouts), often hated even by people who live in the country and grow or have grown them in their gardens. I might feel this way when I have the luxury of a bumper crop of zucchini, but for now, when my only source is the local farmers market, I covet all I can get. I'm a regular subscriber to several cooking blog mailing lists. Some of them I've found annoying enough to unsubscribe from, some I glance at briefly and maybe save for later, others I... Continue reading

I love beets. I know many people hate them, but really, I love them in pretty much any incarnation. They are good sweet as in my favorite Beet Pie (or Ruby Tart as it is otherwise known) sour as in my favorite pickled beets. Roasted, baked, boiled or steamed, or raw as juice or in salads, beets are good pretty much any way. And they are also really good for you - raw beets are full of antioxidants including vitamin C and are great source of fiber, folates and vitamin A (especially if eaten raw). And the color of beets... Continue reading

I have 3 favorite early summer foods that I always try to stock up on before they are gone for the season, mainly because they are difficult or impossible to find except from local farmers markets when they are in season. The three are rhubarb, sour cherries and sugar snap peas. Rhubarb I generally get a bunch of and either make in to a compote and/or make rhubarb syrup for use in the few weeks after I make it. I also get some to chop up and freeze for later use in a pie or crisp. Sour cherries I usually... Continue reading

I've been a bad blogger: It's been months since I last posted a food related post, and I sadly neglected Edible/Usable's one year anniversary that happened on January 30, 2009. I've been busy at my new job, and haven't been inspired by winter cooking. But now that spring has sprung, I've got no more excuses! I'll get back into the action with something I've been meaning to do since I started this blog more than a year ago: a kitchen tool usability review. I've been meaning to do a kitchen usability review for some time, but just haven't had the... Continue reading

This post isn't about food. It's about my favorite music site and what happens when a business doesn't get feedback from their users before they do a massive redesign. Last year a did a brief stint at AOL. I worked mainly on their music site, AOL music. While I was working there, I looked at a lot of other sites in the online music playing, collecting, and discovering spheres. A lot of my focus was figuring out the best way to do two things: create playlists of songs, and how to have a good seamless playback experience. Both are somehow... Continue reading

Just a short post about some of the great food I had this Thanksgiving. We went to a friend's for dinner where they made their famous turkey on the BBQ which is a fast and delicious way to make a turkey that I'd never seen done before. There were also some delicious parsnips roasted with Parmesan, fantastic roasted potatoes and carrots with ginger. I made brussel sprouts roasted with pancetta, one of the few ways I like brussel sprouts, and I spent literally 2 hours peeling pear onions for balsamic roasted pearl onions from The Cutting Edge of Ordinary blog... Continue reading

I am actually working on blog posts about UX and usability (really, I've got two in the works...) but this is an emergency recipe posting! A few weeks ago, we went to visit some friends in Pennsylvania. They live in the northern part, past the Poconos - a really nice part of the state that I'd never been to before. They have a beautiful hill-top apple orchard that they are in the process of reviving. It's all organic, so I picked some apples and planned to go home and make an apple pie (which I did last weekend). I forget... Continue reading

I'm having a blog identity crisis. I've been ignoring my other half. I'm not married, so no, I don't mean my husband. I mean the other half of what this blog is supposed to be about. I've been having a nice summer creating lots of salads, canning stuff when I can (and freezing it when I can't can) and doing a bit of baking here and there. But I haven't been writing at all about usability and user experience. Definitely part of is has been that I've been taking advantage of all of the social media, promotion and blog marketing... Continue reading

As promised, at long last, the granola recipe. Granola is one of those things that can seem really difficult and intimidating, but really, it's very simple to make, and is almost limitless in the way you can customize it. I've been making this granola off and on for the past 3 years or so, experimenting with different levels of liquid, sweets and oats, and I feel like I've finally found a good base recipe to which I (or you) can add your own personal favorites. I've actually been seeing a lot of 'homemade' granola for sale around Brooklyn lately (Early... Continue reading

Part of my menu preparation for our camping trip required some deep thinking about what foods were "camping friendly" and convenient to have on a 8 day trip. This meant food that didn't require more than the three days of the refrigeration we would get from our collapsible cooler, food that was relatively lightweight and compact, had minimal but sturdy packaging, and food that could be prepared before-hand so it was fairly easy to prepare in camp. And it also had to taste good. On our fourth day camping, we decided to take a longer day trip from the Middle... Continue reading

I've been back from my camping trip for over a week now, but because I've been busy at work and a few social obligations, I haven't been able to blog about it until now. As I was writing this post, I realized that I actually had a lot to say, so I think I'm going to break this up into several posts that I'll put up in the next few days. This first post will be specifically about the best food we ate on our camping trip. The second post will be a sort of follow-up to the "Tools for... Continue reading

This week's Summer Fest is all about tomatoes. I thought long and hard about what tomato recipe I could share - I have so many favorite ways of eating tomatoes, but very few actually written down or codified. One of my favorite events of each summer is the first tomato sandwich: some sort of nice white bread toasted, mayonaise, heirloom tomato, salt, pepper. Super simple and super delicous. Or, there is my favorite sweet tomato chutney - but that is actually long, hot and complicated, so I'll save that one for later. It's finally been hot here in NYC -... Continue reading

I love country fairs. They are one of the few things left from the 'olden days' when a huge percentage of the American population lived in rural areas and fairs were the way that people came together from far-flung places to show their talents, do business, learn the latest agricultural techniques, and socialize. I used to show my horse in my local county fair, and for me it was all about winning ribbons and meeting boys. This weekend, I went out to Kutztown, Pennsylvania to the Kutztown Fair. I've been going out to this part of Pennsylvania for a few... Continue reading