Welcome to installment No. 1 of The Dorothy Project, in which I’ll cook my way through many of the recipes in my grandma’s old recipe file. First up: one of my favorite desserts from growing up. I loved poppy seed cake so much it was the top layer of our wedding cake. Get my grandma’s old-fashioned recipe on writes4food.com — it’s really easy!
If you’ve been reading writes4food.com for awhile, you remember The Clara Project, inspired by a collection of vintage recipe cards I discovered at an antique store. Now, I’ve gotten my hands on my grandmother’s clip file of old recipes. I’m thinking of cooking my way through her library: The Dorothy Project. What do you think? Comment on writes4food.com if you’d be interested in following along!
Working on the theory that food that grows together tastes good together — and on a corollary theory that Feta cheese makes pretty much any summer salad that much better — I hacked together this recipe for Summer Melon and Golden Tomato Salad (did I mention Feta?). It’s so simple it’s stupid. Plus, honey-lime vinaigrette. You’ve got all the ingredients on hand or at your neighborhood farm stand. Get the recipe on writes4food.com!
Ahh, these cute little balls of fried risotto and cheese deliciousness. I’m still on a kick for Italian appetizers, and arancini totally fits the bill. Yeah, they’re fried. We can live with that. They’re delicious. Get the recipe on writes4food.com!
I made up this recipe after we had a similar salad at a delightful little bar/cafe in Lucca, Tuscany. Couscous is the ideal base for any kind of salad—and this one has a lovely range of flavors and textures: crisp, sweet apple, salty Feta, briny olive, crunchy almonds. It’s kinda perfect, actually. Get the recipe for Couscous Salad with Apple and Feta over on writes4food.com!
I’m sort of a junkie for gazpacho — that most refreshing (and no cook!) of summer soups. This Quick Blender Gazpacho recipe is my go-to for the season: bright, flavorful, perfect for lunch on a hot day.
You’ll want to bookmark this recipe, not just because it’s the thing to fix for dinner tonight (what with summer sweet corn being totally awesome right now), but because these Quick Breaded Chicken Tenders is a basic, all-year, even-for-picky-eaters kind of lifesaver recipe. Get the recipe on writes4food.com!
My cookbook, The Findlay Market Cookbook, is Cincinnati’s local cookbook — a celebration of local food as it’s best represented by Cincinnati’s historic public market.
In addition to sharing easy recipes here, I’m the editor of Edible Ohio Valley magazine and the author of “The Findlay Market Cookbook.” I’m a journalist, writer and editor focused on food, wellness and creativity. I love to speak about local food and teach casual cooking classes around the Cincinnati region.
