Sue Doeden
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- Member for
- 10 months 1 week
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The fresh fragrance of fall has greeted my nose as my golden retriever, Gracie, and I have been out for our brisk morning walks together. It's that exhilarating smell that signals the transition of summer to autumn. It prompts me to say good-bye to the comfort I've settled into during one season and get ready to embrace new experiences of the days ahead. I remember feeling the same way when I was a child anticipating the start of a new school year.
The fresh fragrance of fall has greeted my nose as my golden retriever, Gracie, and I have been out for our brisk morning walks together. It’s that exhilarating smell that...
For Midwesterners who love to eat food fresh from the garden, this is the best time of year. Local gardens are teaming with bright heavy tomatoes, slender green beans, colossal cabbages, a variety of peppers, zucchini almost as long as my arms - all kinds of vegetables - fresh and full of flavor. I am getting a few tomatoes and some gorgeous Hungarian and Bulgarian peppers from my own garden, but other than herbs, that's all I can get to grow.
For Midwesterners who love to eat food fresh from the garden, this is the best time of year. Local gardens are teaming with bright heavy tomatoes, slender green beans, colossal...
I think Julia Child would love Bemidji, the community in northern Minnesota I’ve called home for 11 years. I never had the opportunity to meet the woman who brought French...
Last summer when I was spending time with my young granddaughter, the ice cream truck rolled down the street. We could hear the lilting, clearly recognizable music coming from the truck when it was a block or two away. Suddenly, I was a child again. We ran into the house for some money, in a panic the truck would come by before we got back outside. And then we giggled with excitement as that feeling of great relief washed through us when we could hear the music getting closer. Sitting cross-legged on the grass near the curb, we waited and thought about what cold sweet treat we might choose.
When my husband and I travel, we find our stops seem to be all about food. One of our favorite activities when we get out of town is exploring restaurants that are new to us. Ethnic restaurants are a favorite. One of our recent discoveries was an Indian restaurant in Fridley, Minn. Arriving at midday, we were in time to choose Indian food from the lunch buffet. And that is where I learned of pakora.
I've been to wine tasting parties, cheese tastings and olive oil tastings, but a garlic tasting party? Never. When veteran gardener Carol Schmidt invited me to her farm near Pelican Rapids, Minn., to sample some of the 20 varieties of garlic she grows, I immediately said yes. A small basket of plump garlic bulbs sits on my kitchen counter at all times. I find the small nutritionally rich vegetable indispensable and I use at least a couple of cloves a day in my cooking.
Fresh long, seedless cucumbers are showing up at the farmers market and some grocery stores that carry produce from local growers. I buy cucumbers just as I buy fresh tomatoes - only in the summer when I can get them from local farmers or pluck them from the two plants I have in my little garden.
Hot summer weekend afternoons are meant for lounging with friends on a pontoon boat floating down the Mississippi River. Preferably with a cooler full of ice and beverages. It's best followed with a dinner made by friends. Our last lazy cruise was followed by a bowtie pasta dish at a table for four in a cozy screened porch. My boating friend pulled the dinner together in no time. While the pasta pot was bubbling, she mixed a zesty vinaigrette, chopped cherry tomatoes, minced red onion and sliced fresh basil, then tossed everything together in a big pasta bowl. Done. In minutes. No sweat.