In Watermelon Sugar – Summer Salad with Grilled Spice-Rubbed Pork and Summer Fruit

Posted on August 1, 2026 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Before we moved to Alaska, way before… I wondered if Alaskans owned shorts. But, why would people who live in igloos own such garments? Ha ha.

Life definitely is different in the Great State. Recent warm summer days have prompted us to put on shorts and sandals and head out onto the deck to cook on the grill. This salad was inspired by Mexican fruit cups I used to buy in southern California. These refreshing snacks were served with a squirt of lime and a dusting of spicy Pico Fruta.

This summer salad was created with a base of garden grown gourmet greens (our hydroponics), to which charcoal-grilled Chinese eggplant and grilled donut peaches were added. Next was a grilled pork cutlet rubbed with Pico Fruta. Finally, the salad was topped with chunks of fresh watermelon and wonderfully tart hydroponic tomatoes. A honey lime dressing drizzled over the salad finished the dish. It was a delightful meal to showcase what is available to us today and brought back food memories from summers past.

So, what are you serving to celebrate summertime?

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Hydroponic Experiment: Purple Ball Basil Laminated Ravioli

Posted on July 28, 2026 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Purple Ball Basil is a strikingly beautiful, diminutive plant that is flourishing in my hydroponic garden. The leaves are not just lovely to look at, they pack more basil flavor than you might expect from such a small package.

These festive little leaves have been a happy addition to our salads and pizzas. It got me wondering how they would hold up when cooked. Unfortunately, my first ideas resulted in flavorful but blackened leaves. But then I came across a video showing how to incorporate edible flower petals into laminated pasta. Ding! That should work, right? The tiny purple leaves are much like flower petals.

This pasta was a labor of inspired love. First I made and rolled two flat sheets of pasta. Then I spread purple basil leaves on the bottom layer and gently placed a second layer of pasta on top. I learned that a rolling pin was the best way to laminate the two layers. After the laminated sheets were complete, I proceeded to make ravioli as per usual. I laid down a sheet of pasta dough and added generous spoonfuls of a cheese mixture Jack had created. After covering this first sheet with a second sheet of laminated dough, I used a fluted pastry wheel to cut out individual ravioli. Because the finished ravioli has a total of four thin layers of pasta, it does take a little longer to cook – five minutes instead of three. Since this ravioli is so pleasing to look at and has a unique flavor I wanted to keep the finish simple. We served it with a light dressing of sautéed garlic, olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes and sea salt. I finished the dish with fresh purple ball basil and a bit of fresh thyme. We felt like we were eating art!

What would you do with these beautiful, tasty leaves?

Tangy! Tart! Zesty! Rhubarb Crumb Bars

Posted on June 14, 2026 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

A pleasant morning, a good book, a hot cup of joe and a favorite snack.

The rhubarb is on, growing like crazy all over town! It feels like a wild plant ready to be foraged. In fact, rhubarb grows exceptionally well in our sub-arctic rainforest biome. Like our lovely foraged ingredients, it comes back every year without much tending.

I did not grow up with rhubarb. Tasting a slice of strawberry rhubarb pie from a local pie shop, my young mind couldn’t get past the idea that the filling consisted of pink celery sticks – rendered rather gloppy in the pie. My original assessment – yuck! Good thing young taste buds grow up.

These days the bright pink and red stalks are an absolute favorite. The lemony flavor paired with the colorful hue make for a winning combination.

Rhubarb happens to freeze quite nicely. So, in the doldrum days before spring growth got started I dug into my freezer and turned out a batch of rhubarb crumb bars to bring along to a sunny day picnic gathering of friends. The bars were a hit. I was happy with the flavor, but I thought they looked boring. Covering an 8 x 8 baking pan, the rather nondescript bars could have been anything. I wanted these tasty treats to visually beckon.

The solution? Same recipe, but this time baked in parchment-lined muffin cups and topped with toasted pecan accents. My neighborhood taste-testers agreed!

Do you have a favorite take-along picnic treat?

Still waiting for Spring… Strawberry Peach Pie

Posted on May 26, 2026 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

So, it’s pouring down rain. By mid-afternoon the temperature had climbed all the way to a steamy 42 degrees. Sheesh…

Yesterday, we had the most beautiful warm sunny day. I planted plants. I weeded the garden. We dined on our deck. I did all the outside spring things that make a person fully feel like Spring.

Today’s weather drove me back inside. Still having the spring cleaning bug, I decided to clean our freezers. As in true Alaska style, we have multiple freezers. So, it’s a process. Empty and defrost one freezer. Clean it. Fill it back up with contents from the next freezer. Repeat. The best thing about the freezer cleaning project is seeing all the delicious treasures we have not used up yet from last summer. In addition to those treasures, we just purchased a used freezer that came with its contents. I felt like I was on one of those storage wars TV shows where you bid on a storage unit filled with stuff. Who knows, you might score big, right? Turns out there was lots of good stuff in the freezer we picked up. First up – a bag of frozen peaches and a bag of frozen strawberries.

