Cooking with Mumu: [Update] There are 3 new posts in "Simply Recipes"

Simply Recipes

Here is the Simply Recipes update for cookingwithmumu@gmail.com

Spicy Vegetarian Chili
Pear Butter
The Fun That Was BlogHer Food

There are 3 new posts in "Simply Recipes"

Spicy Vegetarian Chili

Updated, from the recipe archive. ~Elise

Those of you who have been reading Simply Recipes for a while probably sense (rightly) that my father is a committed carnivore. Thus you may appreciate that dad, spending an afternoon making this vegetarian chili with vegetables that he had bought at the farmers market that morning, would only put so much care into a meat-free chili, his dinner, if that chili were darn good. This vegetable chili is that good. It's excellent. Spicy, flavorful, delicious. Of course my mother did have to convince dad that no, we didn't need steak in addition to the chili, the beans were full of protein. And no, neither did we need potatoes. We served the chili with French bread.

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Pear Butter

Every year during apple season I spend days hovering over a large copper pot, slowly stirring a thick, bubbling mixture that will become our year's supply of apple butter. And every fall for the last several seasons I've wondered how I would work the same magic on pears. I've seen plenty of recipes for pear butter, but most of them look like apple butter to me, heavily spiced with cinnamon and cloves. Pears are more floral than apples. I wanted to see them with ginger, and nutmeg, and maybe some cardamom. So when my pal Hank offered me a a bagful of Bartlett's freshly picked from his backyard tree, I was all over it. This pear butter is similar to apple butter in that it is a spicy, sweet, tangy spread, great over buttered toast (there is no "butter" in apple butter or pear butter), but with a distinctly different taste coming from the pears (obviously) and the seasonings of star anise, ginger, lemon, cardamom, and nutmeg.

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The Fun That Was BlogHer Food

BlogHer Food attendees get ready to take an early morning power walk through San Francisco. From top left to right, Nikki, Leena, Alice, Sam, and Alanna, and crashing the party with her Charlie's Angels pose, our very own Jaden.

A little over 6 years ago I started this blog, Simply Recipes, with the sole intention of documenting some of my family's recipes for my siblings and friends. I didn't know what I was doing. The software was hard, my photos were ugly, and I was learning quickly that I knew much less about cooking than I thought I did. Fortunately, at the time, there were a handful of other folks also putting their food passions into blog form, and we turned to each other for advice and inspiration. Clotilde helped me out with camera setting advice; Heidi told me what lens to get; David taught me how to make ice cream. Over the years, this band of food bloggers has grown to thousands. The spirit of generosity and sharing of knowledge that shaped the food blogging community early on continues to expand.

If you like what you see here on Simply Recipes, it's because what I cook, write, and photograph has been inspired by and informed by the vibrant food blogging community of which I am part. So when 300 food bloggers gathered a couple weeks ago for the first annual BlogHer Food conference in San Francisco, I was practically beside myself with giddy anticipation. Here are just a few highlights from the BlogHer conference weekend.

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