Asparagus is a perennial vegetable that rises from underground in the Upper Midwest from May through June.  Enjoy it in Asparagus and Honey Lemon Chicken.  In this Resurrection season, reflect with me on ways to act and advocate, bringing transformation to our world, including our food system, feeding and healing people, plants, animals and the planet.  
 

During Easter Week or the 50-day Easter season, slow down to let the Holy One feed your deepest hungers.  Even make bread with this recipe for Basic Whole Wheat Bread.   Consider how you give bread - material and spiritual - to the hungry.  Live the Eucharist and pray  "Holy God, give bread to the hungry and hunger for You to those who have bread."  

Rather than a recipe, this post poses a Food Pantry Challenge! If you needed food assistance, what groceries would you put in your monthly food pantry package? From the list of options provided, tally up how many meals you would eat from those items. Learn more about WAFER Food Pantry in La Crosse and how to address food insecurity where you live.

In her Lenten reflection book, Christine Valters Paintner invites us to fast from “speed and rushing in order to embrace slowness and pausing.”  In our Western culture, our minds and hands seem to move at a fast pace.  One place to slow down is in the kitchen.  A simple recipe for “Slow Cooker Stew” invites us to pause to savor a hearty meal.  Check out the "Slow Food" movement.

Would you buy vegetable stock, stew or tomato sauce made from good farm surplus produce and fresh-cut veggie remnants?  Matriark Foods sells delicious, healthy, low sodium foods to retail stores, schools, hospitals, food banks and food service outlets saving tons of fresh food from the landfill.  Learn more about Matriark and “upcycled” foods that help the environment, support farmers and feed the hungry.  Make Kitchen Scrap Vegetable or Meat Stock to reduce food waste.

Teaser:  

The maple sap has been running very early this year with the record rise in temperatures.  You are invited to St. Joseph Ridge’s FSPA land for the boil down on March 4 and 5.  Celebrate the wisdom of the trees and the Indigenous people’s art of syrup making with Maple Blueberry Wild Rice Coffee Cake. 

Root vegetables have a sweet, earthy flavor that seems made for roasting.  Beets, sweet potatoes, rutabagas and onions in any combination you like are a savory treat this time of year and you can make extra to freeze for a side dish or creamy soup!  They exemplify the invitation to eat seasonally in winter.  Storing them for lasting flavor is wisdom from the past.

Texas-style Shrimp and Grits might have been served for supper to President LBJ and Lady Bird Johnson by their personal chef Zephyr Wright.  As an African American woman from the south, she used her voice to share experiences and opinions with the President and he listened.  Let’s ask ourselves as progressive white women and men, how do we use our voices to speak for racial justice?

As the season of Lent begins, the Seasoned Franciscan offers a recipe for Minestrone Soup and a “recipe” for Lent from Christine Valters Paintner.  In her book “A Different Kind of Fast: Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent”,  Christine poses the question: “What is my true hunger?”  Whether you have a long practice of Lenten reflection or are new to the season the summary of her reflections in this post may season these weeks before Easter with meaning.

Valentine’s Day is about celebrating those we love.  The tradition of giving chocolates in heart-shaped boxes for Valentine’s Day was started by the Cadbury company in 1868.  Chocolate, however, comes with a price.  To this day, children and forced labor are used to work many cocoa farms.  In addition, many cocoa farms contribute to illegal deforestation.  This post offers a great recipe for "Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cups" from Meredith Hink and information about Free Trade Chocolate.

In winter, root vegetables can keep for months after harvest.  Keep warm with this Hearty Root Vegetable Soup recipe.  Winter is also the time of year to consider buying a share in a local farm!  The Community Supported Agriculture (or CSA) movement provides a way for eaters to get fresh, seasonal and often organic produce and proteins from a local farm and “put a face” on their food.  Read about CSAs. You might discover a farmer that might be a good partner for you!

Feeding the hungry is a vital work of mercy.  If you're shy about cooking for a crowd, fear not!  Sister Ruth Berra sponsored an FSPA Ministry Grant to Pillars in Appleton, WI.  This post includes a link to the cookbook they created to provide volunteers with recipes to make dinner for a large number of people. "Sloppy Joe's for a Crowd" was made and served to unsheltered people at the LaCrosse Warming Center this winter by affiliates.  Where can you feed the hungry?

