Holidays – The New Vintage Kitchen

A Spring Salad of Three Peas and Some Pods

Peas are the star of this delightful spring salad, but the Meyer Lemon and Ginger Vinaigrette is one you’ll surely use again! A large salad can really set the tone for a holiday meal, especially if it is one that is a little different and makes its own statement of the season. Spring salads can…

So, where was this Toll House and why did they make chocolate chip cookies?

We’ve all made them, possibly your first cookie adventure. But how did they become such a part of our baking landscape? When I was a kid, I loved baking chocolate chip cookies; you know, the recipe we all made. My kids followed in this love, and my grandkids do now. During the baking frenzy of…

Warmed Mixed Olives and Artichokes

Simple, but quite addictive! I often make an olive and artichoke tapenade at gatherings. It is always well received, and any leftovers keep for quite some time. You can also make it well ahead of time because it keeps well in the refrigerator. Let’s try something new However, this year, I decided to switch things…

Dark Chocolate Covered Orange Peels

My granddaughter, Jaina, and I make these every year at Christmastime, and we give them for gifts. I think she likes the idea of using orange peels that would normally go in the compost pile! They take a little fuss, but it is not difficult and require little in the way of ingredients. When we…

Cranberry Sauce with Pearl Onions and Ginger

Homemade cranberry sauce is like a sparkling jewel on the table. This jewel also packs flavor and a bit of warmth. I had some cranberries left over from Thanksgiving and a package of frozen pearl onions. They asked to be put together. If you are looking for a really quick side dish to make for…

My Grandmother’s Fruit Bowl

When I was a child, Thanksgiving was one of my favorite days of the year. It still is. Watching the Macy’s Day Parade, in black and white, was the background for all the busy kitchen noises that sometimes won out over the high school bands and Broadway singers. My brothers and I would be glued…

Pineapple Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

My mother always made a ham at Easter. She cut crisscross marks all over, slathered it in mustard and brown sugar, sometimes varying the topping. One of my first jobs was putting the little whole cloves in each intersection of the cuts. Toward the end of baking, she adorned the entire ham with pineapple rings…

Let’s Have a Party! We’ll serve June Cleaver Toasts, of course!

Nothing could be easier; these delectable little canapés may become a routine in your home after the first bite. Promise! I was told by an old family friend, Hilda, who lived to her 100th year, that this was a recipe for a party canapé in a pinch, popular in the 1950s, quick and easy. They are…

Pat’s Holiday Gravlax

I first received gravlax as a gift from my Mother-in-Law and was amazed that this could be accomplished in a home kitchen I remember getting this gift of home-cured gravlax, a salt-preserved salmon, every year at Christmastime from my mother-in-law Pat, my husband’s father’s second wife. The first time she gave it to us, I…

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…

Spring Parsnip and Leeks Au Gratin

It is a happy day the first time we see local spring-dug parsnips for sale! Sometimes you find them at the co-ops, a neighbor might bring you a few, but more often you’ll see a pick-up truck at a parking area on the side of the road. Usually, the same person year after year, and he…

Irish Cream Cheesecake, dairy free

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Although the March Winds are blowing and the temperatures below freezing, we had several glorious days last week where it felt like spring and we could enjoy being outside in our shirtsleeves. So fleeting these delights! Once I heard the forecast of possible 60 degrees, it took me about one minute…

Christmas Clementine Cake

Eat this orange cake plain, or pretty it up, it’s up to you. Added bonus, this is also gluten- and dairy-free.

Holiday Eggnog (dairy free)

Of course, she always made this eggnog with a more than ample addition of spirits, sometimes dark rum, but usually whiskey, or a combination of both

Filled Holiday Mincemeat Cookies

Mom’s recipe started in October when we stripped the garden of its green tomatoes and made our own micemeat. I still make this (now and then) when I want the house to smell like my childhood home.

Snow Day Ginger Spice Cookies

My cookie-baking ritual begins with brewing my little pot of stove-top espresso. I’ll use just a little for my ginger cookie recipe, and the rest is my own little treat. I need a treat too because my confession is that unless I am making them with a kid, I really don’t like baking cookies.

Sylvia’s Sour Cream Coconut Coffee Cake

There is good news and bad news. The good news is that the cake is absolutely delicious! The crumb was tender and smooth, the cake moist and flavorful. The bad news, for me at least, is that it tastes nothing like mother’s!

Cranberry Orange Nut Bread

When I start cooking with oranges, that signals the holidays to me. Cranberry orange nut bread combines sweet, savory, and tangy, and rounds out the bread basket! This is my favorite cranberry bread recipe. It is bursting with cranberries and the flavor combined with the orange is a celebration of the holidays. It is also…

Irish Soda Bread, Dairy-Free

This classic quick bread is a must for St. Patrick’s Day, or any day when you need a little comfort baking that is also quick. With dairy-challenged folks in my family, a quick bread that has been adapted to use plant-based products is a welcome site, especially if it is pretty to look at! I’ve…

A Lighter, Colorful Irish Colcannon

Traditionally, colcannon is an Irish dish composed of mashed potatoes with cabbage or kale. But with a few twists, this dish is lightened up for the 21st Century, and stars in three delicious left-over creations. St. Patrick’s Day is almost here, a time to visit some of the traditional dishes that traveled from Ireland to…

Mushroom and Vegetable Jambalaya

It’s spicy, it’s hearty, and it makes you want to dance down the street flinging Mardi Gras beads! Laissez les bons temps rouler! Let the Good Times Roll! I’m always happy to see the good times of Mardi Gras roll around. Winter hangs on, and we’re hungry for spring and something different to eat, and…

Smoky Yellow-Eyed Beans and Greens

In the South, black-eyed peas and greens are the New Years good-luck staple dish. In the New England, we lean toward stocking yellow-eyed beans and hardy greens in our kitchens. In the instant multi-cooker, this is a snap! They look a lot alike –– black-eyed peas and yellow-eyed beans, but they have a much different…

Imposter Pumpkin Pie

We’re all thinking about our Thanksgiving menus this week, including the important pies and desserts to please everyone around the table. I have rarely made a pumpkin pie from scratch, and when I have (once) it did not turn out as good as my mother’s. Couple that with the fact I’m not a pumpkin pie lover, there has been little…

Moroccan Spiced Carrots and Potatoes with Rosemary Crème Fraîche

Carrots and potatoes love to be together, whether mashed, steamed, grilled, or roasted. Add a sauce (traditional or vegan) made with rosemary, garlic, and lemon, and you have a winning side dish. I find myself thinking about side dishes this week. Our first snow flurries and plummeting temperatures this week, left no denying the fact…