When I was in Portland recently, I tasted turnips for the first time without thinking they were just another form of rutabaga – in other words – old, starchy tubers.

The pickled turnips I ate at Nedd Ludd restaurant were small, tender and sweet; a revelation.

A few days later I took some home from the farmer’s market, tiny, bright garnet – colored babies that looked very much like radishes.

I cooked them simply, inspired by Julia Child. After blanching them briefly I cooked them again in a skillet until they were glazed in caramelized butter.

I liked them so much I was inspired to post the recipe on my other blog, Dinner with Julia. It’s been months since I’ve had a chance to do that…go check it out for the recipe.

Happy Birthday, Julia!

I’ve been traveling in the Pacific Northwest over the past few weeks, but missing my blog a bit lately.

Here are a few highlights from my trip – some photos taken at the downtown Portland, Oregon farmer’s market, a place so full of fresh, pristine produce it makes my heart beat a bit faster. It’s not very often that I see such a huge array of locally grown, green leafy vegetables and ripe summer fruits like cherries, berries, plums and tomatoes.

It’s hard not to want to take a little bit of everything home!

Happy Summer…I’ll be back soon with more recipes.

What comes to mind when you think of culinary pairings that seem to make magic together, so absolutely made for each other you can’t imagine tasting one without the other?

I can think of a few right off the bat, like:

lime + ginger

basil + tomatoes

olive oil + garlic

and last but not least:

chocolate + hazelnuts.

In one of my favorite new books, The Flavour Thesaurus, author Niki Segnit writes that when cocoa became scarce and  expensive during the late 19th century, chocolate manufacturers in the Italian Piedmont “bulked out” their product with a paste of hazelnuts, which grew plentifully in the region, thus introducing to the world the taste sensation known as gianduja.

All I can say to the genius who stumbled upon this marriage of convenience is THANK YOU.

Millions of hungry, sugar loving children and their families are grateful, since the discovery eventually led to the production of Nutella, and from there, well, we all know the story.

Let’s just agree that chocolate-hazelnut spread on a piece of bread kicks the ass out of your every day PBJ sandwich.

I love the idea of making my own version of Nutella – as much as I adore the store-bought version, it can be a bit cloyingly sweet. Also when I check the label I’m a little dismayed to see that these days the spread can be ‘bulked out’ with partially hydrogenated oils.

I was inspired by a few different recipes here – one from raw food chef Ani Phyo and another from the LA Times.

After applying my appropriate tweaks, I’m happy to share the results with you. Be aware that the texture is not completely velvety smooth, like the stuff that comes out of a jar. Food processors are a wonder, but can’t completely pulverize the nuts to an ultra fine puree.

However, I enjoy the resulting texture – plus the flavor of this homemade version is so real and luscious it’s almost beyond comparison to anything you can buy.