One Christmas our family chose to exchange consumable gifts. Theme baskets are fun to create and to eat! The last healing secret of food message encourages us to eat foods produced close to home, in as close to their natural state as possible and sourced with concern for the earth and for workers. This post offers ideas for optimal local foods good for health, the earth and the community.

Our beloved Labrador (nicknamed "Hoover" by his rescuers) ate each meal like a starved vacuum cleaner, as if someone might take the food away from him!  The opposite of "hoovering", mindfulness is a spiritual practice that allows slowing down to savor each flavor, texture and smell.  This weeks "Healthy Snack Ideas" encourage attentive and nourishing mini-meals with which to practice mindfullness, another healing secret of food.

Advent and Christmas are special for Franciscans.  This year, we celebrate the 800th anniversary of Francis’ live reenactment of Jesus’ birth.  Since Francis’ 1223 Christmas in the Italian village of Greccio, nativity scenes (live and in art) have continued because God who is Love was born as a baby, God among us.  This recipe for Bambino Bread is a simple way to honor the Baby Jesus on your table as a loaf of bread, shaped to resemble a baby in swaddling clothes!

With days getting shorter and varying degrees of chill in the air, it's officially comfort food season.  This Pot Pie recipe is rich with beans, greens and optional leftover veg and turkey!  Feelings of calm and comfort are expressed and elicited by certain dishes.  What foods soothe you?  Draw you in when your are upset? This week’s healing secret of food encourages us to be aware of our feelings before, during, and after eating.

By wasting less as we plan, prepare, and enjoy the holiday meals, we’ll reduce the 40% of food that gets wasted between farm and kitchen in our country.  This post on "Food Waste and Thanksgiving" offers tips from the authors of “Perfectly Good Food”.  Wasting less is part of giving thanks as we also look at Part II of the Healing Secrets of Food: Gratitude.

Canned Tomatoes and Beans can become a delicious, quick and simple meal.  Here are 3 variations you can make tonight from your pantry!  Meals don’t have to be elaborate to nourish the Body, Mind and Soul.  In the coming weeks, Seasoned Franciscan offers a series on “The Healing Secrets of Food”, from a book by Deborah Kesten, beginning with how we unite with others through food.

To “mull,” apple cider or red wine means “to heat, sweeten, and flavor it with whole spices”.  Mulled cider is a cozy drink during fall apple season. Infused with spices like cinnamon, nutmeg or cloves, it will lift your spirits and make your kitchen smell like fall. Smells can hold memories, so as hands are clasped around warm mugs, memories can be shared and made.

Farmers' markets and roadside stands are great sources for different varieties of beautifully colored, tasty winter squash, a food that is thousands of years old.  All squash (and their seeds) are edible.  Use more of this delicious food with a recipe for "Winter Squash Seeds".

Three Sisters Soup is a delicious harvest soup made with the nourishing trio of corn, squash, and beans.  The "sisters" have been staples in the diets of many tribes over the centuries.  Their story honors native wisdom and provides a great learning opportunity for Indigenous Peoples Month in November!

How do we honor your ancestors, both genetic and spiritual?   Images, rituals, habits, motherisms, stories?  Foods can also say mia familia (my family) to us.  This recipe for Italian Gnocchi (potato dumplings) represents strength, values and flavors from my Grandmothers.  There is a “from scratch” and an easy version.  Let kids help!  What food memories might you share?

This fall Wild Rice Salad is refreshing and full of nutrients. In this Season of Creation, Native people have much to teach about their sacred relationship to food, such as wild rice, manoomin or “good berry” and to the clean, cool water she depends upon.

Corn Chowder is a great fall recipe.  With corn fields all around us, less than 7% of US corn gets to our tables as fresh or frozen corn and cornmeal.  4% is processed into high-fructose corn syrup.  The rest, "dent" or field corn, becomes ethanol and feed for beef cattle, pigs and chickens.  It makes me wonder how the upcoming US Farm Bill supports creation, food and farmers.

Hispanic Heritage Month started on September 15.  Corn is the star of a recipe for "Grilled Corn Salad".  It comes with a story of a pre- Hispanic Zapotecan woman named Abigail Mendoza.  She is a cook, restaurateur and teacher who “feels her ancestors” (native people from before the Spanish conquest) present when she prepares food.