What better to do on a wintery day than to make a strawberry peach pie. I recently acquired a super cute set of Beatrix Potter cookie cutters. A tiny butterfly cookie cutter made the perfect finishing touch for a darling pie top. Now, I have to wait patiently for the pie to cool. And wait patiently for Spring to come.

Fingers Drumming… Marbled Matcha Ube Cookes

Posted on May 24, 2026 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

A long cold winter and a very wet spring make for reluctant wild plants. They, as am I, are not sure this warmish sunny day is a true call to sprout their little leaves and flowers. Last year at this time, we were harvesting our first greens – devil’s club buds, fireweed shoots, and spruce tips. The only brave plants of that trio this year are the beginnings of fireweed shoots. Fingers drumming…

What is a baker and forager to do? As I bide my time for the plants to wake up, I dig into my pantry for inspiration. Simulating the colors of my hopeful mood, I pulled out some bright purple ube and some intense matcha powders. I marbled the two hued sugar cookie doughs together to make a vibrant confection with the bold flavor of matcha.

Jack thought the look of this cookie was a bit monster-ish. What do you think?

Roasted Duck in a Clay Pot

Posted on December 27, 2025 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Christmas dinner success. This was our first try roasting a duck and root vegetables in a Römertopf – an unglazed terra cotta cooking pot. Quite tasty. The combination of parsnip, rutabaga, carrot and baby potatoes was a perfect base on which to roast the duck, which we first brined and then seasoned with herbs. As the duck released fat, the vegetables marinated and became super tender and flavorful.

Pizza Margherita with Basil Microgreens

Posted on December 23, 2025 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

Our long-standing tradition has been to keep a batch of par-baked pizza crusts ready in the freezer for a quick, easy, and delicious meal.

Recently we’ve been watching the Great Courses’ The Everyday Gourmet: The Joy of Mediterranean Cooking. Chef Bill Briwa delivered excellent instruction on how to make Neapolitan Pizza in a home oven. Why were the directions excellent? Just look at the photo. The pizza came as close to a pizza baked in a wood-fired oven as possible in a home kitchen. Nice crispy crust with gorgeous charred bubbles full of flavor. The addition of basil microgreens from our hydroponic garden gave a delicious and lovely finishing touch.

We are definitely converts. More freshly-baked crusts are on the menu!

Chawan Mushi – Enjoying Our Local Seafood

Posted on November 28, 2025 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

One of the most delightful things about this savory, silky custard-like soup is the surprise at the bottom. This version of a favorite soup lured you in with toppings of sweet spot shrimp fished from nearby waters and salmon roe ikura. Once you spooned your way through all that deliciousness, you would have been surprised by a nice bite of smoked salmon at the bottom of the bowl. In order to make this first course easy to transport to a Thanksgiving potluck, we made them in four-ounce canning jars. They were cooked bain marie, instead of the traditional steaming, which worked quite well.

Here’s the link to the original post and recipe: https://cutterlight.com/2012/03/17/scallop-and-shrimp-chawan-mushi-with-smoked-quail-eggs/

Just a Taste – Pumpkin Pie Brûlée Bites

Posted on November 16, 2025 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

*These little custards were baked in two-ounce canning jars and are awaiting the finishing touch of a caramelized top. They are the perfect size for a dessert bite at a potluck*.

Tis the season for pumpkin pie. Ten years ago (wow, 10 years!!), we posted a recipe after making a fall pumpkin pie and found ourselves with leftover filling. You know the problem, not enough filling to make a whole second pie, but the idea of tossing the extra unthinkable. We decided to bain-marie the remainder. When the little custards came out of the hot water bath, they seemed to want a bit of crunch. Out came the kitchen torch and a little sugar for a satisfying brûlée finish. And so, a new recipe for our repertoire was born.

Here is the link to the original recipe and post: https://cutterlight.com/2015/11/15/maple-pumpkin-pie-brulee-or-what-to-do-with-leftover-pie-filling/

On Wings of Angels

Posted on September 7, 2025 by Jack & Barbra Donachy

We’ve been studying and learning about foraging for choice edible mushrooms for the better part of six years now. A seasoned mushroom forager’s instruction helped us move from interested and nervous mushroomers to confident and knowledgable mushroomers. In the forests we currently traverse, we focus on finding four types of choice mushrooms that are culinary beauties. Today’s hike ended with a basket of Angel Wings, Yellow Foot Chanterelles, and Hedgehogs. I can’t wait to see Jack create a bowl of Udon featuring these delicious and beautiful mushrooms.

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