The Spring Song in Vermont! When the rhubarb hits the farm stands, you know the first strawberries will be close behind. The two spring treasures are a perfect balancing act – the berries sweet and vibrant, the rhubarb tart and sour. The good news is that both the strawberries and the rhubarb freeze beautifully, so…
Category: Fruits
Chilled Strawberry and Red Wine Soup
This is vibrant, simple, delicious, and make ahead. Who could ask for more from the last of the Autumn strawberries? My friend Ray gave me this recipe many years ago, and it always makes an appearance in our house along with the local strawberries. We often served this soup at high summer for a brunch…
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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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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, especially 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…
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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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Right Now, the World Needs Apple Crisp
And this one’s a blushing delight! You know it’s Autumn when you catch that first whiff of apples cooking, especially apple crisp, and right now, the whole world needs a nice big portion. Irresistible! Who can resist the site, the smell, the texture of the crispy top, and spicy softened apples? In this version, I’ve…
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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…
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Peach and Cheddar Tartine on Sourdough Rye Bread
Pick a fruit, pick a cheese (yes, vegan cheese, too) any combination will be good, and you will have a perfect topping for a tartine. My friend Carolyn and I treat each other throughout the year. I get eggs from her lovely flock of hens, and delivery day usually means the handing off of a…
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Rose and Strawberry Summer Drinks – Sangria or Lemonade
When your roses smell good enough to eat, drink them! It’s been an amazing rose season this year. The air, especially at dawn and dusk, is filled with beautiful perfume, and how we wish it would last. My favorite roses are the old garden roses, once-blooming heirloom treasures that carry so many flowers they bend…
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Nantucket Cranberry Pie
Tart and tangy, sweet and satisfying. This pie is easy to make, and can easily move from everyday to holiday dinner dessert. We love our cranberries in New England. Their pop of tartness and vibrant red color move from sweet to savory with ease. What would the Thanksgiving table be without cranberry sauce or relish?…
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Cranberry Butter Rum Apples Baked in Cider
It’s apple harvest time, and our county has some of the best in the world! We enjoy apples fresh from the tree, applesauce, apple muffins, apple cakes and bread. Baked apples are a special treat, and in our home they hold lots of memories of making them together. Of course, there are so many ways…
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Apple Crisp Muffins
What’s better than an apple muffin? How about one topped with apple crisp? Everyone loves the crispy part of the apple crisp the best, so why not let it rest on a muffin instead of a pan of apple slices? These muffins have lots of apple flavor, but if you want to add even more, soak the raisins or cranberries…
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Cornmeal Cake with Plums and Rosemary
It’s a great year for plums, and these sweet treasurers pair well with Rosemary and orange in this cornmeal dessert. I found a beautiful mixed box of plums at a local farm stand recently, and every variety and color was delicious! Sweet, juicy, plump, and tangy! It certainly seems to be a good year for plums,…
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Peach and Raspberry Crisp
A couple touches of ginger make this seasonal treat just a bit different! These are the moments in the New England summer when we think we have everything we could possibly want. There’s corn and tomatoes in abundance, just about every other vegetable, so many treasures it is hard to find enough meals to squeeze…
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Mixed Berry Clafoutis
It’s a baked pancake, but more custardy, not quite a flan but kind of, and in a class of its own. Although traditionally the French dessert clafoutis is made with cherries, you can use any fruit you like. It is also delicious using a mix of berries, and since we are at the peak of…
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A slice of homemade bread with some fresh blackberry jam?
Both of these recipes are quicker than the vintage versions, but just as delicious! It’s berry season and that means time to make some jam. I usually make strawberry jam, sometimes blueberry, raspberry if there are enough to be found, but always blackberry! It is one of my favorite kitchen gifts, and on the rare…
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Brandied Cherries
A perfect cherry suspended in a spiced brandy. These treasures will delight all year long, and they are one of the easiest kitchen gifts to make!Local is always best, of courseMake these when local cherries are ripe, firm, and beautifully colored. If you can get them, try using a mix of sour and sweet cherries, but…
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Rhubarb and Berry Upside-Down Cake
I had a small bag of rhubarb in the freezer, as well as some cherries and raspberries, so this upside-down cake was made with frozen leftovers from last year. It did not taste left-over at all! My ornamental “Snow Fountain” cherry tree is in flower, and that means my fruit cherry tree is not too…
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Sour Cream Blueberry Pancakes
Shh, don’t tell the kids they are good for them… Of all the dishes I served up at the inn for 18 years, the most frequently requested meal from repeat guests was blueberry pancakes. People remember them, think about them, desire them, and will eat them with gusto when served. Not only a favorite of…
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Apple Galette
A sheet of pastry, some apples, and a few other ingredients, and you have a really quick and delicious dessert! A fruit galette bakes up faster than a two-crust pie, and comes together faster as well. Apple is perfect in a galette, and can be enhanced with the addition of other fruits: fresh cranberries, raspberries,…
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Autumn Raspberry, Pear, and Ginger Tart
Lovely flavors of the season combine to make a memorable tart. Autumn raspberries are sweeter than those in summer, or at least it seems that way. Perhaps I just think that because they are a treasure at that time of year, a summer throwback, a tease because it could snow any day! This year’s autumn…
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French Apple Cake
The apple is the star of this dish, or rather, the “apples” of different varieties! I’ve made apple cakes for years, and they are always a hit. When we head out to the orchard to pick, I know there will be a special dessert sometime in the near future, most likely served after Sunday dinner….
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Pears Roasted with Blue Cheese & Pecans
This roasted pear dish is sweet, salty, savory, and seasonal! A dessert that is equally at home as a starter to a special meal. This is a simple dish to make, using one of my favorite flavor combinations: pears, blue cheese, and nuts, especially butternuts or pecans. I think it is a combination made in…
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Spiced Crabapple Jelly
We thought of these as a gift when I was growing up, the crabapples that no one wanted to pick or mess with, but we transformed them into a jewel-like jelly with just the addition of a little sugar. They are tiny. They are sour. They are hard. And each 2″ or smaller apple has…
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One-Ingredient Melon Granita
They are sweet. They are enormous. Muskmelons are in-season right now at the farm stands. Freezing these bargains can preserve this summer treasure for at least a little while longer. At the farm stand this week, I found a beautiful muskmelon that was bigger than my head with an enticing aroma that begged me to…