Fresh tomato season is here!  Here are tips to easily use and preserve them, including: “Fresh Tomato Sauce” (good on pasta, pizza or bruschetta), easy salads, canning/freezing them whole, diced or in Italian sauce.  What are your quick and yummy tomato meals or sides?

In any season we can reduce food waste and use leftover produce.  The recipe for “’Anyway you like it’ Galette” is a great pastry stuffed with either Fruit, Greens, Roasted Summer Veggies or Root Vegetables!  Read on for a self-assessment and recipes, resources and tips to reduce Food Waste.

For a change of pace, we offer four Homemade Cleaning Products Recipes from former Americorps interns Emily Orth and Lisa Broulette that offer ways to upgrade our household cleaning routine to create a healthier, safer home and help the earth.

“Kale Slaw” was one dish served after a recent “pasture walk” at Anathoth Community Catholic Worker Farm
 in Polk County near Luck, WI.  In late July, over 60 farmers, ag experts and friends toured veggie and pollinator gardens and grazing pastures of beef cattle, hogs and chickens.  It was fun to learn and share as we walked.

My daughter planted bountiful and beautiful peppers in her first garden this year.  The purple varieties are gorgeous!  She and her husband treated us to this recipe for "Stuffed Purple Peppers" and have already frozen green peppers and canned hot sauce of varying heat levels.  She’s caught the garden and kitchen bug!  

It’s zucchini season!  Have you ever seen your neighbor coming by with an armful of green torpedo – shaped produce?  Don’t run and hide!  Here are two versatile zucchini recipes, one easy and one worth the details:  Cheesy Zucchini Towers and Zucchini Lasagna.

After a short trip, we came home to a monster zucchini (to be used in waffles) and several small ones in the garden.  We used them in “Pasta with Zucchini from Navaro” (a small town on the Italian Amalfi coast).  It’s yummy and a favorite of actor Stanley Tucci, who admits his life revolves around food!

"All the Veggies" Bolognese Sauce" fills the kitchen with tantalizing smells AND helps clear the fridge of random produce.  Leftover food of all kids often can be on the verge of going in the trash.  We can all do a little to get to Zero food waste! This post includes resources and recipes to reduce household food waste AND climate change!  

Who wants to heat up the stove on a hot summer day?  This vegetable-dense Asian Chicken Salad has a tangy Cambodian sauce, shredded chicken and colorful veggies to please in the heat of summer.  What are your go-to minimal cooking summer meals?

This recipe for "Brunch Berry Pizza" is a cool and beautiful red, white, and blue dessert for guests that suits any special holiday or gathering.  Berries are a nutrient dense summer treat and affordable, especially if you know someone with some bushes!

These Rhubarb Crisp and Sauce Recipes are worth repeating this season when both rhubarb and strawberries are plentiful.  Strawberries tell a story of sharing, according to Native American Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer.  See the post for links to the wisdom of strawberries.

This recipe for “’Massaged’ Kale Salad with Lemon Dressing” is full of nutrients, packed with flavor and may make you into a kale lover. Even kids liked it!  It can be made ahead as the hardy leaves keep well, even with dressing.  Rubbing washed kale with a bit of salt and oil or fresh lemon juice tenderizes the greens.

On a hot summer day, who doesn’t enjoy a cool drink?  This festive recipe for Italian Sangria is fruity, refreshing and can be made with or without alcohol.  Sangria comes from the Spanish word sangre meaning blood, an element of life itself.  

In our after school cooking class in spring 2022, Tamra Dickinson and I shared these recipes with students at Hillside Elementary in La Crosse.  It was fun to watch them wash greens and spin them dry in make-shift kitchen towel salad spinners.  Mason jars of dressing ingredients were shaken with every muscle they had and we all enjoyed a spring kale salad!

A classmate used to create delicious-looking lunch salads from what was found in our college cafeteria!  To her meal of greens, veggies, nuts or seeds and she often added beans, cheese, brown rice or whole grains.  This kind of plate - mostly plant foods – is featured in a recipe for “Warm Farro Salad with Spring Veggies”.

May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. A very broad term, this recognition encompasses all of the Asian continent and 1000s of Pacific islands.  This week's recipe is for a refreshing Pacific Rim Salad.  Let's learn more about the food and culture of our AANHPI neighbors!

Asparagus is a sure sign of spring in the upper Midwest and home gardeners can’t give it away fast enough!   If you or your neighbors aren't swimming in it, look for fresh asparagus at your local farmer's market.  This post is not a recipe so much as a guide to preparing asparagus. 

