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: Brunch
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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Ramp and Spring Radish-Top Pesto of Possibilities
Spring is here with great flourish, and we’re celebrating every minute. It’s been a cold spring, so we’ve had to wait a little longer than we’d like for our early seasonal delights. Wild ramps and fiddleheads are now here in abundance, spring-dug parsnips of course, and the first of the seed-planted radishes and their beautiful…
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Mostly Mom’s Angel Food Cake
There are some recipes that are so ingrained in the family history we don’t mess with them at all, well, at least not much… My mom, my daughter, and my niece all list angel food cake as their favorite, a it is often a birthday cake request. My granddaughter’s birthday is two days before my…
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Warm Frisée and Radicchio Salad with Charred Lemon Vinaigrette
Slightly bitter, slightly sweet, a treat for the eyes and palate. My husband came back from the market with a head of radicchio rather than the head of purple cabbage on my list. It was a delightful mistake since I really love that colorful and slightly bitter green (is it still a green if it…
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Pineapple Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms
My mother always made a ham at Easter. She cut crisscross marks all over, slathered it in mustard and brown sugar, sometimes varying the topping. One of my first jobs was putting the little whole cloves in each intersection of the cuts. Toward the end of baking, she adorned the entire ham with pineapple rings…
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Baked Tofu with Mustard Cream Succotash and Fregula
Heavenly. Creamy. This dish made with veggies tucked in your freezer is good for you too! The garden is offering up a few chives right now, and this weekend I’ll tuck some lettuce in the cold-frame to at least give the illusion of gardening season starting. The squill is blooming, the daffodils are budding, and…
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Peekytoe Crab Stuffed Sole
New England seafood favorites, sole and a sweet Maine crab. We finally got out of town! A few days at the sea shore, and we are refreshed and ready for spring. It felt like winter when we left, a driving icy rain that turned to sleet now and then, lots of fog, and winter shoes….
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A Platter of Bitter Delights with a Touch of Sweet Maple
Bitter just needs to be balanced, and since the sap is running, we know what to use! The sap is running! Today, it is supposed to hit 55 with spring rains forecast! Warm days and cold nights in late winter and early spring in Vermont mean the precious gold of our region is flowing through…
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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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Fresh Mandarin Orange Upside Down Cornmeal Cake
What fun, to cook fruit on the bottom of a cake in a light caramel, then invert it to show it off! I accidentally ended up with a large sack of fresh Mandarin oranges recently. The oranges were beautiful! Organically grown in the US, I knew they would have lovely flavor and I was right….
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Heavenly Deviled Eggs
Sometimes, you just have to make things a little healthier, even a classic you don’t really want to mess with! No matter how elegant the party, the first thing to disappear are the humble deviled eggs. I’m not even talking caviar or truffle topped here, just a basic halved egg filled with the yolks and…
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If you don’t like the weather…
In New England, we’re told if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute and it will change. This is quite often true! So let’s just cook. In the past week, we’ve gone from temperatures below zero to shirt-sleeve weather. We’ve had snow, rain, sunshine, sleet, mud, and a howling wind storm. Yesterday morning I…
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A Celebration of Citrus: Fennel, Grapefruit, and Blood Orange Salad
Light and refreshing, this dish shows off citrus at its best! In the dead of winter, when our fresh local produce is limited to root vegetables and greens, the seasonal citrus from the south are vibrant rays of sunshine. I look forward to all the varieties of oranges available, especially the sweet and colorful blood…
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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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Purple Reigns Salad
Purple reigns in this salad, and all that color means it’s loaded with lots of healthful nutrients, a nice boost on those low energy days! We’re two weeks in the month of January, often the Season of Resolutions and quests for foods that are nutritious but also hearty where the weather is cold, and it’s…
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Let’s Have a Party! We’ll Have Crab and Mashed Potato Stuffed Artichoke Bottoms!
A special starter for a dinner party, fun hors d’oeuvre, or a comfort food supper. (And there is a delicious vegan option as well!) First of all, any dish that has mashed potatoes as a prime ingredient is going to be on my favorites list. This has both mashed potatoes and local crab meat, which…
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Let’s Have a Party! We’ll serve June Cleaver Toasts, of course!
Nothing could be easier; these delectable little canapés may become a routine in your home after the first bite. Promise! I was told by an old family friend, Hilda, who lived to her 100th year, that this was a recipe for a party canapé in a pinch, popular in the 1950s, quick and easy. They are…
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Let’s have a party! Amie’s Olive and Artichoke Tapenade starts it off.
With pantry items and a couple of fresh touches, you can have a lovely appetizer in minutes! I love an appetizer you know you can throw together at the last minute, and even better if you can make it a day ahead of time. I can’t remember a party where I didn’t have a bowl…
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Pat’s Holiday Gravlax
I first received gravlax as a gift from my Mother-in-Law and was amazed that this could be accomplished in a home kitchen I remember getting this gift of home-cured gravlax, a salt-preserved salmon, every year at Christmastime from my mother-in-law Pat, my husband’s father’s second wife. The first time she gave it to us, I…
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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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Salad Niçoise with Sesame Ginger Dressing
A little French, a little Asian, and a lot delicious! I love a composed salad! It is like creating a miniature salad bar on a platter, everyone gets to pick out what they like best, take a little of this or that, and make their own creation. These salads are also quite beautiful! The classic,…
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Fennel and Leek “Vichyssoise” with Seared Scallops
A lighter version of one of our family’s favorites. Guilt-free, but just as delicious! It’s not a traditional Vichyssoise, but it is just as delicious (and there’s a vegan alternative too). My mother-in-law Pat Read was one of the best chefs I’ve ever known, and I learned lots from her. She ran two splendid restaurants…
