Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

My standard recipe for sugar snap peas is quick and easy. It's based on one in "Chez Panisse Vegetables." Here it is:

Wash and destring the snap peas, then put them in a skillet (optionally, cut each one into a few pieces on the diagonal). Add a dollop or two of butter, a few teaspoons of water, salt and pepper. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently until done, a few minutes. Ideally, the butter and water will form an emulsion that coats the peas with wonderful flavor. You could toss in some mint or lemon zest for additional flavor.

The San Francisco Chronicle had a story about Guerrilla Gardening months ago, as well as some follow up articles and reader feedback.

I'd put the dried epazote into a pot of beans that are being cooked to accompany Mexican food. Epazote has an interesting (some say metallic) flavor that goes well with beans (and supposedly reduces the gas-inducing properties of the beans). You could also sprinkle some on the filling of a cheese quesadilla before you cook it. (epazote is pretty easy to grow in a container. Try as I might, I can't seem to kill mine.)

The palm sugar is best used in a place where you can really taste it, like the palm sugar coconut sauce at tutti foodie. You might find some other uses in the desserts section of a Malaysian, Thai or Indonesian cookbook. Alice Medrich's amazing "Pure Desserts" cookbook probably also has some recipes that highlight the flavor of the palm sugar.

I recently became a Mason jar convert and now use them for the bulk of my dry goods storage (and I have a lot of them -- 6 kinds of rice, 7 kinds of grains, 5 nuts, and so on) . Some other advantages that I see are

* The same lid will fit multiple jar sizes (8 oz., 16 oz., 32 oz., 64 oz.) so no need to hunt around for the right lid, just grab a narrow mouth or wide mouth.
* Can handle hot liquids. I often strain hot soup stocks directly into a jar without worry of melting or leaching.
* Many brands are made in the U.S.A., thus subject to stricter environmental regulations and better labor laws than plastics made in Asia.
* Fully recyclable (plastic is recyclable, but harder to deal with because of problems from mixed streams).
* Convenient to run through the dishwasher.

Another 'hack' is to use a Mason jar to make sprouts: cut a piece of screen into the shape of the lid and use it instead of the lid. Follow sprouting guidelines for preparing and maintaining the mixture (like these).

A couple weeks ago NPR's Fresh Air had an interview with the woman on the Freewheelin' album cover. Her name is Suze Rotolo and has an interesting story to tell. The show can be streamed at Fresh Air or downloaded via a podcasting program. Strangely enough, there was no mention of pizza in the interview -- that must have been edited out because of time constraints....

Hey Carolina, you don't need much space really. I use a variant of the square foot garden method; rows 2' x 12' with a foot between rows. I only have 50' x 50' to grow in and I get a years worth of veggies both fresh and for freezing. You can do it!

Ditto about grazing while picking. I do get more than enough to freeze though. Still, my fam and myself stuff ourselves silly on the peas whilst pickin'.

Aside from raw, my favorite way to use sugar snap peas is in a pea pancake. It is an incredible, seasonal delight. Adapted from a recipe in the NY Times:
http://izzyeats.blogspot.com/2008/06/stringing-and-shelling-oh-so-compelling.html

i tried a variation on the sesame-cured broccoli salad that was in the NYT a month or so ago: 1) toss about a pound of snaps, some garlic chives, and green onions with 1T rice vinegar and 2T soysauce. 2) heat 2T canola oil and fry some chiles, scapes, and green garlic until fragrant then add 2T sesame oil. 3) pour hot dressing over the vegetables and allow to sit about an hour.
very very delicious. we had it alone on a picnic and later tossed with some soba.

@Marc: wow, three make it established!

@Kerosena: For what it's worth, I've nuked Mason jars (without their metal rings or lids) in the past with no repurcussions.

According to the FDA you should only use vessels labeled as safe for microwave use.

Less conservatively, a Michigan State University page I found provided the following guidelines for determining the microwave safety of a glass vessel: Microwave the empty container for one minute. It's unsafe for the microwave if it's warm; it's OK for reheating if it's lukewarm; and it's OK for actual cooking if it's cool.

You can read more from both points of view here:
http://www.foodsafety.gov/~fsg/fs-mwave.html
http://web1.msue.msu.edu/imp/mod02/01500615.html

As an aside, several other websites I found pointed to the benefits of using microwave-proof glass or ceramics for microwaving, especially for fatty foods, in order to avoid the possibility of the migration of toxic constituents from plastics to food during heating.