One of our favorite little lunches is a plate of Asian style dumplings, filled with something bursting with flavor, and dunked in a sauce with even more. While rural Vermont does not boast the best selection of dumpling grazing spots, there are a few companies out there who offer some of these homemade delights in…
Category: Party and picnic
So, they are all coming to your house for Thanksgiving this year! Don’t worry, you’ve got it covered.
It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving in the U.S. and you have a houseful coming. All’s calm…for now. I’ve catered many events and gatherings, and learned along the way that anything that can be done beforehand needs to be done beforehand. Here are some tips, look through, save what resonates, forget the rest! I usually have the menu…
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Autumn arrives, with three beautiful sisters at its side!
And before you know it, fall slips in between the blasting heat and threatening frost. She’s that quick, and always armed with a few tricks up her colorful sleeve. One day shorts and sandals, the next, sweaters and frantic picking of the remaining tomatoes in the garden. Today, we finally have blessed rain to help…
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Party Trick: A little sunshine in a paté for all.
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…
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Panzanella is fun to say, and even more fun to make and eat, especially if one is in Autumn denial. At least for now.
A large basket of sweet cherry tomatoes from the garden. A massive melon from the farm stand. Some stale bread. Let’s mix them all together and feast. Autumn slipped in quietly this morning, and while there was a distinct chill in the air when I first got up, we hit almost 80 by mid-afternoon and…
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Lobster for the frugal New Englander!
Corn and lobsters are perennial sidekicks. Indulge, if you like, but don’t break the bank! In New England, fresh Maine lobsters star in the summertime, especially when combined with our local harvest of golden corn, our very own amber waves of grain. While both shine beautifully on their own, they go together well! One rarely…
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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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Anyone care for a little summer sunshine in a bowl?
It was hot and I had a hankering for a chilled gazpacho, one of my favorite summer lunches. I usually make a half gallon of it at a time, and we enjoy it throughout the heat wave. However, the beautiful field tomatoes are not ripe here yet in any abundance, so I decided to give…
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How to tame a silly garden serpent!
They are everywhere this time of year in the north. Garlic scapes. They look like little serpents curling out of their baskets, but although they are strange to behold, the good news, is they are delicious and useful in many a dish with a subtle garlic flavor and lovey texture. The garlic tries hard to…
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Add a little snap to your supper? Sounds good, horseradish, please.
Well it’s a hot one! This week’s heat wave has sent many a New Englander and beyond to the lake or into the house for refuge as temperatures hovered in the extremely humid and high nineties, kissing 100 with the heat index. This is not the time for prolonged meal prep, especially when even the…
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With a little ginger, some sesame, all is right in the world. Toss in scallions, and the trio is complete.
It’s a sauce, a dressing, a topping, and no matter how you use it, you’ll go back for more. Sesame, ginger, scallions. A trio that often travels together around the world. We love the flavor of each separately, but combined their individuality is transformed. Add garlic, and all is right in that world. There isn’t…
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Let’s celebrate the amazing asparagus! We might have a party, or maybe brunch.
There is probably nothing we look forward to more in the spring at our house than asparagus! My mother would not have agreed. Asparagus was one of the few vegetables she did not like, and I give her credit because she tried it every way under the sun. Luckily, I did not inherit that from…
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It’s time for a snack, how about some Homemade Pita Bread and Muhammara Sauce, but no nuts please!
Nuts are delicious and nutritious, but sometimes we need to make modifications. We dined out recently with two of our beautiful nieces at a local restaurant, and for a shared appetizer we ordered the meze (mezze) plate. It was beautiful and bountiful, loaded with treats – tasty stuffed grape leaves, marinated feta, mixed olives, cucumber…
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King Mushrooms, a wonderful excuse to make your own hoisin sauce!
King mushrooms are a beautiful thing to behold, those huge mushrooms one finds when wandering through an enchanted forest. Locally grown now! Luckily, you don’t have to go that far to find them as they have become widely available and can often be found at farm stands and co-ops. Also known as King Trumpet or…
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Let’s make this a stress-free Thanksgiving celebration!
It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving and you have a houseful coming. Let the games begin. The first time I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for the family I was in my 20s. I’m not sure why I thought it was a good idea, but my mom graciously stepped down from her role as culinary matriarch and went along…
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Let’s review a Spanish cookbook and make tapas tonight for supper!
Our Cookbook Club is back in business! In early 2023, Bernadette from New Classic Recipes started a cookbook review club. We’d review a specific cookbook selected by the group, post a recipe and decide whether (or not) that book deserved space on our (physical or digital) shelves. After a brief pause, we have resumed our…
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Let’s chase a rainbow, then make a vibrant Autumn Salad from all the colors!
There’s no doubt that Autumn is in full swing here in Vermont. The leaves are at their brilliant best, my backyard is surrounded by red and yellow, and temperatures are dropping, especially after the sun goes down. We still haven’t had a frost, but with the night temperatures in the high 30s and 40s, it…
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Scrap Happy Planet: Fromage Fort, from refrigerator bits to star of the party!
Let’s use our kitchen scraps to create better, more flavorful meals, and help in our own little ways to cut down on food waste. Once a month, we’ll offer some little tips on using up those items that normally go in the compost bucket or trash stream. It always starts with us. You rummage through…
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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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Garden Party Flower and Herb Phyllo Tarts
It’s been a mixed weather bag around here in the north country. We’ve had some extreme hot weather, violent thunder storms, chilly nights, muggy nights, and gentle rains. But the long daylight hours have also fed the gardens with sunshine as well, and everything is blooming and growing like crazy. I should have my first…
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Summer Rerun: Spicy Gazpacho
This post first appeared a few years ago. It is hot here in Vermont, really hot, and the heat wave has settled on much of the country. Let’s hear it for no-heat cooking for a while. In just a few minutes, you can have a stash of chilled summer soup waiting for you on these…
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Asparagus and Crab Stuffed Boston Lettuce Cups
Boston lettuce is always fun to serve stuffed with something delicious. The little cups just beg for a special filling, and with Asparagus Season now in full swing, what could be better, especially if paired with tender, sweet crab? No one likes the slimy! We didn’t have asparagus when I was growing up because my…
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‘Ammesca Francesca’ with Wild Ramps and Mushrooms
Something different, with a lot of the familiar in a quick weeknight dish. I am always on the lookout for pastas that are a little different, something special to wake up those quick weeknight suppers. When it comes to dried pasta, there are hundreds from which to choose, so many delights are there to be…
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A May Day Feast of Local Delights!
Let’s start with some lovely wild ramps, and dress the platter with everything early spring. Spring is fickle in New England. Last week, we had some rain, fog, some sleet, a bit of snow, temperatures that hit 70, and evenings with the fireplace burning. But the rains have greened things up, the leaves are just…
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Wild Rice Salad with Luscious Lemon and Merry Mint
We had a lovely family gathering to celebrate Spring and Easter this past weekend, with lots of family, cooking, good food, egg coloring, and enjoying the sunshine. It’s always nice to have (most of) my whole brood together, including some of my nieces and nephews. A thieving crow! I colored eggs with my two granddaughters,…
