A few years ago I invited our new neighbors over for a get-acquainted dinner. The prickly pear cacti in my front garden were sporting delicious-looking young pads so I decided to make a Nopal Salsa and serve it as an appetizer.

I cut the tender edible cactus pads, called nopales, boiled them in water and removed the spines.

Then I mixed them with other ingredients for a colorful salsa and served them with home-made tortilla chips and frosty margaritas.

The neighbors dug into the salsa and thought it was delicious. But when I mentioned they were enjoying the cactus from my front yard, they both stopped eating in mid-bite.

I assured them the salsa was made with a vegetable that’s an important part of the menu in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico.

Nopales (pronounced noh-PAH-lays) are the tender, edible cactus pads from the familiar prickly pear cactus (Opuntia species). Once the spines are removed, the fleshy pads are cooked and used in many different recipes from salads to salsas. The prepared nopalitos taste a little like a slightly tangy well-cooked green bean.

Homegrown sprouts are perfect for windowsill gardening any time of the year. Just add water and watch them grow.

Some of the freshest, most nutritious organic greens on the planet can be grown in your kitchen without special equipment, complicated instructions or time-consuming techniques. All you have to do is grab a quart jar, sprinkle in a few tablespoons of sprouting seeds, and add water.

In a week, you’ll have a jar full of sprouts you can use on top of salads, added to sandwiches or tossed into soups to add a delicious and nutritious touch. Some say sprouts are the most nutritiously dense food you can grow.

High-quality organic sprouting seeds can be found at natural food grocery stores, at online seed retailers, and some garden centers. Seeds popular for home sprouting include alfalfa, lentils, mung beans, clover, radish, sunflower and broccoli. There are also many seed mixes available.

Looking for a new recipe for your Super Bowl party?  Try this recipe for a hearty veggie pizza for a healthy way to celebrate the end of football season.

One of the best parts of getting together to watch the Super Bowl is the party food which usually includes chips, dips, burgers, brats, and hot wings.

But this year, instead of loading up on all those extra calories, offer a lighter version of a fan favorite—pizza.

This veggie pizza uses a base of good-for-you olive oil and healthy ingredients like garlic, spinach and mushrooms. The chopped kalamata olives add such a nice meaty texture that no one will miss the pepperoni.

Choose a ready-made crust or roll out a simple dough using this basic pizza dough recipe I’ve used for many years. It makes a nice bread-like crust that stands up to a thick layer of ingredients.

While planning your vegetable garden this year, consider using vertical spaces.

Growing up is a great way to get more out of gardening in a small garden space. These vines of the ‘Trombetta di Albenga’ climbing summer squash grew on an arbor in my backyard last summer and produced beautiful light-green fruit.

If I would have planted the seeds in my vegetable bed, there wouldn’t have been room for anything else.

The plants produced long vines with beautiful large, ivy-shaped leaves. Even if these plants didn’t grow delicious fruit, the vines are spectacular.

Trombetta is an Italian heirloom summer squash that resembles its cousins in name only. Long, light-green fruit grow into curvy squash with a distinct trumpet shape. The seedless fruit has a mild, almost nut-like flavor that’s sure to win over those who say they don’t like squash.

The fruit is best when it’s harvested at about 12-16 inches long, but I let one grow to almost 3 feet and it was still tender and tasty.

A festive holiday cheeseball, made with homegrown garlic and dried herbs, is a delicious way to start the New Year.

One of the best New Year’s Eve parties I planned took no planning at all.

The idea to host a party started at work on New Year’s Eve day when I discovered none of my friends had made plans to celebrate that night.  So I invited everyone to show up at my house around 9 with something to eat or drink.

I stopped at the grocery store on my way home from work and picked up a few nibbles, then raced home and dug out the box of hats and noisemakers saved from previous parties.

We had a great time and agreed it couldn’t have been a better party if it had been weeks in the planning.

You can toss together your own impromptu New Year’s celebration with a delicious cheeseball made with some of your homegrown garlic and dried herbs.

You know greens are good for you and kale is one of the most nutritious around. In this guest post, Peggy Vonburg helps us see kale in a new light and shares her favorite kale recipe. Perhaps you’ll want to add some kale to your garden this spring.

Peggy is an herbalist and gardener who grows and uses traditional herbs, vegetables, fruits, and common dooryard weeds in her Denver garden.  She says most of the vegetables she grows are in a circle garden where herbs, flowers, and weeds happily coexist with as little supplemental water as possible. You can read more from Peggy on her Woman With Wings blog.

“I’ve always been amazed at how alive freshly-picked produce seems when I wash it. Usually I swish it around in a stainless steel bowl of cool tap water in the kitchen sink. Whether it’s broccoli, radishes, or greens, it glimmers and glows and there is a definite sense of life or spirit. I always had a feeling that produce from the grocer was quite different, but until I did this cool little experiment I wasn’t sure.

This recipe for old-fashioned Molasses Sugar Cookies uses ingredients like cloves, ginger, and cinnamon to create a treat that’s crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Finding an old recipe is like seeing a long-lost friend. I was reminded of this yesterday after finally finding the recipe for Molasses Sugar Cookies. I was afraid I had lost the list of ingredients and carefully printed instructions for this delicious old-fashioned treat.

These cookies are easy to make and they bake up crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Because molasses is the key ingredient, these cookies are almost good for you. Molasses, a sugar derived from sugar cane or sugar beets, gives these cookies their delicious dark brown color and adds a deeper kind of sweetness. The thick brown liquid also contains vitamins and minerals, like iron, calcium and potassium.

That’s enough to make you feel downright healthy eating them.

This recipe for red wine vinegar turns ordinary vinegar into a tasty gift.

I always enjoy spending time in the kitchen making goodies to give as homemade holiday gifts, but in previous years I was reluctant to try my hand at making red wine vinegar.

I’d read about the months’ long process that requires an earthenware crock and a live starter called a “mother.” And I’d heard that a good mother is often handed down from a friend or relative like a treasured heirloom.

Vinegar is the result of the chemical reaction between the mother bacteria and the wine.

For those without a mother, the bacteria culture can be found at stores selling wine making supplies.

I didn’t want to wait the 2-3 months of time needed for a slow fermentation process. I had to find a faster way to create vin aigre (sour wine). The quickest option was to add red wine to white vinegar, but that wasn’t my style.

This recipe for Curried Butternut Squash soup is an ideal starter before a holiday meal. It can be served hot, cold, or at room temperature. Serve in bowls with a dollop of sour cream or in shot glasses for slurping.

I stocked up on butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata) at the market the other day because the price was right and I had several recipes in mind.

The checkout clerk rang up the squash and then stopped what he was doing.

“Could I ask you a question,” he said. “How the heck do you cut these things?”

I understand his frustration. It takes a powerful key to unlock the combination to a butternut squash and their odd shape makes peeling especially difficult. I’ve tried peeling these squash while still whole, but an easier way is to cut the squash in half and remove the seeds before peeling. Then slice the fatter, bottom portion into rings, then peel and cut into chunks.

Baked garlic is one of my favorite appetizers and this recipe keeps hungry Thanksgiving guests satisfied until dinner is on the table.

But, if you’re pressed for time, garlic can be cooked in just minutes in a microwave oven.

Baked Garlic Recipe

Ingredients

One or two whole garlic bulbs
Extra virgin olive oil
Dried herbs such as oregano or leaf thyme
Assorted crackers or fresh crusty bread

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Peel the loose, papery skins off the outside of the bulbs.
3. Slice about 1/4-inch off the top of each clove.