By Marj Watkins with Suzanna Leigh This summer is predicted to be the hottest ever! Who wants to cook when the temperature is soaring? When she lived in the desert, Suzanna learned to do her cooking in the morning before the heat set in. So, roast a chicken in the early morning and use the…
By Marj Watkins and Suzanna Leigh Suzanna: You are going to be 100 years old during Strawberry Festival this year! How long have you lived on the Island? Marjorie: We moved to the island July 1969. Our furniture was due to arrive the next day, so my daughter Jeannie and I went uptown to get…
By Marjorie Watkins with Suzanna Leigh A favorite hot-weather meal inspired by our Danish relatives When I was a young woman, “Onkle Hans” came to America from Denmark to visit his cousin Lily, my mother-in-law. He always remembered that. When we were coming back from Crete in 1974, we went up to England and took…
By Marjorie Watkins and Suzanna Leigh Marjorie With the thermometer on my balcony reading 40 degrees, the temperature in the kitchen is cool enough to make a baked dish for dinner. How about a custard or a quiche? People have been eating mixtures of eggs and milk heated to thicken them since at least ancient…
By Marjorie Watkins and Suzanna Leigh Suzanna: Marjorie, you are almost 100 years old! Marjorie: This is true. A few months away from 100. Suzanna: And you are healthy, too. You say you never have a headache or the flu. How is that? Marjorie: Magic potion. It is a very tasty solution. It is cloves…
By Marjorie Watkins and Suzanna Leigh Nothing warms us on a cold winter’s day – or night – as well as a bowl of hot soup, whether it is the beginning of lunch or dinner. This recipe comes from the Caucasus range of mountains, where they say the men all live to the age of…
By Marjorie Watkins with Suzanna Leigh Winter winds mean it’s chicken soup season! For soup stock, you can use canned chicken broth or chicken broth cubes and water, or you can make your own broth with chicken bones. My grandmother Fanny taught me how to make the bone broth. Fanny and Albert, my grandfather, came…
By Marj Watkins and Suzanna Leigh This summer is promising to be plenty hot! How can we stay out of the kitchen and away from the hot stove and still serve nourishing, satisfying meals? Cold soups are refreshing, nourishing, and surprisingly nutritious. Here are some ideas. Marj’s Cold Potato Soup Make this ahead in the…
The blessings of flowers cheers us immensely, but kerchoo! Their pollen has us sneezing our heads off! What can we do? Plenty, really. Nature provides antihistamines. Nettles can sting you, but also provide an antihistamine, so make nettle soup! Take a paper bag and scissors, find a roadside rife with nettles, or a patch of…
Marj remembers a Sitka spruce, on the ridge above the Siletz River in Oregon where she grew up, as sacred to the indigenous coastal people who lived in the Siletz Valley. Marj says, “When I was a girl, we had many Indian friends. I was told that sick Indians would climb up to the spruce…