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: To feed a crowd
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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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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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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A new Irish Stew? Call them to the table.
When we make it to March, it seems like all possible ‘holidays’ are cause for celebration, and we New Englanders embrace them with glee, anything to ease cabin fever as we slide into mud season. Of course, this week was National Pi Day, March 14 (3.14) which most of us are aware of, but alas,…
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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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Let’s make a pot of soup! It’s time.
Snow Day Vegetable Bean Soup We finally got some snow, real snow that stuck to the trees and windows. Not that much actual accumulation, but for two days, we’ve lived in a slowly swirling snow globe, and it felt rather magical after a long November of grey, stick season. We have one dog who loves…
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We often celebrate the unusual in Vermont, including our state vegetable the heirloom Gilfeather Turnip
Trumpet Pasta with Turnips and Mushrooms The official state vegetable in Vermont is the Gilfeather Turnip. A funny name for a simple root that doesn’t call attention to itself, humble in appearance, drab in color, softball sized but sweet and mild in flavor. Its ancestry is muddled, part turnip? Part rutabaga? A hybrid? Mutant? It’s…
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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 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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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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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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How to throw a New England Clambake for 750, or maybe just for six!
It’s a summer ritual, large or small, with all the flavors of New England’s luscious seafood, and a little smoke. It’s quite a process. Feeding any type of meal to 750 people is a daunting task, but when we are talking delicate seafood, all served up piping hot and perfectly cooked, the technique has to…
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6 Chilled Summer Soups
We have a dilemma – with all the wonderful vegetables available right now, it’s just too hot to cook! Chilled summer soups solve the problem, and can take only moments to prepare.
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A Classic with a Twist: Mom’s Scalloped Potatoes with Truffle Butter and Parmesan
Is it possible to make scalloped potatoes taste better? Making a good pan of scalloped potatoes takes some patience, but not a lot of hands-on work. It takes a good hour and a half, plus maybe longer, to bake, and more time to rest and set up. But there’s lots to be done while playing…
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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…
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Everyone Wins: Grilled Summer Vegetables with Two Sauces!
It’s a feast in itself, and everyone gets to choose their favorite veggies and sauce. Happy Days! So, there was a break in the weather. It has rained here in Vermont for over three weeks, and everyone has seen the terrible consequences of that with flooding throughout our beautiful little state. There are still road…
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Hot Soup in Summer? Of course, especially if it’s rained for two solid weeks.
Lentil Soup with Kohlrabi and Swiss Chard The weather has been brutal in Vermont. The devastating flooding in our dear little state this week has left most of us is dismay at the massive property and land damage, destroyed buildings and roads, a landscape changed by towers of rushing waters. Anyone who has watched the…
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For those of you who love Goat Cheese, and especially for those who don’t.
This nibble is lunch, or supper, or a very quick first-course for a casual dinner party. Or slip into goat cheese quietly with a flavorful retro-inspired cheese ball, perfect for the Fourth of July celebrations. Half of our family loves goat cheese, and half do not. In fact, a couple put it on their terrible,…
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Brown Rice Risotto with Peas and Potatoes
A celebration of the beautiful spring pea, with a healthful twist on my regular recipe, and full of flavor! When the peas start coming fast and furious, we’re all happy. Few vegetables are more perfect and versatile as the pea, and none more fleeting in its season, all the more reason to cherish. The sugar…
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New England “Featherbeds,” an old fashioned Potato Roll with a New Attitude
Light and fluffy, full of flavor, and the secret is the potato boiling water! When I was a kid, my mom made bread most weekends. The rest of the week, we survived on the grocery store loaves. But her breads were always delightful, the stuff of memories, and the smell of loaves baking always takes…
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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…
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Light & Lively Open-Faced Tuna Sandwich
Not quite the tuna sandwich you grew up on! Tuna sandwiches were a mainstay in our house growing up. They were simple, just canned tuna, mayonnaise, diced onion, a little celery. If we had unexpected company at lunch time, my mom could make an amazing number of sandwiches with just one can of tuna! She…
