"okra" news and stories

Don't you think we've had enough sweets treats for one week? After all, it is January, the time of the year when we're all supposed to be resetting our diets by eating lighter healthier foods (and giving our livers a break from all the holiday booze). Thankfully, Sassy Radish has taken the lighter eating mantra to heart and has created this bright, gingery Tofu, Spinach and Okra Stirfry. Served over brown rice, it looks like it made a tasty and buoyantly light meal.

Thanks, Sassy Radish!

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• Some great recipes using ripe produce from farmstands, including Basil Lemonade, Stewed Corn and Tomatoes with Okra, and Summer Pudding with Blueberries and Raspberries.
• Summer means cold foods you hold in your hand, such as Raspberry Chocolate Ice Pops and Coconut Macaroon and Lemon-Ice Cream Sandwiches.
• A conversation with author Sheila Lukins.
• A quick guide to eating in Italy.
• Editor Tanya Wenman Steel has a blog (but I don't see Slashfood listed in her "Blogs We Like." Come on!)
• More recipes for July: Smoked Bluefish Pate, Cherry Pie, Penne with Pea Pesto, and Thousand Island Slaw with Chicken.

• You can make a lot of different things with mangoes.
• This guy makes green beans pickled with soy sauce and wasabi, smokra (which is okra with smokey paprika), and rosemary-scented pickled beets.
• This isn't your typical veggie burger.
• An interview with Barbara Kingsolver about her new food book.
• More books: it's the silver anniversary of The Silver Palate Cookbook.
• This week's recipes: Bulgur Wheat Salad, Imperial Asparagus, Chicken Marbella, Rougaille Beef, and Brownies.

High heat during the summer brings fresh okra, and the Tribune adds it, along with shrimp, to a late summer menu. Speaking of shrimp, Wolfgang Puck adds shrimp as a twist to the classic BLT. Heirloom cooking makes a crustless asparagus quiche.

Shop for Triscuit's cracked pepper and olive oil crackers, the CIA's Master's Collection of kitchen tools, and the Cutie Pie Kit from HomeMade Pizza Co. for kids. At the bookstore, Jay Weinstein's book, The Ethical Gourmet gets a review, and kids go wild for Brit teen chef, Sam Stern, whose first book is Cooking Up a Storm: The Teen Survival Cookbook.

If a teen sensation is too young, then read through the feature on London's Borough Market.

Just in time for back-to-school, childhood obesity is looking to get a spanking as schools go full-force with an extreme food makeover.

In drinks, vodka gets infused with a market basket of fruits. If that's too strong, mix up wine for sangrias, sprtizers, and wine coolers.

Recently, I was struck with a rare craving for a bowl of grits, boiled on the stove the way they do in diners below the Mason-Dixon line, with some butter and salt and pepper. Bargain-savvy as I am, I decided to buy the economy-sized tub of Quaker quick grits, rather than the smaller, less cost-effective box. Proud of myself for figuring out such a great deal, I trotted home with grits in tow and cooked myself a bowl.

I had eaten a bowl of grits for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and breakfast again when I realized that I was stuck with the rest of this huge tub, and that there was no way I could stomach any more of the mushy grains. I forgot, I hate grits!

I'm the type of guy who can't throw stuff away so I needed a way to spruce these grits. And who better to consult than my raised-in-the-South assistant, Emily. 

 "Emily... fix my grits?" I pleaded.

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