Potatoes with ginger? Green beans with mint? Both combined, along with garlic and sesame oil? Why not? July was always rob-the-potato-hills time in our garden growing up. Dad was the vegetable gardener and potatoes were his favorite to grow. He loved the whole process from planting the seed potatoes, hilling them up, and harvesting. About…
Category: Farm to table
Stuffed Pasta Shells with Summer Squash & Herbs
This vegan version of stuffed shells is a little lighter, but still full of flavor and satisfaction, you won’t miss the original. Right now, I have tons of herbs in my garden, so I’ve made green goddess dressing, herb salads, and garnished and infused just about everything with their wonderful flavor. Let’s stuff some shells!…
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Tomato and Fennel Summer Salad
Here come the tomatoes, and my first fennel! I picked my first cherry tomatoes from my plants this week, and this is what really marks summer’s beginning to me. Of course, the farm stands are full of beautiful heirloom fruits of many colors, tempting me into making Salad Caprese with local fresh mozzarella, Bruschetta with…
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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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Leek, Asparagus, and Fennel Soup
Served hot or chilled, this soup is the flavor of Asparagus Season! Asparagus season is fleeting here in the Northeast, but we celebrate it with great flair. There are even asparagus festivals to celebrate this vegetable with every possible cooking method! Raw, baked, roasted, boiled, braised, sautéed, steamed, stir-fried, and grilled, any way you cook…
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Early Summer: Squash Roll-Ups Stuffed with Farro and Black Beans
Summer goes by quickly in New England, so once our temperatures hit 90, we declare it summer! Fresh, local, sweet little zucchini and summer squash caught my eye at the farm stand, and I couldn’t wait to sample them! These delicate little squashes herald the beginning of summer and all the possibilities coming our way….
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A Spring Fling! Roasted Cod and Sugar Snaps with Rhubarb Sauce
Spring treasurers unite for a memorable meal! Spring in Vermont means lots of delicious happenings, including vibrant red rhubarb, and delectable sugar snap peas bursting with freshness. Combine these wonderful ingredients with locally grown shiitake mushrooms and sweet Atlantic cod, and you’ve got a winning dish. Not for everyone Rhubarb is one of my favorites,…
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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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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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(Today’s)Yankee Bean and Macaroni Soup
A New England classic that stands the test of time – inexpensive, quick, and really tasty. When I was growing up, Mom often put together a “Yankee Bean Soup” using leftover beans from another meal and a ham bone for flavor. It was a quick meal, tasty, filling, and usually served up with biscuits. There…
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Roasted Baby Carrots with Pickled Ginger and Fresh Mint
Everyone in our family likes carrots, and I’ve made them a hundred ways! Here’s 101! This recipe of roasted carrots with a ginger mint topping is one of my favorites. Quick, easy, inexpensive, and you make use of the tops as well as the root, every inch of the healthful vegetable! This recipe was actually…
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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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Swiss Chard with Potatoes and Yellow-Eyed Beans
These New England staples combine for a memorable winter supper that is packed with flavor and nutrition. Our family’s favorite green in the garden when we were growing up was Swiss chard, and it remains one of my personal favorites to this day. In addition to being tasty, it is easy to grow, you can…
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Braised Golden Beets and Winter Radishes with Meyer Lemon
We’re deep in winter, and that means not only root vegetables but luscious Meyer lemons as well! Do you like beets? Many people love them, but I have to admit that I’m not a fan of the big fat red beets, perhaps because I had so many as a child. I want to love them,…
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Winter Veggie Stew: A study in orange
This soup is flavorful and warming, and on a cold winter’s night, a welcome supper. It has been grey here in Vermont. Tuesday, we had a bit of sun for a while, but for the most part, the last two weeks have been black and white with a bit of holiday red tossed in. The…
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French Lentils with Hakurei Turnips and Sweet Potatoes
This recipe is delicious on a cold autumn night. Lentils are hearty and satisfying, and the addition of the turnips and sweet potatoes round out the flavors, textures, and nutrition in this dish. You can serve it straight up, or dress it up for company with a piece of fish or tofu. The base of…
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Seven Roasted Autumn Vegetables and One Exquisite Sauce
Pick a rainbow of autumn vegetables, top a bed of wilted greens, and enhance with a simple Maple, Miso, and Mustard Sauce. It is the perfect time of year to think about a big platter of roasted vegetables, especially the delicious roots of the season. I feel truly blessed to live in a beautiful and…
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Rigatoni with Butternut Squash and Roasted Garlic
Autumn flavors combine with pasta for comfort food delight! The weather finally turned this weekend to crisp and cooler, and then rainy and dank. Lulled by a long, warm early Autumn, we’re all scrambling now to finish those yard chores before snow. Although the thermometer dipped and hovered close to freezing, and the chilly rains…
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Sushi Salad with Shrimp, Pickled Ginger, & Wasabi Dressing
A salad using some common components of a sushi roll fits the bill as a light offering, and it’s also quick and easy to make. Now, one might not immediately associate Vermont with the growing of ginger, and yet, in the past few years these exotic tropical nuggets, along with their cousin turmeric, are making…
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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…
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Charred Pak Choy Salad with Apple Cider and Miso Dressing
Flavors of the season unite for a delicious and healthful dish! When I was growing up, my dad was the gardener in the family and my mom the cook. He loved puttering with his tomatoes and potatoes, and I think it was probably the only time in his life, besides fishing. when he was alone,…
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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…
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Twice Baked Delicata Squash with Swiss Chard
Whether served as a main course or side dish, these little stuffed squashes are always a hit. One of my favorite winter squashes is the sweet little Delicata. Their compact size, and quick cook, makes them a perfect weeknight dinner side, or even main course if stuffed! They have a sweet orange flesh, store well…
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Three Sisters Succotash
Corn, Beans, and Squash are a timeless combination, and especially delicious in this classic New England dish. We just about live on vegetables this time of year. There are so many wonderful delights just asking to be taken home from the farm stand. Red swaths of tomatoes are everywhere, squashes are turning up in their…
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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…