“Meat and Bulgur Sloppy Joes” is an easy version of this famous sandwich. The recipe is followed by some facts about bulgur and its Middle Eastern origins and some history of the iconic Sloppy Joe.

Quinoa (keen' wah) is a grain native to the Americas along with wild rice, amaranth, corn and mesquite. These grains have ancient histories and provide important vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and plant protein. Try quinoa in this "tamale-like" Peruvian recipe for "Quinoa Altamalada."

Meredeth Hink shares a recipe, saying, it "should be appropriate for this time of year. I have been making these pancakes for my family since I was in high school. They are easy to make and a great way to use up leftover vegetables, especially cabbage/coleslaw mix." Discover Japan's strong values of culture, health and the environment in the way many cities do school lunch.

This delicious recipe for Maple Amaranth Cornbread is shared by Meg Paulino who has been part of maple syrup production on Saint Joseph Ridge.The recipe was posted by the Ho-Chunk Nation's Division of Health as a Harvest of the Month. For Indigenous people, both maple syrup and amaranth have many uses and sacred connections to their food sovereignty, culture and spirituality.

Christians celebrate 50 days of Easter, giving us time to consciously engage in Resurrection transformation: to be of service, forgive, prayerfully plant seeds, surrender to joy, bake bread. Use this Basic Bread Recipe to bake bread, "transformational food!" Also included: a reflection inspired by baker theologian Peter Reinhart called From Wheat to Eat.

Another ethnic meatless recipe, Red Lentil Tacos are spiced with delicious taco seasonings for a healthy alternative to ground meat. It can be whipped up with only a few simple ingredients in just 20 minutes. Read on for more meatless recipes from Earthbeat, the Sisters of Mercy and the Meatless Mondays campaign and their planet health reasons to limit meat consumption.

A partner-in-mission suggested that Seasoned Franciscan feature meatless meals with sardines. So, this post, Canned Fish for Light Meals and Snacks suggests ways to use sardines and other canned fish. They may be a pantry staple for you or a new food to try! Read on for "fishy" facts you might find interesting regarding the environment, health and doing penance.

An easy meatless Enchilada Casserole with a side of refried beans, offers protein and veggies! This recipe uses convenient, nutritious vegetables frozen at their flavor peak! I discovered veggies and fruits grown locally in my grocer's organic freezer section! Look where you shop!

Egg rolls are a celebration food! When the Hmong Community Center has an egg roll sale in La Crosse there is often a line out the door! Yee Xiong, virtual worker at St. Rose Convent, used to make this recipe on special occasions at the Villa to entice Sisters and staff to the Terrace for an event! She will tell you that they are served at important family occasions in Hmong culture. Needless to say, they are made with love and care!

Frittata is good for breakfast, lunch or dinner and a great way to use whatever veggies you have on hand or leftover pasta. It’s easier than quiche, but may take practice to get it set how you like it! What meatless dishes come to you from your food heritage? We’ll be sharing some this Lent!

Saint Rose Convent Nurse Zona Kern writes, “Over the years many sisters have mentioned that "penitential biscuits" were being served to them on occasion. (Apparently, it used to be on Good Friday.) This year one of the sisters brought a biscuit to the nurses to try and it was very good. The recipe is attributed to Sister Marcella Marie Dreikosen.

With Lent approaching, this recipe from Jean Feeney for "Monastery Lentil Soup" uses a versatile plant protein and great pantry staple.  She got it from "Diet for a Small Planet" by Francis Moore Lappe published over 50 years ago.  Make it for Lent.  Meet another author named Marion Nestle who writes about how to vote with our fork and our votes to help our small and warmer planet today!

Rice is a nutritious pantry staple. It provides nearly 80% of the nutrients for 50% of the world’s population. Make some Red Rice, also called Gullah, Savannah or Mulatto Rice which was a staple for West Africans. Enslaved people brought it to the low country of Georgia and the Carolinas. Red Rice tells a story of African American culture as we celebrate African American History Month.

Tuna and noodles hot dish, aka casserole, is part of the upper, Midwest's unique food story. This recipe is similar to the one from a Campbell’s soup label. Is the quick supper that many of us grew up on! It’s a quick “from the pantry” meal that appeals to all ages. Maybe it’s the potato chip crust! We called Mrs. DeCur's version “Toodles and Nuna,” a slip of the tongue that stuck! What’s your favorite “hot dish” memory?

