Pick a fruit, pick a cheese (yes, vegan cheese, too) any combination will be good, and you will have a perfect topping for a tartine. My friend Carolyn and I treat each other throughout the year. I get eggs from her lovely flock of hens, and delivery day usually means the handing off of a…
Category: Appetizers
Stuffed Napa Cabbage Leaves with Peanut Sauce
We love the ease of feeding ourselves a rainbow of nutrition in high summer in Vermont! You never know what you will find at the farm stands and farmers markets in July in Vermont, but it’s a sure bet there will be lots from which to choose and enjoy. This week, I found everything I…
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Spicy Gazpacho
In just a few minutes, you can have a stash of chilled summer soup waiting for you on these hot summer days! it got hot and humid, in the 90s just when we all wanted to work in the garden! This is when I look for a cold lunch or dinner, salads or chilled soups…
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Spring Pea and Asparagus Salad with Radish Top Dressing
If you love peas, you’ll love this salad! Spring means the return of fresh, local green things! Fiddleheads, ramps, spring lettuces, radishes, pea shoots, and the much-anticipated asparagus. How we love those first spears, pulled fresh from the earth! There will be grilled and steamed asparagus, asparagus soup, asparagus in stir fries and salads, served…
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Haddock Quenelles in Saffron Fish Broth
Light, fluffy dumplings swimming in a flavorful pool of delight, inspired by a character from the past. Dec. 31, 1985, was memorable on several counts. First of all, I made a lavish New Year’s Eve feast inspired by the vintage cookbook “Francatelli’s Modern Cook” 1887, a revision of earlier editions. I had picked this up for…
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Baked Nantucket Bay Scallops
A quick and easy recipe that lets the flavor of these beautiful scallops shine through. I have been scallop greedy this winter. Some years, New England bay scallops, especially Nantuckets, are hard to find or really expensive because they truly are rigidly protected and the absolute best in the world. They were still expensive this…
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Apple, Onion, and Cheese Party Sandwich
A little sweet, a little savory, and full of flavor, this sandwich can please a crowd and yes, you can make it vegan quite easily. After this long entertainment drought, I’m certainly looking forward to having family and friends over, and it’s never too early to plan for a party. While a big gathering is…
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Seared Sesame Tuna and Swiss Chard
A warm salad, starter, or light lunch, this dish is filled with flavor and texture. This dish is really simple and quick, taking just a few minutes in the kitchen from start to finish. It is delicious warm or at room temperature. The dressing makes the dish, and you can use it on any fish…
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Winter Radish Fritters
These little winter radish fritters can be an appetizer, party food, a side dish, or lunch! We’re trying to be good and eat as much from the local winter CSA as possible. In mid-February, we still have roots of every kind, lots of roots, our continuing supply of baby greens, lots of eggs and cheese….
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Corn and Horseradish Stuffed Baby Potatoes
Little bites of big flavor, these potatoes are always a crowd pleaser, even if this year the party is a little smaller! The big game is Sunday and since this year Tom Brady will not be leading the New England Patriots to victory, it’s just another game in our area. Who did you say was…
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Polenta Pizza with Sautéed Fennel and Leeks
If somehow you accidentally end up with a five-pound bag of cornmeal, dust off an old recipe or two! A few years ago, I clipped Mark Bittman’s recipe for polenta pizza from the New York Times. His version used pancetta and spinach and involved making the polenta, letting it set in the refrigerator until firm….
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Roasted Shrimp Cocktail with Avocado and Melon
I love a recipe that I can make early in the day and let sit around in the refrigerator getting better and better as the day goes on. Special little salads fall into this category, and in our family shrimp is always at the top of the list.
