Our family loves New England clams in any form. Deep fried of course while visiting the shore with lots of tangy tartar sauce. Or steamed with all the dunking and slurping rituals. We’ll find them in a silky chowder, tossed in a simple white wine and garlic sauce over spaghetti, and in clam dip, too,…
Category: Brunch
A Bloody Plate even a Vegan will Love!
Blood Oranges are in season, let’s have fun with them! This is definitely a mid-February recipe, using beautiful root vegetables from our local farms, as well as the delightful citrus from the south that brightens up wintertime in all parts of the country. We need all the color we can get right now. Wake up…
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It’s’ a real snow day, so let’s make a pot of cream of broccoli and mushroom soup!
We’ve had snow here and there this winter, but this week’s storm saw closings called the night before for many, an invitation to sleep in a bit and linger over some home-cooked comfort food. It’s one of those days where just about everything is closed, the schools, some shops, town clerk’s offices, community college, the…
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Now let’s Roast some Jumbo Shrimp and serve it up with Spicy Red Pepper Sauce
Juicy, tender, and full of flavor. And we have a vegetarian alternative as well. Don’t you love a recipe that can be assembled well before a dinner, then finished off in minutes. Shrimp often comes to mind as both a crowd pleaser and a cook pleaser as well because we’ll have plenty of time to…
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King Mushrooms, a wonderful excuse to make your own hoisin sauce!
King mushrooms are a beautiful thing to behold, those huge mushrooms one finds when wandering through an enchanted forest. Locally grown now! Luckily, you don’t have to go that far to find them as they have become widely available and can often be found at farm stands and co-ops. Also known as King Trumpet or…
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Jan’s Baked Dijon Salmon, a little nutty!
Salmon, and tofu, are often in weeknight rotation in many of our homes. Always good to change it up, no one wants to be in a weeknight rut! My sister Jan was the least fussy person I’ve ever met when it came to food. I never served her a meal she didn’t like, in fact,…
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Scrap Happy Planet: Stale Bread for the Banquet?
Once a month, we’re going to look at ways to reduce food waste and keep our planet happier by using all those scraps that often end up in landfills and contribute to our environmental problems. The worldwide statistics are sobering, over a third of everything we produce is tossed out, but we’ve rolled up our…
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Let’s review a Spanish cookbook and make tapas tonight for supper!
Our Cookbook Club is back in business! In early 2023, Bernadette from New Classic Recipes started a cookbook review club. We’d review a specific cookbook selected by the group, post a recipe and decide whether (or not) that book deserved space on our (physical or digital) shelves. After a brief pause, we have resumed our…
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Scrap Happy Planet: Frittatas and Omelets to the rescue!
Once a month, we’re going to look at ways to reduce food waste and keep our planet happier by using all those scraps that often end up in landfills and contribute to our environmental problems. The worldwide statistics are sobering, but we’ve rolled up our sleeves before to save these resources, and now’s the time…
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Roasted Lemon and Garlic Potatoes
Potatoes. I grew up on them. They appeared on our plates most evenings in some form or another because they are also my dad’s favorite. We enjoyed them mashed, boiled, fried, baked, twice-baked, puréed, roasted, and scalloped, and were part of just about every soup, stew, casserole, or pot pie. They were always there, and…
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We often celebrate the unusual in Vermont, including our state vegetable the heirloom Gilfeather Turnip
Trumpet Pasta with Turnips and Mushrooms The official state vegetable in Vermont is the Gilfeather Turnip. A funny name for a simple root that doesn’t call attention to itself, humble in appearance, drab in color, softball sized but sweet and mild in flavor. Its ancestry is muddled, part turnip? Part rutabaga? A hybrid? Mutant? It’s…
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Scrap Happy Planet: Fromage Fort, from refrigerator bits to star of the party!
Let’s use our kitchen scraps to create better, more flavorful meals, and help in our own little ways to cut down on food waste. Once a month, we’ll offer some little tips on using up those items that normally go in the compost bucket or trash stream. It always starts with us. You rummage through…
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How about an Heirloom Tomato Toast with Whipped Ricotta?