While here is another "pie" recipe, this one from The Seasoned Mom is pantry friendly, quick and satisfying. It relies on staples like canned soup, frozen veggies and baking mix rather than “from scratch” ingredients, with several easy options for the chicken. Read on for a list of pantry staples that both chefs and nutritionists recommend!

Enjoy a great recipe for Salmon Pie from affiliate Sandra Hoeser! Canned fish like salmon can be an important pantry staple. Salmon is found all over the northern oceans including Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, Ireland, Scandinavia and Lake Superior.

With holiday feasts behind us, what can keep us “Cooking Joyfully” at this time of year? A mindful PANTRY (cupboards, fridge, freezer) can be a tool to foster Cooking Joyfully. If you're privileged to have a stocked pantry as I am, let's shop in it and cook from it with that in mind. It may lead us to live more simply and be more generous.

Try this gluten-free Chocolate Almond Spice Cookie recipe from Switzerland. It was shared by Wis-Corp intern Lisa Broulette while setting up Luminaria for the Advent hike at St. Joseph Ridge. Food traditions of any culture get conversations started!

“This recipe is one which I have made the last few years for Christmas” said Director of Affiliation Michael Krueger. “It is a Norwegian gingerbread recipe but with a spicier taste to it due to the freshly ground cloves and pepper.

My father-in-law was a baker and inherited a treasured wooden Spritz cookie press from one of his employers. Spritz are a Christmas favorite in lots of households and it takes practice (and cookie press or pastry bag skills) to make them! Try them for yourself during the 12 days of Christmas. They make great Epiphany gifts!

When asked about a favorite Polish holiday cookie, Viterbo Chaplain Father Conrad Targonski, OFM described his Mother's Kolaczki (Koe lach' kee, in some Polish circles!). Poles claim it, but so do Slovaks, Croatians, Czechs, Scandinavians and others. Discover the Polish version and other ethnic variations of this celebration recipe.

This chocolate chip cookie recipe was passed on by Bonnie Sacis to Sister Antona Schedlo. “The cookies just melt in your mouth”, says Sister Antona! Sounds like a sweet treat recipe for any time of year.

In Mexico and for folks connected with cultures south of the U.S. border, Dec. 12th is a favorite Marian feast day. In honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, look up her amazing story! Bake Mexican Wedding Cakes, also known as Russian Tea Cakes or Snowball Cookies! A good thing by any name is loved by all!

Food is a memorable and meaningful part of our lives, in particular at the holidays. Favorite dishes can link us to a much bigger story of our ancestors, culture and values. During December and possibly into 2023, The Seasoned Franciscan invites you to: send in a favorite Christmas cookie or other celebration recipe.

In many Italian families, biscotti are a Christmas celebration cookie. I love making this traditional recipe to remember my loved ones. But as our family grows, we have literally made room for contributions of other Christmas cookies that join the Christmas table. What cookies bring you memories?

Discover the taste and heartiness of wild rice in a recipe for "Wild Rice Soup". Learn how this sacred food has been a ceremony, social interaction, security and medicine for the body and soul of many tribal people around the Great Lakes for generations.

Cranberries or Mashkiigimin in Ojibwe have been used by American Indians for many purposes. The berry has immense medicinal properties and was sometimes used to dye cloth. Check out this old-fashioned Uncooked Cranberry Relish Recipe and consider your favorite uses of the cranberry.

Try this simple Native American Corn Hominy Soup and give thanks. Corn is a sacred food and bringing it from seed to table is a sacred process. Learn more about Sister Corn and her place in the whole community.

National Native American Heritage Month in November invites us to explore the heritage, culture and experience of Indigenous peoples both historically and in American life today. This month The Seasoned Franciscan will include recipes for foods sacred to Native Americans.

This fall recipe for "Pumpkin Soup" offers pumpkin food ways facts. Find out how scholars use food like squash and pumpkin to trace history and culture from Central to North American, Europe and back to American tables. Even China and India produce and export pumpkin. Once again, stories connect us across the globe!

In September and October, local Apples featured in the "Fall Apple Salad" Recipe are at their peak in most of North America. For those of us who are not farmers, there are lots of markets for "pick your own" and bagged apples. This post includes a link to help you find a pick-your-own farm for apples and much more near where you live!  Read on for tips for to freezing fresh apples!