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Lentil and Mushroom Balls
They are hearty and delicious, perfect for supper by the fire. And this recipe makes enough to tuck some in the freezer for another day. I’ve made a million meat-free meatballs, and usually I’m disappointed. Often they get mushy. Sometimes the flavor is way off, and other times they are just hard little balls sitting…
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Mushroom Croquettes with Saffron Lemon Sauce
We need to please a wide range of dietary needs in our family and friends circle, so I thought a special redux of the traditional croquettes recipe was in order. I swapped out lightly cooked shiitake mushrooms for the cooked turkey in this recipe, and bumped up some of the seasoning.
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Sourdough Whole Wheat Sesame Crackers
These crackers make use of sourdough discard, with sesame flavor coming from three sources! Homemade crackers are remarkably simple to make, delicious, and can be modified in many ways to create flavor combinations you’ll love. On Saturday, I try to remember to feed “Ginny Junior,” my sourdough starter of 11 years. I often forget in…
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Artichoke Bottoms with Scallops and Mushrooms
Artichoke bottoms are perfect little vessels to hold countless fillings. One of my favorite culinary gifts from my late Mother-in-Law Pat, was the discovery of canned artichoke bottoms. Pat was not just a great cook, but a chef in her two high-end restaurants in the Manchester and Londonderry Vermont area, the heart of ski country….
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Socca with Toasted Garlic and Cherry Tomatoes
A simple flatbread made with simple ingredients but with a toasted garlic twist. One of our family’s favorite quick sides is socca, a simple chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour flatbread (or is it a pancake?) that can be as simple as just the flour, water, and salt. Cooked in a hot oven or griddle in a…
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Smoked Trout and Shiitake Appetizers
A quick little bite that is packed with flavor! This has been the summer of physically distanced mini dinner parties on my front porch. We lugged our houseplants outside, added two long tables together, set up a separate serving area, and added some fans. We’ve made it work, and have been able to enjoy the…
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Tofu Salad with Tarragon, Toasted Pecans, and Dried Apricots
Sometimes a new gadget makes cooking more fun! I have a new toy –– a tofu press. So many of my recipes for tofu call for pressing it first and then baking or cooking in some other way. It involves placing the tofu between two towel-lined plates, placing a balanced heavy can or pan on…
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Chill-Out Summer Supper with Tomato Water Granita Starter
Dinner parties are arranged a little differently –– they are much smaller, but just as much fun as we enjoy friends and good food!From tomato water granita (with seafood or vegetarian) to chilled seafood stew, everything was made early in the day, so it was all pretty effortless when it came time to eat. More […]
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Smoky Grilled Garlic Scape Hummus
It’s a little smoky, a little sweet, and a lot savory with the garlic scapes adding a mild not-quite garlic flavor.I think I could eat hummus any meal or snack of the day, and it’s usually front and center at a party or picnic. I’ve made it dozens of ways, but my latest rendition uses…
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Squash Flowers Stuffed with Swiss Chard and Beans
These pretty baked summer squash blossoms are dairy- and gluten- free, and stuffed with a flavorful chickpea and rainbow chard filling. There is something simple and beautiful about an edible flower on a plate. Used sparingly, they can add interesting flavor and color to many dishes. But a flower big enough to stuff? The granddaddy…
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Spinach Crazy Salad with Coffee Vinaigrette
It’s certain that fine women eat A crazy salad with their meat. ~ William Butler Yeats “A Prayer for my Daughter” A crazy salad at my home is a kind of kitchen sink dish, you make it with whatever you have on hand, within reason of course! When I make this salad, I go…
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Lemon, Farro, and Wild Rice Salad
Farro and wild rice both have wonderful texture, and when you put them together in a salad, you have a winning combination that is packed with flavor and nutrition. I love salads that I can put together and munch on all week at lunch or snack time. They are often the same salads that provide…
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Winter Market Shallot and Arugula Soup
My winter farm market had the largest shallots I’d ever seen in my life, as big as an onion; I knew I had to make something special. The staples at our Winter CSA are reliable, and I am extremely grateful that all season long and well into spring, I can purchase organic, colorful potatoes, carrots,…
