Had you at the potato chip crust, right? These could be a lovely little starter, or a fun addition to a party buffet. Not quite as fussy as a crab cake, easier to cook, but still filled with crab flavor. A cup of good crab is better than gallons of preservatives I’ve used the meat…
Category: Breakfasts
Because sometimes we all need to be coddled.
Coddled eggs may have gone out of fashion, but they are always a delight. One of the last gifts my mom gave me was a set of egg coddler cups from Williams Sanoma. They were beautiful little treasures in Delft white with blue, which she knew I loved, with shiny stainless-steel tops. She thought my…
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Honey Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread with Anise
Slightly sweet, beautifully textured, with the subtle fragrance of anise It is a frigid day, so a perfect time to bake bread and make soup. I needed to feed “Ginny Junior,” my sourdough starter, so bread making was definitely in the cards. Sweet and sturdy I wanted a sturdy loaf, whole wheat with a lot…
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My favorite leftovers!
We try hard to reduce waste in the kitchen, and planning for use of “leftovers” goes a long way to help! It can be a challenge to repurpose those leftovers hiding in the refrigerator. One can toss the remnants of yesterday’s casserole in soups, vegetables and grains in frittatas and omelets, and lots of leftovers…
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A Really Good Cup of Hot Chocolate!
December is here! In the north, that means you’ll need a good cup of hot chocolate, and I’m ready. After making snowmen and forts with my brothers on cold, blustery days, Mom would have steaming hot chocolate waiting for us! Nothing tasted better, and nothing warmed us more, beginning with our frozen…
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How to make an egg-white omelet that won’t send them sneaking off to the local diner…
We’ve all seen them, a pale white floppy omelet with little appeal and no flavor. But it is easy to remake a classic omelet that is satisfying and still heart healthy. Since my husband’s heart attack last year, we’ve been cautious about saturated fat and cholesterol in our diet. Cautious is probably not the right…
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Jan’s Parsley and Cheese Bread
This was one of my sister’s favorite bread recipes. Dear friends, I have been absent here for a while. Sadly, I lost my beloved sister Jan on the morning of Halloween after a brief and unexpected one-month battle with lung cancer. It still doesn’t seem possible she won’t walk through my door, and my heart…
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Scallion and Patty Pancakes
Right about now, you’ve probably got a lot of summer squash to use! Did you plant too many summer squash? Did your neighbor? At this time of year, summer squashes are bountiful so we’re digging out our recipes for ratatouille, roasted vegetables, zucchini bread and cakes, and any number of other dishes to use up…
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Sea Scallops and Baby Potatoes in Purgatory
Any time of day, this flavorful dish is a crowd pleaser! We love eggs in purgatory, the Italian version of shakshuka, a spicy tomato sauce in which eggs are simmered. It is a delicious breakfast, brunch, or supper dish, that is popular around the world. Let’s make a swap! But for a different take on…
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Celebrate the Season with a Luscious Lighter Strawberries Romanoff
This is a much lighter version of the old standby, with all the flavor and beauty. Strawberries are our first fruit of the season, and we wait all year for these beautiful little gems. Sweet, sometimes with a tart edge, red through and through, there is something magical about the aroma of macerated strawberries when…
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Colcannon Cabbage Wraps with French-Fried Potato Peels
Rustic, tasty, filling, inexpensive, but also worthy of company. Who could ask for anything more? The Irish in me looks forward to St. Patrick’s Day cooking because there is usually a potato involved! One of my favorite country dishes is colcannon, a humble bowl of mashed potatoes mixed with kale or cabbage a few scallions…
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Whole Wheat Lemon Muffins
This tangy and tender muffin began life as a humble home economics recipe from high school. When I was in high school, I thought I’d take a break from my heavier schedule and signed up for home economics one term. Since I had been cooking with my mother since I was very young, I found…
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Honey Whole Wheat Sourdough English Muffins
That sounds like a mouthful, but they are easy to make, and full of flavor and nutrition! When I was growing up, my mom made English muffins once in a while, but not as a regular part of her baking routine. She used tuna-fish cans as the mold to shape them, and as a kid…
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Omelet with Nantucket Bay Scallops and Peas
When they are in season, Nantucket Bay Scallops are a treasure from our New England waters. If you are lucky enough to travel to Nantucket Island, Mass., from November to March, plan to dine at one of the fabulous seafood restaurants and look for their bay scallop dishes. You won’t be disappointed. The best in…
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Pear & Ginger Muffins
Ripe autumn pears dance beautifully with spicy ginger! We had a lovely brunch with friends Suzy and Bob last week at the peak of Vermont’s fabulous foliage color. It was an autumn celebration of some of the best of the season: a frittata featuring native squash, beans, and corn. Roasted potatoes, of course. A few…
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Corn and Red Pepper Fritters with Poached Eggs and Salsa
Hurry! Corn season is fast winding down. This dish will serve as breakfast, brunch, or a quick summer supper, and there’s simple vegan and gluten-free options as well. We are approaching the Equinox, and with it the final days of our corn season. This is the time to squeeze in as many fresh corn dishes…
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Grilled Peaches with Ginger Rum Sauce
It’s Peach Season and we simply can’t get enough! This is the week when it seems we have every wonderful local fruit possible. Muskmelons, blueberries and raspberries, tasty apples, plums, and the show-off of the season – fresh, juicy peaches. I stopped at the farm stand and smelled the peaches the second I walked through…
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Abandoned Zucchini Bread with Marmalade Thyme Butter
Lock your cars and sun porches, it’s zucchini season here in Vermont! It’s long been a joke that the only time anyone around here locks the car is during zucchini season. They grow really fast, especially if there’s been a lot of rain, and it always seems like these fruits go from tender little treasures…
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Maple and Spice Granola
When my children were small, I got in the habit of making granola for them, a big container always graced a prime spot in the larder. With oats and raisins from the bulk section of the health food store, this was a simple and inexpensive cereal to make while on a really tight budget. We…
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Strawberry Orange Crêpes with Nutella Sauce
Strawberries, chocolate, hazelnut, and a hint of orange make this a memorable breakfast. My guests at the inn always loved crêpes, any kind of crêpe, sweet or savory. When it is strawberry season, and they are starting their annual bounty so nothing else will do, of course. It’s a show-off kind of breakfast that is remarkably…
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Oatmeal Rum Raisin Bread
Mostly savory with a touch of sweetness from the raisins, this humble little loaf began its life in 1939. Thumbing through an old cookbook from 1939 “The New England Yankee Cookbook” I came across an oatmeal bread recipe, simple in ingredients, and it made four loaves! Although I love my usual oatmeal bread (recipe here)…
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Broiled Pink Grapefruit with Brandied Cherries
This recipe is simple to put together, and was one of the most popular starters at the inn in citrus season. We don’t often think of eating grapefruit cooked, but the quick visit under the broiler both softens and sweetens the fruit. The cherry flavor is a great companion. For my birthday recently, my niece…
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A Celebration of Maple Sugar Season
It’s our state tree, our state flavor, and this time of year is it also our first crop. The sap is running! We love hearing those words. Our first crop of the year in Vermont is maple! It is also our first real evidence of spring in this cold climate. When I hear that the…
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Free chairs, romance novels, fabric scraps, and sourdough starter
New Englanders are known for our thrift, which is sometimes an almost obsessive need to reuse and recycle. That’s a good thing! I drove to the market recently and passed by a house with a chair on the lawn with a “FREE” sign sitting on its threadbare cushion. It was not an unusual site as…
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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….