Three Sisters' Harvest Bowl recipe uses what Native peoples consider their siblings: squash, beans, and corn. Native languages do not use the pronoun "it" when referring to the natural world. Trees and all plants, animals, rocks and water are "he" or "she." Read about the importance of food plants as family. Look for celebration of Indigenous People's Day this week in your area.

Original Local refers to the foodways of Native peoples, indigenous to the Americas who called the western hemisphere long before European settlers arrived. The next few recipes will feature native foods such as this easy recipe for Butternut Squash, one of the Three Sisters in their cuisine and a fall favorite to many!

Summer abundance. It pours forth richly and wonderfully in oh so many ways. Including tomatoes!  Making quick and easy meals gives us more time to enjoy summer abundance. Pasta Fresca is one of Margaret Bluske's family favorite quick and easy recipes, made all the more delicious by the fact that it is strictly for this time of year, when the tomatoes are vine-ripened and the basil is fresh.

At this time of year, tomatoes couldn't be more gorgeous! This Tomato Upside Down Cornbread celebrates them. One of the healing secrets of food is that when we slow down, we can more intensely appreciate the beauty of all that our Mother earth produces! Use all your senses to take in the beautiful color and shape, fragrance, feel and intricacy of the fruits of creation!

Many of us did not know Sister Eulalia, yet her cornbread is remembered long after she passed from our midst! When we make something with love, the gift and the love it embodies is present. Honor her as you enjoy her cornbread recipe and whet your appetite for some tidbits about corn.

An easy recipe for Homemade Salsa from Vicki Lopez-Kaley and her friend Karen Imholte is great with chips, as a base for chili with beans, or in Mexican dishes. Learn how to can it to put “summer in a jar”!

September 1st through October 4th is the Season of Creation. Find out how this Season introduced by Pope Francis can help us reflect, learn and act in a deeper partnership with our brothers and sisters of the human and non-human world! Check out the information and opportunities to honor Creation.

With a few pantry and freezer staples, a supper of Corn, Beans and Salsa can be quick and tasty. The time to blanch and freeze fresh sweet corn is now. Read our story about how to freeze corn at its sweetest and to blanch other seasonal veggies for peak flavor through the year!

Meg Paulino got this recipe from an herb farm in Seattle many years ago and it is her favorite summertime drink!

Summer’s bounty includes Summer Squash and onions.  Here’s an easy Summer Squash Casserole with roots in the southern U.S. Read on to meet southern chef Vivian Howard, her "Old School Squash and Onions" recipe and stories.

Hello again, Iggy here, in what will be my last update on The Seasoned Franciscan. But worry not! The recipe swap will go on with Vicki Lopez-Kaley taking the lead as of Monday.

This recipe was submitted by Sister Eileen McKenzie, who says: "Sr. Sarah Hennessey introduced me to this amazingly delicious and unbelievably simple chocolate pie recipe. Enjoy!"

Ready for a nice, simple evening meal? Try my spin on making tortellini! This meal is a favorite in my household, and it comes together quickly and easily.

Looking for ways to use cauliflower this season?  "Ricing" it is a versatile way that you might not have thought of before!

I missed posting on Wednesday, so I'm doubling up on recipes again! Today's focus is zucchini in a tribute to that over-abundant yet delicious plant that's coming into season right now.

We haven't done a lot of main dishes yet, so here's one with an ethnic flair!  Lentils Mexicana can be a very versatile dish in both the way it's made and the way it's eaten.

I'm really looking forward to fall and an end to summer's heat this year, so I wanted to post a fall recipe a little early.  I think this one is intriguing since I'm used to eating squash seeds (I love roasted pumpkin seeds in the fall) but I've never thought to eat the skins.

I got an interesting question the other day about what “food scraps” means, so I thought I’d try to clear it up with a short post.

This morning in the FSPA garden, someone was dared to eat a piece of broccoli straight off of the plant.  Imagine his surprise when we told him to also try the stem!

Every time summer comes around, I start craving peach cobbler. I know the peaches are ripening and perfectly juicy, and just waiting to be baked up and served with ice cream.

Welcome to the Seasoned Franciscan! I'm Iggy Bauer, and I live by the motto, "Life's too short to eat cr**py food." Read on for details about this new webpage and what its themes mean to me.