Seasonal Sundays (Week 14) Late March – Early April

Spring is bursting forth! You'll want to check out the many spring-friendly recipe ideas for Easter for those who celebrate but also for the time between now and then. For seasonal cooks, it's so incredible to migrate into a new season ...

~ Skip Straight to the Good Stuff ~

Welcome to Seasonal Sundays ...

Unexpected Grieving Up until my dad's care center and then the country locked down last year, the dog and I visited him nearly every day.

Show up that often and you get to know the nurses, the caretakers, the kitchen staff, the office people, the laundry people, the maintenance people and Dad's fellow residents, especially his hallway neighbors and tablemates.

But I didn't expect to truly grieve not entirely unexpected losses, people all well into their 90s: Mr. Samuels who passed away the very day the dining room opened back up again earlier this month; Mrs. Mooney and Mrs. Carlton who passed away last spring but whose losses are fresh and raw for me.

May their memories be a blessing ...

And as we venture out, don't you think we'll all come across "missing" people? Maybe a favorite barista has just gone back to school or the favorite checker at the grocery store has retired ... but ... still, they've gone missing and we may always wonder.

PS Today is my dad's 95th birthday! In his honor, will you please call your dad, your son, your nephew, a neighbor, just to connect, to offer/share a story? Life at 95 can be lonely. So many losses, even memories can be lost to time. Such limited mobility, so little independence. But today there shall be birthday songs over the phone and in person and a cake and a shirt depicting a WWII battleship on which he served. We hope he'll feel loved, even with the realities of long- and social-distancing.

About the Photo By Popular Request, a Little Insight into the Top Image: The creek bed is filled with clumps of daffodils, all "planted" by squirrels who dug up bulbs near the house to, ahem, "squirrel" them away. Tis wondrous down below, all those sunny faces, reminding me of the "laugh-o-dills" when my now-strapping nephew was small.

Get outdoors ... new visages, deep breaths, fresh perspective.

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PICK ONE

Pick One is for those of us overwhelmed by life's unending choices. If that resonates, then check out this one recipe and then call it a day. It's one that I think could make the most difference, the one I hope will become a regular in your kitchen, as it is in mine.

• THE RECIPE Easy Green Chile Egg Casserole No bread! Just eggs, green chiles, bits of cheese and a surprising ingredient, cottage cheese.
• WHY THIS, WHY NOW Because it's simple enough for an Easter-morning breakfast, even if you're cooking a big dinner later. Because it's special enough for an Easter brunch, accompanied by other "Mexican-ish" dishes like Savory Cornbread Muffins or Mexican Salsa Bread plus Lime Crema, My Guacamole, Quick Jalapeño Pickles and Spiced Pickled Red Onions plus Mexican Fruit Salad. Because if it's just breakfast or brunch for a small group, the leftovers rewarm beautifully for a simple supper later. Okay, I'll quit but you can tell, I'm totally hooked on this casserole!

What's New?!

Wondering about a recipe from the last while? Check Recent Recipes from Kitchen Parade and Recent Vegetable Recipes from A Veggie Venture.

• THE RECIPE Italian Pasta Salad with Garlicky Tomatoes & Collard Greens Orzo sweetened with soft, syrupy tomatoes and tender greens.
• ANOTHER TAKE Greek Pasta Salad Loaded with veggies, dressed with a creamy feta vinaigrette.

• THE RECIPE Refried Bean Sauce with Eggs on Top A hearty protein-packed weekend brunch recipe.
• ANOTHER TAKE Mexican Scrambled Eggs (Huevos Revueltos a la Mexicana) The most popular eggs in Mexico.

Compliments!

• "Very good! We really enjoyed this soup. I didn't have any bacon, it still had plenty of flavor." ~ Pat on Pinterest
• THE RECIPE Turkey Sweet Potato Soup A healthy, colorful soup.

