Yogurt: Purely Homemade

Why make your own yogurt when it's so easy to buy yogurt at the market? How about flavor? Texture? Sublime ingredients? And the fact that it's also pretty easy to make it at home?

Farmer Jack Ford taught me how to make yogurt recently from goat milk. And our mutual friend Michelle Lerach shared with me her recipe for her stunning vegan coconut yogurt. Compared with the grocery store varieties the coconut flavor in Michelle's yogurt explodes in the palate. 

Obviously, there are endless ways to enjoy yogurt other than as a snack. But you'll enjoy Herb & Wood Executive Chef Shane McIntyre's recipe for Charred Carrots With Aleppo Yogurt, Dukkah and Carrot Top Pesto. The creamy yogurt with a hint of heat delicately envelopes sweet carrots and garlicky pesto.

All these recipes are in my latest story for the San Diego Union-Tribune's food section. 

Grilling: Not Just a Man's World

Grilling isn’t strictly a guy thing. Let’s give a boot to the “women cook, men grill” stereotype. After all, as chef Claudette Zepeda-Wilkins told me, the women she knows in Mexico routinely cook with fire — and it’s not because it’s hip. It’s out of necessity. I interviewed Zepeda-Wilkins, who was full of fab grilling tips and presented three beautiful dishes that showed her prowess as a grill mistress and how accessible grilling a full meal, including dessert, can be. So, head over to my story in the San Diego Union-Tribune for Zepeda-Wilkin's tips and recipes and get your grill on. 

Update: Claudette and I were guests on KPBS radio's Midday Edition on June 12, 2018, talking, of course, about women and grilling. If you missed the segment, you can catch it here.

San Diego Foodstuff Earns Feedspot Position in Top 15 San Diego Blogs and Websites to Follow in 2018

San Diego Foodstuff, the food blog I launched back in 2007, has been included in Feedspot's list of Top 15 San Diego Blogs and Websites to follow in 2018. This comes after SDF was awarded Best of Show for website entries by the San Diego Press Club last October and Feedspot's previous naming of San Diego Foodstuff to the Top 50 San Diego Blogs to follow in 2018. 

Feedspot explained that winners were ranked based on the following criteria:

• Google reputation and Google search ranking
• Influence and popularity on Facebook, twitter and other social media sites
• Quality and consistency of posts.
• Feedspot’s editorial team and expert review

Thank you to all my readers! And I hope you'll encourage friends to read and subscribe to both the blog and this weekly newsletter. And, if you have a business you want to advertise, please consider San Diego Foodstuff to help support my work!

Preserving the Seasons

I got to spend time with chef Flor Franco of Franco on Fifth to learn her techniques for making jam. People who haven't tried jamming can be intimidated by the process but, as Franco explained, even a five-year-old can do it: her then five-year-old son Sebastian. Franco shared three recipes: Strawberry; Caramelized Bacon and Onion; and Pineapple, Tomatillo, and Serrano. Making jam and other preserves are one of the great traditional means of preserving seasonal produce at the peak of their ripeness so they can be enjoyed the rest of the year. Read about how the process unfolds, get Franco's recipes and tips, and discover new ways to enjoy jams in this story in The San Diego Union-Tribune's food section. 

ReFind Kitchens Introduces Zero-Waste Design to San Diego County

I was so lucky to meet David Berens of ReFind Kitchens while walking around Hillcrest during an interview with Mia Vaughnes of Good Neighbor Gardens last year. Berens and his mom, Juliann, launched what is essentially a sustainable social enterprise in June 2016. They find used or showroom kitchen cabinets, sinks, countertops, bathroom vanities, and other kitchen and bath materials, deconstruct them from their source, spruce them up if necessary, and resell them to homeowners. It's a model of sustainable design and I couldn't get over what a great idea it is. So, of course, I wrote about it. The story is in the current issue of Edible San Diego.

Inspiring Tomorrow's Home Cooks

Years ago I volunteered as a cooking instructor at Olivewood Gardens in National City, teaching young kids how to cook. So, when I decided to write a story for the San Diego Union-Tribune's food section recently on teaching cooking to children, I turned to Olivewood Gardens for resources and the reasons why parents should encourage their kids to participate in preparing family meals. I got a lot of great tips--and recipes--which I've shared in this new piece, which was published on March 13, 2018.