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…
Category: Gluten-free
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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Swiss Chard Wrapped Cod with Late Summer Vegetables
The garden and farmstands often tell me what to make for dinner. Sometimes, it is about using whatever is coming in fast and furious, but right now, even though prolific, I’m giving the cherry tomatoes a break. Swiss chard is abundant right now in my garden, and in all the tables at the farmers market….
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Artichokes with Sunday Seafood Salad
A lovely summer salad, and we’ve got a delightful vegan alternative as well! One of the women in my life who taught me a lot about cooking, and entertaining, was my father-in-law’s second wife Pat. She was an incredible chef, owning two very popular restaurants in the heart of ski country in southern Vermont –…
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Green Beans and Tomatoes, summer veggies surviving the floods
Fresh green and wax beans are coming in strong right now, and they are fat and delicious this year, at least those grown in the farms that were not affected by our recent flooding. For the second year in a row, mid-July brought torrential rains, tornado warnings (unusual in Vermont), and damaging winds that washed…
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Grilled Sesame Summer Squash and Radishes
You wait with anticipation for those first few fruits of the summer squash, and then, before you know it, you have more than you can wrangle. It’s just about time to start giving them away, or smuggling them in an unsuspecting visitor’s car, but for right now, enjoy the harvest, and the sharing. Love the…
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Hakurei Turnips with Baby Potatoes in Mustard Sauce
It’s always exciting when the first crops of spring-grown vegetables make their way to the farm stands, and this week’s delight was the tender, sweet Hakurei turnips. These mild turnips are nothing like the turnips I grew up with, which were larger, with extremely strong flavor, and could be unpleasantly bitter, especially the tops. Plus,…
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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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Penne with Broccoli Rabe and White Beans
At this time of year, our time fills up quickly with commitments, errands, and tasks. Yet, we still have to eat! It is tempting to just nibble away at that holiday tin of cookies and call it a day. Or we pick up the phone and order take-out, which is often more time consuming than…
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Delicata Squash: Simple and Fancy
Delicata Squash: A seasonal favorite from our local farms The farm stands and farmers markets are loaded with winter squash of just about every shape, size, and color right now. One might find a giant Blue Hubbard squash that could feed an army, or maybe a small Sweet Dumpling squash, just right for tonight’s supper…
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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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Mushroom and Miso Noodle Soup
Note: Some of you may not be able to comment because the Like and Comment boxes are missing, but not all of you. Happiness Engineers have yet to fix the problem. We changed the clocks this past weekend and that means sunset at 4:34 p.m. This is never happy news in my book. There had…
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Whipped Feta with Roasted Beets & Radishes
It is definitely beet season, and color abounds! Some of the prettiest side dishes are made with beets and radishes. Vibrant reds and pinks and golds, all invite you to eat that rainbow everyone is always talking about. However, as much as others in my family adore beets, I don’t really care for them, and…
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Brown Butter Broccoli Rabe with Macadamia Nuts
Save that butter wrapper! One of my first lessons in kitchen frugality was watching my mother unwrap her stick of butter for the butter dish, setting the wrapper aside. Once the green beans were cooked and drained, she placed them in the serving dish and topped them with the butter wrapper, to act as a…
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Sunday Brunch Potato Crusted Quiche: Shhh, it’s Gluten and Dairy Free, too.
Don’t we love a traditional quiche? The flaky pastry filled with a creamy baked custard, cheese, and whatever little additions one might want. I first fell in love with this dish when my mom made Julia Child’s classic from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. We probably watched Julia bake it on one of her…
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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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Hearty Tofu with Apples & Sage
Vegetarians and meat eaters alike will enjoy this taste of the season! Autumn arrived officially last week, and many of us in the north country feel more than a little cheated by the weather this year. Our summer consisted of rain, rain, rain, flooding, cold, and one exquisite week (well five days in a row)…
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Cookbook Confidential: “Bistro Cooking” by Patricia Wells
A classic from the 1989 remains timeless! My friend Bernadette from New Classic Recipe (https://newclassicrecipe.com) came up with the wonderful idea to have an on-line cookbook club with some of her blog buddies. What a fun, and great way to choose a recipe or two from the books, cook them, and review them. Then,…
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Roasted Ratatouille with Red Lentil Pasta
All of a sudden, you have too much of everything! This time of year, when the peppers, squash, eggplant, and tomatoes are staging their grand finale, and we feel like we have more than we can deal with, the urge to mix them all together is strong. Thoughts often turn to ratatouille. A humble peasant…
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Creamy Corn, Cauliflower & Crab Chowder
A simple classic dish with just a little taste of the sea to liven it up Corn season cannot go by without some more chowder, and it is going fast. As corn season progresses, this native treasure gets sweeter, and the price gets lower, so this is the time of year we pull out those…
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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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Super Corny Polenta with Roasted Heirloom Tomatoes
Some of the best flavors of summer combine for a memorable dish. Tomatoes and the sweetest corn imaginable are everywhere right now. Red tomatoes, green, purple, yellow, orange, striped and tie-dye too. All sizes, shapes, and flavors, and so many recipes to make! It was really hard to make my choice at the farmers market…
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Grilled Corn & Black Bean Salad with Creamy Avocado Dressing
‘Tis the season of abundance! Don’t you love a salad that’s a whole meal? In summer, the fewer times I put on the stove, the better. We love to barbeque, even if it is just tossing a veggie burger on the grill for a few minutes. Vegetables can star in many meals, even as a…
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The taste of the Sea, with a little curry to flavor it up!
This curry can be made with whatever seafood you find locally! Here, we’ve used wild caught sustainable New England fish and shellfish from the cold northern waters of the Gulf of Maine. When I make a seafood curry, you know company is coming. Let’s get together! We’ll cook. Recently, we were delighted to have a…