The Three A's of Spring: Asparagus, Artichokes & Avocados

• THE A-Z COLLECTION Asparagus Recipes
• JUST THE FAVORITES Six Years of Favorite Asparagus Recipes

• THE A-Z COLLECTION Artichoke Recipes
• READER FAVORITE How to Cook Artichokes in the Microwave

• THE A-Z COLLECTION Avocado Recipes
• BUT REALLY, START HERE My Guacamole Restaurant-style guacamole, our house recipe.

Spring Sides for Spring Gatherings

• THE RECIPE Greek Baked Beans (Gigantes Plaki) Cooked til creamy in the oven.
• ANOTHER TAKE Creamy Slow Cooker Beans How to cook dried beans from scratch in a slow cooker.

• THE RECIPE Tourlou Tourlou (Greek Baked Vegetables) A rainbow of vegetables slow-cooked in the oven.
• ANOTHER TAKE Greek Spinach-Asparagus-Potato Gratin (Spinaki me Sparaggia Orgraten) A bit of a production but the best "creamed spinach" ever.

• THE RECIPE Moroccan Onions Sliced, spiced and roasted onions, the traditional mezgaldi.
• ANOTHER TAKE Julia Child's Soubise (Onion & Rice Casserole) Thin ribbons of onion with rice and a little cream and cheese.

Easter Salads

• THE RECIPE Seven-Layer Strawberry Salad with Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing
• ANOTHER TAKE Classic Seven Layer Salad

• THE RECIPE Smitten Kitchen's Avocado-Cucumber Salad
• ANOTHER TAKE Spring & Summer Sliced Salad

• THE RECIPE Green Cabbage Salad
• ANOTHER TAKE Asian Slaw with Sugar Snap Peas & Almonds

Spring Pies That Shout "Celebration"

• THE RECIPE Fresh Strawberry Pie Fresh glazed berries in a homemade chocolate-cookie crust, a real crowd pleaser.
• ANOTHER TAKE Finnish Strawberry Whipped Cream Cake A real celebration cake.

• THE RECIPE Coconut Cream Pie How to move grown men to silence.
• ANOTHER TAKE Easy-Easy Chocolate Coconut Pudding Just five ingredients and ten minutes to pudding.

• THE RECIPE Perfect All-Rhubarb Pie A summer masterpiece.
• ANOTHER TAKE Custard with Rhubarb Sauce Creamy custard topped with sour rhubarb.

The Dinner Bell

Seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, the dinner bell rings. If we're gonna eat, somebody's gotta cook, some nights fuel, some nights a feast. Let's make it good, a welcome end to our days.

• THE RECIPE Honey Mustard Chicken Just five ingredients, fast and simple.
• ANOTHER TAKE Baked Chicken with Herb-Roasted Potatoes Simple, satisfying supper.

• THE RECIPE Easy Skillet Stroganoff (Beef or Chicken) The Russian classic, weeknight friendly.
• ANOTHER TAKE Picadillo (Cuban Ground Beef Skillet Supper) Homey comfort food from Cuba.

• THE RECIPE Afghan Eggplant & Tomato Casserole (Borani Banjan)
• SERVE WITH Afghan Chicken & Rice Casserole (Kabeli Palau)

Put an Egg on Top aka "How About Eggs for Dinner?"

Why should breakfast get all the eggs?! If eggs for dinner were a club, I'd be president, chief marketing officer, resident evangelist, public advocate and ... hey, wanna join my club? Start here!

• THE RECIPE Light Tomato Basil Quiche Make-ahead, light and healthy.
• ANOTHER TAKE Ratatouille Omelettes A food hit worthy of a hit movie!

Recipes That Stand the Test of Time

To mark A Veggie Venture's 15th anniversary in 2020, I took a hard look at the first 365 vegetable recipes from the first year to select just 15 which, all these many years and recipes later, remain ever so useful. The result is a fascinating collection of recipes, 15 Favorite Vegetable Recipes, Still Useful After 15 Years. Here's just one.

• THE RECIPE Asparagus Tapenade
• ANOTHER TAKE Beet Pesto

PS Who's noticed? I'm big on "usefulness". See? Best-Ever “Most Useful” Recipes 2002 – Present, just one recipe per year from Kitchen Parade.

