Creamed corn is a New England favorite, and here we’ve served it with both haddock or a vegetarian tofu version. Both are delicious, especially with a little extra step – milking! We spent a few days at the shore last week, a little getaway timed for after the summer onslaught of tourists on the Maine…
Category: Side Dishes
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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Let’s make this easy: One pan or dish, no recipe. Are you with me?
We could call the The Season of Ease. At this time of year, we have vegetables of every possible type, sometimes in great abundance, and dinner is easy. When my kids were small and I relied heavily on my garden, supper in the summer was often a collection of whatever vegetables were in abundance on…
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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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Surprise! Thirty-seven pounds of summer squash. Free for the taking. Would you like some?
I made a little mistake when we set out for vacation last week. Although I asked my dear niece, who was kindly house and dog sitting, to water the garden on our absence, I forgot to ask her to pick any summer squash that were ready. They do grow quickly this time of year, and…
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Just a little bump in the road, but good food makes it better.
Life certainly hands us many lemons along the way. Luckily, it’s one of my favorite flavors, sourness and all. My little glitch this week was a mishap in my kitchen that dislocated my shoulder. Don’t ask me how it happened, it is outrageously silly, and I get absolutely no sympathy when I tell the story….
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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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A different take on peas and carrots? We’ll also add some spice and tantalizing greens to keep mother happy.
Last week was the 100th anniversary of my mother’s birth, definitely a time to pause in thought. The month of May is always filled with memories of my family. Not only was it the month of my mother’s birthday, but also my sister’s and youngest brother’s birthdays, a favorite aunt, Mother’s Day, and the month if…
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Finally, spring delights are on the way, even the weeds!
Spring has been a long time coming this year. We’ve had lots of rain, few blue-sky days, cold temperatures, and slow to blossom fruit trees. The latter is probably a good thing since there was a frost in some areas last week. Frost during blossom time is not a good thing! But the steady drizzle…
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If your parsnips are still in the ground, methinks it’s time to dig them up!
Although we think of parsnips as mostly an autumn crop and enjoy them all winter, when I was growing up, most gardeners left the bulk of these biennials in the ground until spring so they would sweeten during their winter’s rest. First or last, it doesn’t matter Technically, spring-dug parsnips are not the first crop…
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The calendar says it’s time for spring cleaning, so let’s be done with all those gnarly stored vegetables. I’ve a few tricks in mind.
Spring cleaning. It was a ritual in our house growing up. Mother would choose a perfect weekend in late April or early May, and turn the house inside out, from top to bottom. No surface was spared scrubbing and polishing. Linens on the line The washing machine did not stop all day long. Curtains were…
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Let’s make a big pot of tasty chili, but first, we’ll break a few rules!
Beans or no beans? Meat or no meat? This four bean mushroom chili is all good, and feeds a crowd! It’s’ spring break time for many schools, and my eldest granddaughter arrived this weekend with several of her friends to celebrate their time off. It’s always such a pleasure to have them around, and my…
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A Bloody Plate even a Vegan will Love!
Blood Oranges are in season, let’s have fun with them! This is definitely a mid-February recipe, using beautiful root vegetables from our local farms, as well as the delightful citrus from the south that brightens up wintertime in all parts of the country. We need all the color we can get right now. Wake up…
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Corn meal mush you ask? It sounds funny, but you can spell it ‘polenta’ if you like.
When it all catches up with you, a plate of comfort is just what the doctor ordered! Perhaps Pearl Onions and Mushrooms over Corn Meal Mush? Sometimes we had it for breakfast when I was growing up. Corn meal mush. It is really delightful, especially if drizzled with a bit of real maple syrup or…
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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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So, should we invite Brussels sprouts to Thanksgiving?
They are big and plump this year, little cabbage-like buds that you either love or hate. Actually, you can feel both ways about Brussels sprouts since so often they are cooked to death to grey mush and smell up the house. That’s the way I had them growing up at my aunt’s house, an unforgettable…
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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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Marvelous Miso Mushrooms perk up any meal!
The weather has been all over the place the last month. We finally got a hard freeze, but it was followed by 70-degree F. weather last week which brought all the ticks out of hiding. Then it turned cold again, good to get rid of the ticks we thought, but here we are at 65…
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Roasted Lemon and Garlic Potatoes
Potatoes. I grew up on them. They appeared on our plates most evenings in some form or another because they are also my dad’s favorite. We enjoyed them mashed, boiled, fried, baked, twice-baked, puréed, roasted, and scalloped, and were part of just about every soup, stew, casserole, or pot pie. They were always there, and…
