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…
Category: Breakfasts
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…
Share this:
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…
Share this:
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…
Share this:
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…
Share this:
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…
Share this:
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…
Share this:
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…
Share this:
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…
Share this:
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…
Share this:
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…
Share this:
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…
Share this:
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)…
Share this:
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…
Share this:
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…
Share this:
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…
Share this:
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….
Share this:
Cranberry Orange Nut Bread
When I start cooking with oranges, that signals the holidays to me. Cranberry orange nut bread combines sweet, savory, and tangy, and rounds out the bread basket! This is my favorite cranberry bread recipe. It is bursting with cranberries and the flavor combined with the orange is a celebration of the holidays. It is also…
Share this:
Vermont Cheddar and Rosemary Biscuits
Tender, moist, and packed with flavor, these cheddar and rosemary biscuits are a perfect little afternoon snack or brunch favorite. Do you need a little pick-me-up in the middle of the afternoon? A cup of tea, or perhaps an iced coffee, along with a nibble of something sweet or savory, and you’re set to go…
Share this:
Apple Crisp Muffins
What’s better than an apple muffin? How about one topped with apple crisp? Everyone loves the crispy part of the apple crisp the best, so why not let it rest on a muffin instead of a pan of apple slices? These muffins have lots of apple flavor, but if you want to add even more, soak the raisins or cranberries…
Share this:
A slice of homemade bread with some fresh blackberry jam?
Both of these recipes are quicker than the vintage versions, but just as delicious! It’s berry season and that means time to make some jam. I usually make strawberry jam, sometimes blueberry, raspberry if there are enough to be found, but always blackberry! It is one of my favorite kitchen gifts, and on the rare…
Share this:
Guilt-Free Banana Muffins for Everyone!
Everyone can eat these muffins guilt-free! They can be made gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy free, and can be made egg-free and nut-free, but they still have tons of flavor and extremely moist! We have all kinds of food restrictions and desires in our family, so sometimes it is nice to make something you know everyone can…
Share this:
Strawberry and Rose Crêpe Tower
A festive take on a strawberry Crêpe. My garden roses are blooming like crazy, and I’m always inspired by their fragrance to create something special in the kitchen. This year, I decided that since the strawberries are so wonderful, I would start there, with roses, their late spring friend, providing the accent. People love crêpes,…
Share this:
Seared Scallops, Artichokes, and Tomatoes over Polenta
When I was growing up, my mom would make corn meal mush. This was the New Englander’s version of “polenta,” but since we hold not a single Italian gene, it was just mush to us. We had it for breakfast as cereal, sweetened with maple syrup, as a starch at dinner, and the leftovers were…
Share this:
Pizza and Beer Bread
This is a nutritious quick bread that has all the flavor of pizza, and you can load it with your favorite pizza topping! I’ve probably baked more in the last month than in the entire previous year! Making bread every week with “Ginny Junior,” my sourdough starter, as well as brioche for Easter and lots…