Made Me Think ...

• Foods From Afar Hope to Catch the Eye of American Shoppers from the New York Times. Ha! I fell for this just this week, coming home with "'Swedish porridge rice," at about 4X the price I'd pay for short-grain rice. Key take-away: "One of the biggest hurdles is choosing visual clues — fonts, colors, illustrations and photographs — that channel a product’s physical or conceptual provenance. A brand identity that’s too sleek and polished might appear inauthentic and lose credibility. Yet folksy designs or a reliance on regional symbols can look cliché and dated."


• One Way to Let Your House Speak from The Nester. We've plotted to paint our east-facing (read "dark") dining room a pretty light green for too long. But before I commit to cover a very dark saturated orangey-red (that I've never liked ...) with a much lighter, less saturated paint, I think the room and I need to have a little sit-down. Key Take-away: "Sometimes a home is bossy on color, sometimes it’s more about a specific style or time period, sometimes it’s more about the setting like rustic, metropolitan or beachy. It’s our job to pay attention to the bossy parts of our home, and then from there, add our unique style in a way that it works with what already exists in the home."


• Russia's Asymmetrical Attacks on America, podcast from Policology. What an eye-opener. "The people who are doing this are disarming the American public [that's us, people] against a key threat."

Soups & Salads Bridging the Seasons

March is such a funny month for cooking, some wintry days (yo, soups!), some spring-like days (hey, salads!) and so many days neither one nor the other, just smack in the middle. So what grabs us depends on the day, yes? That's why I spent a year gathering all of A Veggie Venture's best soup and salad recipes into easy-to-scan month-by-month collections.

• DIG INTO Seasonal Soup & Salad Recipes for March, tons of ideas!
• OR LOOK AHEAD TO Seasonal Soup & Salad Recipes for April

Feeding a Sugar-Conscious Sweet Tooth

You too? We're cutting back on sweets without demonizing dessert, usually with smaller batches, smaller servings, shareable desserts or fruit desserts in addition to limiting frequency. But some times?

• THE RECIPE Chocolate Cream Puffs Stuffed with Strawberries & Cream Just two bites big, just perfect for spring occasions.
• ANOTHER TAKE Strawberry Banana Chocolate Crumble Fruity chocolaty goodness.

Timehop

Who else loves seeing old photos pop up, quick memories from years past? Welcome to a recipe timehop ...

• THE THINKING Is a Stand Mixer Better for Kneading Bread Dough? The Case For & Against
• PLUS A RECIPE Easy Everyday Bread for the Stand Mixer Better bread, no kneading by hand!

• THE RECIPE Easy-Easy Slow Cooker Honey Carrots
• ANOTHER TAKE Bourbon-Glazed Roasted Carrots

Trending

My Top 10 Recipes are predictable, hello Ham 101: What to Know Before Buying a Ham and (Sloooow) Baked Potatoes (How Long to Bake a Baked Potato). But every week, seasonal recipes catch the internet's attention and start to trend.

• THE RECIPE Greek Greens (Flash Cook to Eat Later)
• ANOTHER TAKE Asian Greens

• THE RECIPE Light 'n' Easy Chocolate Pudding Sweet and satisfying but won't ruin your diet.
• ANOTHER TAKE Easy-Easy Chocolate Coconut Pudding Just five ingredients and ten minutes to pudding.

Just Updated!

• THE RECIPE How to Microwave Asparagus
• ANOTHER TAKE How to Cook Artichokes in the Microwave

• THE RECIPE Sautéed Broccoli Slaw So simple, surprisingly delish!
• ANOTHER TAKE Mighty Perfect Cabbage & Broccoli Coleslaw Bigger effort, big results.

Don't Be a Stranger ...

I'd love to hear from you. Comment, send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com, dot-dash in Morse code, build a fire for smoke signals, launch a message in a bottle, send a Christmas letter, get the dog to yip, toss me a note wrapped in a rubberband, write a message in the sky, scratch a note in the sand, listen to a seashell, tuck a question into a plastic Easter egg, whatever.

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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