The apples are beautiful! The squash is beautiful. And we have locally grown exotic ginger just waiting to enhance just about everything, so it’s soup tonight! With a side of Apple Bread… I got lost in the apple orchard today, intentionally of course! The morning was crisp and bright the sky blue, and the car…
Category: To feed a crowd
“Galumpkis” stuffed with Mushrooms and Tomato Sauce
These funny sounding rolls of cabbage have a long tradition in New England, and are usually filled with ground meat and a grain such as rice and topped with tomato sauce, but this slow-cooked classic can also be made a little lighter, and quicker. This is a “Slow Food Sunday Recipe” a dish that you…
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Crab and Corn Salad on Corn Fritters
Make this salad and fritters, any number of ways, the star is always the corn. It’s corn season! That means corn on the cobb, corn chowder, cornbread, succotash, corn pudding, and corn fritters. At this time of year, it is not unknown in our house to have a supper that consists solely of corn on the…
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Three Cabbage Carnival Salad
It is kind of a slaw, kind of a cabbage salad, it’s full of color, and it feeds a crowd! It is summer cookout time, and we gather together, bringing food and conversation to the table. If I’m asked to bring a salad, I like to stray from the old standby recipes of potato salad,…
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Grilled Fish Tacos with Cherry & Radish Salsa
The cherries are in season, so why not use them rather than an imported fruit? Cherry salsa? Why not? We often serve fish tacos with the popular mango salsa, and when I was thinking about making fish tacos recently, I knew I needed to come up with an alternate fruit because of an allergy ––…
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Update your picnic with a modern twist on a three-bean salad and other treats
It’s picnic time, if the weather holds… It has been a rainy spring, and while we haven’t thought much about going on picnics, the warmth is returning, and the bonus from all that moisture is a green landscape that begs for a blanket and a basket of treats. The easiest picnic food is eaten with the…
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Heavenly Baked Blooming Onions
The smell of baking onions drives the hungry wild! One of my favorite commentators on Vermont Public Radio for many years was the late Janet Green, whose homespun reflections were often memorable in some way. In one of her programs, she talked about what to do when dinner is going to be a bit late,…
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Slow Roasted Duck with Cherry & Fennel Sauce
Roast it slow, and the oven does all the work! Serve with either a long-summered or quick sauce. We don’t cook duck very often. We think of it as a holiday or special occasion dish. But we keep one or two in the freezer that we buy from a local farmer, and once in a…
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Spiced Arborio Rice Pudding
This is Comfort Food with a subtle fragrance of spices! Most of us have memories of rice pudding. If the memory involves something wonderful your mother made, it’s a good one. But if your only memory is that of school cafeteria pudding, well, you might not think as kindly upon this dish. I have only…
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Cabbage and Carrots With Caraway
Under pressure, this nutritional side dish is made quickly (and without the aroma penetrating the entire house all day) Cabbage is a cheap New England staple vegetable. In the autumn, you can find heads larger than your own at the farm stands for little money, and the winter co-ops and CSAs offer these local treasures…
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Dark Chocolate Raspberry Cake
This is an easy to make cake for Valentine’s Day, and you can modify it to please everyone, well, except for those rare folks who do not like chocolate! There are some flavor combinations that are always a hit: chocolate with orange, chocolate with mint, and chocolate with raspberry! This cake takes just one bowl,…
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Homemade Hummus with Roasted Chickpeas
If you make it from scratch with dried chickpeas, this dip not only tastes better than what you find in the market, but it is quite economical as well. I love hummus. I always have some in my refrigerator and I use it for dips and as a spread on sandwiches or crackers. As delicious…
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Salmon Cakes Benedict
Recycle 2018 Leftovers into Dishes for the New Year I don’t usually make New Year’s resolutions; it is much too discouraging to find myself breaking vows a thousand times. I’d rather count blessings than resolutions, but as I hang the new calendar, I often find myself taking stock and pondering the possibility of little changes….
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A Special Holiday Dish
I first received this 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, 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 was truly…
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Christmas Morning Breakfast Quiche
A Perfect Make Ahead Breakfast using Sugar Snap Peas and Caramelized Onions! I forget about quiche for long periods of time, or perhaps I make them too often and tire of them. If it’s been a while, perhaps it’s time to revisit. When I would serve this to my guests at the inn, I looked…
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No-Apologies Christmas Fruitcake
Some of these cakes are doused in brandy for months before they are ready, and can last years! I don’t require mine to last years, or even months; it’s not a souvenir, it’s a holiday treat and I want people to eat it now! My Aunt Elda had a lovely fruitcake recipe handed down in the…
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Baked Camembert with Cranberry, Pecans, & Ginger
A Special Appetizer You can Assemble the Day Before Your Event, and Bake off as your Guests Arrive If you are looking for a special appetizer that is quick, easy, and can be assembled the day before your holiday or event, a wheel of Camembert or Brie, baked in puff pastry, and dressed up with…
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Sylvia’s Floating Islands with Hot Buttered Rum Sauce
And a few simpler techniques for a festive holiday dessert in no time For a treat on cold winter days, our mother would often make us floating islands of luscious meringue in soft, spiced custard; we all thought it was good, and the little islands were fun to play with. My own children loved this…
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Thanksgiving Prep 101
It’s the Monday before Thanksgiving and I have a houseful coming. All’s calm…for now. But it means I have lots to do today, and those tasks are all about preparation. I’ve catered many events and gatherings, and learned along the way that anything that can be done beforehand needs to be done beforehand. I have…
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Pear & Cranberry Tart
It’s Time to Think about Holiday Baking and the Flavors of Autumn and Thanksgiving! Everyone in my family has their favorite pie, and we try to accommodate everything from pumpkin to strawberry rhubarb at the Holidays. I have all the ingredients for the latter from the local farm tucked away in the freezer! But we…
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Nana’s Flakey Lemon Braid
Pre-made Puff Pastry Makes Easy Work of this Dessert If I am going to use a pre-made product, it better not just be easy, it needs to taste good too. Pre-made puff pastry saves tons of times, and has countless sweet and savory uses. Look for one made with real butter; it is harder…
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Savoring Corn Season
In New England, we measure the seasons by the crops, and this is one of the best! When Corn Season is upon us, I hunter-gather at all the farm stands near home and buy a couple of ears from each. Then I cook them and taste. Most years, there is a standout favorite! We might…
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Grilled Ratatouille and other tricks to Save the Summer!
We have it all right now, But how do we save it? It is the moment you’ve waited for all year. Your garden and local farm stands offer an overflow of tomatoes, squashes, peppers, corn, onions, carrots, and greens. For a short time, it seems every fruit and vegetable is there at your fingertips. You…
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Berries: The Jewels of Summer!
Enjoy the treasures while they last, then make them last all year – without standing over a hot wood stove for hours! There is a perfect moment in Vermont when the strawberries, blueberries, cherries, and raspberries are all singing together at the same time; only a moment it is, and only if we are lucky. These…
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Garlic Scapes: The Silly Serpent of the Garlic World…
Garlic scapes are the crazy little budded flower stems that look like a wayward plant! They have a wide range of uses, from pesto to stir fries.
