garlic – Fresh Family Food

Made-from-scratch garlic and parmesan focaccia

August 5, 2015August 5, 2015 Sonya Quick

There is something amazing about freshly baked bread.

The soft, chewy texture. The sweet smell wafting out of the kitchen. The golden brown crust.

Add garlic and parmesan to the equation and well, you have yourself a wonderful dinner. Especially a nice surprise for your family when they may only expect traditional spaghetti and marinara.

But you’re thinking. Oh no, I can’t make bread. Don’t worry. Making focaccia is very easy and very forgiving. The only need is for some warmth (something we have an abundance of in a California summer) to let the bread rise.

Cilantro pesto with roasted spaghetti squash

March 26, 2015July 9, 2015 Sonya Quick

There’s something about cilantro that can make a gray day sunny and a sunny day even better.

It’s such a vivid shade of green and it’s flavor is just as bright and cheery.

And recently my friend Michelle contributed some Q and As for the blog. One of the questions she asked was if I had any recipe suggestions for spaghetti squash that did not involve making it pasta-like.

And maybe you’ll say that pesto still makes it pasta like. Well, sure. Kinda. But usually cooks are roasting spaghetti squash into tender little pasta-like noodles and topping it all with normal tomato sauce.

Cilantro pesto is far from normal.

French pea & bacon gnocchi

March 11, 2015July 9, 2015 Sonya Quick

Do you ever get tired of pasta?

True, it can be prepared a number of ways. With tomato sauce, with cream sauce, with fresh pepper and parmesan or served with vegetables.

But I turn to pasta so often. So here’s my answer when you want and don’t want pasta for dinner.

Gnocchi.

But not just any gnocchi. For this dish I add green peas and bacon (veggie bacon). For seasoning, herbs de provence.

Veggie fried quinoa

February 2, 2015July 9, 2015 Sonya Quick

For vegeterians, and meat-eaters alike, quinoa is a golden grain.

But most people are unsure of how to get the health benefits of quinoa while cooking something yummy.

My main favorite way of incorporating quinoa is as a substitute for rice. And what is the best rice dish on earth? Fried rice!