Sometimes it is fun to recreate a dish that you have at a nice restaurant. At times, we succeed, sometimes we fail, but it is always fun to try, and we bring along the memory of that night in the process. I’ll always remember a seafood paella I had at a sweet little restaurant in…
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Grilled or Roasted Shrimp (or Mushrooms) and Lentils with Lemon
One thing most of my family and friends agree on (with the exception of a vegetarians or two,) is shrimp, just about any way. We like it roasted, grilled, sautéed, in soups and stews, spiced up, and even as a little cocktail appetizer dressed up in many ways. One of our daughter’s favorite dishes is…
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A week in the life of a dozen ear of corn!
Fresh corn on the cob is a ritual of summer and into fall in New England. From the first ear to the last, we are hooked whether eating it slathered in butter right off the cob, simmered in a chowder, creamed in a casserole, corn pudding, or soufflé, fried as a fritter, stuffed in a…
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High Summer, so lets’ make Blueberry Pie
Our blueberries are still coming on strong, large and sweet this year, it has been a most rewarding harvest. My granddaughter and I decided to make a pie this past weekend after picking for the second time, six pounds before the heat got to us. I now have lots in my freezer for the winter…
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Artichokes with Sunday Seafood Salad
A lovely summer salad, and we’ve got a delightful vegan alternative as well! One of the women in my life who taught me a lot about cooking, and entertaining, was my father-in-law’s second wife Pat. She was an incredible chef, owning two very popular restaurants in the heart of ski country in southern Vermont –…
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Let’s fill some summer vegetables with Mushrooms and Radicchio!
There’s lots going on in the garden right now, and farmstands are filled with just about anything we could want from peas and squash to corn and tomatoes. Many an evening meal around here consists of nothing but vegetables in just about every preparation. Little vegetable boats Since my kids were little, we’ve loved to…
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Grilled Sesame Summer Squash and Radishes
You wait with anticipation for those first few fruits of the summer squash, and then, before you know it, you have more than you can wrangle. It’s just about time to start giving them away, or smuggling them in an unsuspecting visitor’s car, but for right now, enjoy the harvest, and the sharing. Love the…
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Blueberry Season, finally. Let’s make some pancakes!
They have arrived, luscious blueberries in abundance, and we can’t wait for all the delights of the season. There will most likely be some jam for the pantry, a pie, muffins of course, and blueberry pancakes first off. Of all the dishes I served up for breakfast at the inn, the most frequently requested meal…
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Garden Party Flower and Herb Phyllo Tarts
It’s been a mixed weather bag around here in the north country. We’ve had some extreme hot weather, violent thunder storms, chilly nights, muggy nights, and gentle rains. But the long daylight hours have also fed the gardens with sunshine as well, and everything is blooming and growing like crazy. I should have my first…
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Summer Rerun: Spicy Gazpacho
This post first appeared a few years ago. It is hot here in Vermont, really hot, and the heat wave has settled on much of the country. Let’s hear it for no-heat cooking for a while. In just a few minutes, you can have a stash of chilled summer soup waiting for you on these…
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Ginger and Lemon Sweet Rolls
One of our favorite treats when we were growing up was my mom’s cinnamon rolls. When she made bread, she would often make extra dough for Sunday morning sweet rolls, and nothing gets the family out of bed and to the table faster than the aroma of fresh baked bread laced with cinnamon (well, maybe…
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Grilled and Chilled Asparagus & Leek Soup
The house will stay cool! We’re firmly in the middle of wonderful Asparagus Season here in Vermont! How delightful those tender and flavorful shoots. We wait all year, and this is one crop that never disappoints. It’s always the best, and we make the most of it and use those tender spears in everything possible….
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Asparagus and Crab Stuffed Boston Lettuce Cups
Boston lettuce is always fun to serve stuffed with something delicious. The little cups just beg for a special filling, and with Asparagus Season now in full swing, what could be better, especially if paired with tender, sweet crab? No one likes the slimy! We didn’t have asparagus when I was growing up because my…
