It’s snowing. We are well into April and it’s snowing. Poor man’s fertilizer is what they called it when I was growing up; that little cover of snow just when things are looking like winter is done. It only lasts a day, the warmer ground and air temperatures see to that, and usually we are…
Category: Condiments
How ya’ doing dumpling? Just fine, enjoying the homemade life!
One of our favorite little lunches is a plate of Asian style dumplings, filled with something bursting with flavor, and dunked in a sauce with even more. While rural Vermont does not boast the best selection of dumpling grazing spots, there are a few companies out there who offer some of these homemade delights in…
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Let’s create a dip and make up a name! It would be unique, memorable, unless someone else beat me to it.
Would you like some edamole with your corn chips? We do it all the time, make a mash up of two dishes and rename it. Like a pizza filling stuffed quesadilla becomes a pizzadilla, or a crescent dough doughnut becomes a cronut. Sometimes we just refer to it within our family because it’s a bit…
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Please don’t be bitter; there’s always a way to sweeten up life, and beautiful vegetables, too!
Let’s start with radicchio! Add a little sweet, a little sour, and you’re there! All’s right in the world. We seem to keep drifting between late summer and fall, bright blues skies and finally some rain. Today, I took a walk with the dogs without a sweater, even though I woke up in the morning…
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Milking your corn is the secret to more flavor!
Creamed corn is a New England favorite, and here we’ve served it with both haddock or a vegetarian tofu version. Both are delicious, especially with a little extra step – milking! We spent a few days at the shore last week, a little getaway timed for after the summer onslaught of tourists on the Maine…
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Party Trick: A little sunshine in a paté for all.
It’s been a magnificent year for sunflowers. Perhaps it was the non-stop rain for weeks followed by intense heat and no rain, but for whatever reason they arrived early and are still delighting us with their vibrant color. All parts of the sunny plant are edible, mostly Filled with color, they are also pretty delicious…
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Let’s make this easy: One pan or dish, no recipe. Are you with me?
We could call the The Season of Ease. At this time of year, we have vegetables of every possible type, sometimes in great abundance, and dinner is easy. When my kids were small and I relied heavily on my garden, supper in the summer was often a collection of whatever vegetables were in abundance on…
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How to make quinoa taste delicious!
Yes, it can be done! I wouldn’t steer you wrong. The first time I made quinoa, I remember not liking it very much. It tasted bitter to me, with a funny off taste. It’s such a nutritious seed, a complete protein with all the essential amino acids present, so for the vegetarians in the family,…
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Add a little snap to your supper? Sounds good, horseradish, please.
Well it’s a hot one! This week’s heat wave has sent many a New Englander and beyond to the lake or into the house for refuge as temperatures hovered in the extremely humid and high nineties, kissing 100 with the heat index. This is not the time for prolonged meal prep, especially when even the…
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Finally, spring delights are on the way, even the weeds!
Spring has been a long time coming this year. We’ve had lots of rain, few blue-sky days, cold temperatures, and slow to blossom fruit trees. The latter is probably a good thing since there was a frost in some areas last week. Frost during blossom time is not a good thing! But the steady drizzle…
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It’s time for a snack, how about some Homemade Pita Bread and Muhammara Sauce, but no nuts please!
Nuts are delicious and nutritious, but sometimes we need to make modifications. We dined out recently with two of our beautiful nieces at a local restaurant, and for a shared appetizer we ordered the meze (mezze) plate. It was beautiful and bountiful, loaded with treats – tasty stuffed grape leaves, marinated feta, mixed olives, cucumber…
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Scrap Happy Planet: Can I tell you about Peppermint Pesto?
Once a month, we’re looking at ways to help reduce food waste and keep our planet happier and healthier by using all those scraps that often end up in landfills and contribute to our ever-growing environmental problems. The worldwide statistics are sobering, over a third of everything we produce is tossed out, over a billion tons of…
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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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Let’s chase a rainbow, then make a vibrant Autumn Salad from all the colors!
There’s no doubt that Autumn is in full swing here in Vermont. The leaves are at their brilliant best, my backyard is surrounded by red and yellow, and temperatures are dropping, especially after the sun goes down. We still haven’t had a frost, but with the night temperatures in the high 30s and 40s, it…
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Another bean burger? Let’s start with A for Adzuki!
Nope, it doesn’t taste like a hamburger, but it does taste delicious! Over the years, I’ve made dozens of different veggie burgers, and most were disappointing in texture, or fell apart in a crumbly mess on my plate. I’ve used black beans, white beans, beans of every size and shape. Rice, lentils, bread, carrots, even…
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Let’s savor a spring salad
This time of year, my salad will be different than yours, but it will all taste of the new season. This week, we had a perfect, even brilliant, May day. Brilliant in terms of the beautiful 74-degree temperatures, no humidity, and bright light, but also the blue skies, the still air, the newly green grass…
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A May Day Feast of Local Delights!
Let’s start with some lovely wild ramps, and dress the platter with everything early spring. Spring is fickle in New England. Last week, we had some rain, fog, some sleet, a bit of snow, temperatures that hit 70, and evenings with the fireplace burning. But the rains have greened things up, the leaves are just…
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Apple Rum Butter
Apple butter. A wonderful slow-cooked spread with a depth of apple flavor like nothing else. No, there’s no butter in apple butter, but the process of boiling down applesauce until the sugars in the fruit caramelize creates a smooth and creamy texture perfect for spreading on a hearty whole-grain piece of toast, or perhaps a…
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Juniper Scented Haddock with Green Olive Sauce
If you like a dry martini made with gin, you’re going to love this one! I’m not sure why juniper berries aren’t more popular here in the United States. Such a deliciously floral and citrusy spice, it has a unique flavor that blends well with so many things. If you like gin, you’re experiencing the…
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Grilled Cabbage Winter Stew with Smoked Paprika Olive Oil
Apparently, this has been a good year for cabbage, and I’m not complaining. If you live in the north, you have plenty of local cabbage available, always a staple crop. A lot going for it Big heads, green or purple, stay beautifully crisp all winter, and bulk up our farm shares along with the many…
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And now, something a little lighter: Salad of Japanese Purple Sweet Potato and Painted Radicchio
Even as we eye the rest of the Thanksgiving leftovers, our bodies tell us to look for something green instead. Or purple, or orange. Most of our farm stands are closing down for the season, but we still have a few that stay open all year, and limited farmers markets. We are, of course, entering…
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So, What to do with all that fennel…
Stuffed Squash. 1/2 gallon Fennel Stock. Tomato Fennel Soup. Fennel Pesto. Toasted Fennel Au Gratin. I came home from this week’s CSA with two massive fennel bulbs complete with long stalks and the biggest toppings of frilly fronds I’ve ever seen. This was going to take a little work, and I suspected there would be…
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Fresh Ginger and Marmalade Glazed Cod
A tropical crop in the the north country? Why not? The fresh ginger harvest is starting in the Northeast, and it’s a delightful addition to our meals. For the last five years or so, fresh ginger has appeared at our farm stands in late summer and fall. Until then, I had never seen or tasted…
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Everyone Wins: Grilled Summer Vegetables with Two Sauces!
It’s a feast in itself, and everyone gets to choose their favorite veggies and sauce. Happy Days! So, there was a break in the weather. It has rained here in Vermont for over three weeks, and everyone has seen the terrible consequences of that with flooding throughout our beautiful little state. There are still road…
