Slightly tart, slightly sweet, this vintage recipe needed little to enhance its flavor. My luck was with me when I found some beautiful currants at the farmers market this week. In our area, they arrive with the blueberries and are gone in a blink, a favorite of the birds as well as the humans, so…
Category: Condiments
Update your picnic with a modern twist on a three-bean salad and other treats
It’s picnic time, if the weather holds… It has been a rainy spring, and while we haven’t thought much about going on picnics, the warmth is returning, and the bonus from all that moisture is a green landscape that begs for a blanket and a basket of treats. The easiest picnic food is eaten with the…
Chive Blossom Vinegar
The chives are flowering en masse! Now’s the time to make a flavorful vinegar. All at once, the herb bed is filled with the fluffy little purple blossoms as the chives send up their flowers. They are beautiful, they are fragrant, and they are tasty as well. Break up the flowers and use them as…
Marinated Spring Vegetables
You can use either fiddleheads or asparagus, ramps or scallions. These spring treasures will add a pleasant freshness to any meal! When local wild spring vegetables are bountiful, we look for every way possible to use them. Fiddleheads make only the briefest of appearances in our Northern woods, but when they start poking their little…
Homemade Hummus with Roasted Chickpeas
If you make it from scratch with dried chickpeas, this dip not only tastes better than what you find in the market, but it is quite economical as well. I love hummus. I always have some in my refrigerator and I use it for dips and as a spread on sandwiches or crackers. As delicious…
Party Wings & Other Things
Use this Maple, Ginger, and Garlic Marinade on wings, or cauliflower florets, and everyone is pleased! Most of my family loves wings, some love them spicy, some love them mild, and some don’t eat meat at all but love the spicy flavors! Since everyone does not eat meat, there is no one-shop recipe….
Preserving Herbs for use all Season
No, it is not the same as fresh; sometimes it’s even better! I admit to being spoiled all summer long when I walk a few feet from my kitchen door to find the beauty of a couple of dozen varieties of fresh herbs at my fingertips. I have whatever I need for any recipe. The…
A Perfect Cup of Tea!
A perfect cup of tea is whatever you want it to be! The weather turned, and the iced tea stepped aside, replaced by the steaming pot. One of the most enjoyable parts of running our small Vermont inn was the ritual of afternoon tea – that little stop at 4 p.m. to nibble a snack and savor…
Poached Pears with Homemade Crème Fraîche
A special dessert to enjoy when the pears are as beautiful as they are right now! What a good year for pears! Our Vermont pears have been sweet and juicy, with tons of flavor, and I’ve had plenty straight up with no adornment whatsoever. Most mornings, they appear in my breakfast fruit salad, and I…
Beets are the Color of Fall
Roast them, sauté them, grill them, pickle them, steam them…from root to stem, it’s all good! Open just about any New England menu in the Autumn and you’ll find beets! These colorful vegetables are especially loved by chefs because they are one of the easiest to use “root to stem” every part of them edible, even…
Old Fashioned Applesauce
This time-saving technique needs no update, it is already perfect! When we lived in the cabin in the woods in the mountains, the edge of the property carried a small stand of extremely old apple trees. More dead wood than live, and shrunken in stature, the trees had seen more glorious days. However, every few…
Totally Tomatoes!
Red, yellow, orange, purple, green. They’re here! “What’s for dinner?” “Tomatoes.” “Didn’t we have tomatoes for lunch?” “Yep. Guess what we’re having for breakfast?” We wait all year for that blush of red in the garden, and the first few are precious. Nothing beats the flavor of fresh tomato, unadorned except for a sprinkle of…
Sambuca Infused Maple Glazed Salmon
A few easy steps, and your jar of maple syrup can be transformed into something new.
Simple Treats from a Busy Holiday Kitchen
These can be made in minutes! Relax. Time is tight just about now, but we still want to treat our family and friends with delights from our kitchen, morsels we create once a year. Cookies and breads top the list of holiday offerings. I know in our family, we have recipes everyone craves and expects….
