And here we are. 2026! The beginning of January is a time to look forward, with a glance or two back in the rear-view mirror, but only just long enough to see if we need any course corrections. Do you make resolutions? I gave that up long ago, at least fastening my resolve to a…
Category: Seafood & Fish
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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A ‘Stuffie’ you ask? In New England, that means clams!
Our family loves New England clams in any form. Deep fried of course while visiting the shore with lots of tangy tartar sauce. Or steamed with all the dunking and slurping rituals. We’ll find them in a silky chowder, tossed in a simple white wine and garlic sauce over spaghetti, and in clam dip, too,…
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Now let’s Roast some Jumbo Shrimp and serve it up with Spicy Red Pepper Sauce
Juicy, tender, and full of flavor. And we have a vegetarian alternative as well. Don’t you love a recipe that can be assembled well before a dinner, then finished off in minutes. Shrimp often comes to mind as both a crowd pleaser and a cook pleaser as well because we’ll have plenty of time to…
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Jan’s Baked Dijon Salmon, a little nutty!
Salmon, and tofu, are often in weeknight rotation in many of our homes. Always good to change it up, no one wants to be in a weeknight rut! My sister Jan was the least fussy person I’ve ever met when it came to food. I never served her a meal she didn’t like, in fact,…
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New England’s gems of the ocean are in season!
When they are in season, New England Bay Scallops are quite a treat, but cook them simply for the best flavor. We have a vegan alternative as well. One of the seafood delights in New England is the arrival of the season of our sweet little bay scallops. Nantucket Bay is the best of the…
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Scrap Happy Planet: Taking and Making Stock in the New Year
Once a month, we’re going to look at ways to help reduce food waste and keep our planet happier by using all those scraps that often end up in landfills and contribute to our environmental problems. The worldwide statistics are sobering, over a third of everything we produce is tossed out, over a billion tons…
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Calamari Imposter Pasta? It’s a delightful bowl of winter comfort!
We awoke this Sunday morning to a frost so heavy it looked like snow on the fields! The full moon was also hanging large and low in the sky amidst a pink daybreak, beautiful to behold. As the sun rose, everything glistened like diamonds, quite a site, but one very hard to catch with the…
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Lean into ‘Stick Season’ with vibrant Potato Coated Halibut Steaks
Make this just for the halibut!” My mother used to say this all the time to the point where we would roll our eyes. The annoying thing is that I find myself using the same tired old line. I guess it is part of our cooking repertoire, and she probably got it from her mother….
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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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Grilled or Roasted Shrimp (or Mushrooms) and Lentils with Lemon
One thing most of my family and friends agree on (with the exception of a vegetarians or two,) is shrimp, just about any way. We like it roasted, grilled, sautéed, in soups and stews, spiced up, and even as a little cocktail appetizer dressed up in many ways. One of our daughter’s favorite dishes is…
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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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Cod and Cherry Tomatoes over Creamy Spiced Cauliflower
It happens all at once. My tomato plants are extremely large this year, a combination of really hot temperatures, tons of rain, and of course, our long days. They have started ripening, have sprawled out of their raised beds, and I now have a windowsill full and the abundance of cherry tomatoes at my fingertips….
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Cookbook Confidential: fast and easy RecipeTin Eats Dinner
“RecipeTin Eats Dinner,” by Nagi Maehashi, 2023, Countryman Press, division of W.W. Norton & Co. 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…
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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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A Spring Treat: Homemade Chive Pasta with Smoked Salmon and Greens
The ice is out of Joe’s Pond! That means spring is really here in Vermont. There are signs of spring everywhere! Flowers are starting to bloom, the birds have all returned, including the Lake Champlain seagulls that spend a week or so feasting on bugs in the hayfields after snow melt. Now we can declare…
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Eclipsed!!!
The sun and moon, and weather all perfectly aligned for a once-in-a-lifetime show this week. While I’d viewed partial eclipses of the sun previously in my life, never the full-on, instant darkness, amazing show we were treated to in Vermont and many other parts of the country on Monday. It couldn’t have been better. Welcome…
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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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Sole with Mandarinquat and Fresh Mint Sauce
Mandarinquat? What in the world is that? At the co-op last week, in the beautifully vibrant seasonal citrus section, there was a bin of “Mandarinquats.” I had never seen or even heard of these beauties before, bigger than a kumquat, smaller than a Mandarin, and a bright orange. They exuded such a beautiful aroma, I…
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New England Lobster Étouffée
Mardi gras is tomorrow, and I’m always looking for something from the south to help celebrate the day. We take seriously all the celebrations we can in mid-February, and tossing beads and dancing to a Zydeco band is right up there with Valentine’s dinners, and the first maple sugar on snow celebrations. Oh, that flavor!…
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Feast or Fish Bait?
It’s true, smelts look a lot more like bait than a main course. But they make up for it in flavor. Right now, they are in season in New England, so you’ll find them not only in the fish markets but in the fish counters of supermarkets as well. A New England classic, these fish…
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Cookbook Confidential: A glimpse at Jewish Cookery and culture around the world
Cookbook Confidential: Roden, Claudia, (1996) “The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York,” New York, Knopf 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…
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(Left-over) Potato Chip Crusted (Fresh) Walleye Perch
I recently learned that Vermont has not one but two official state fish. Brook Trout is the state’s cold water fish, and Walleye the official warm water fish. Although I find that all our waters are cold! If it comes out of Lake Champlain, those waters are anything but warm, especially this time of year….
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Baked Sole with Grapes and an Herb Stuffing
You never know what twists and turns a recipe will take. Rarely do I make a recipe exactly same as the last. Even my favorite dishes morph until I sometimes don’t recognize them from the original. Many of the meals we have started out in some way from a recipe of my mother, aunt, grandmother,…
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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,…
