It is definitely beet season, and color abounds! Some of the prettiest side dishes are made with beets and radishes. Vibrant reds and pinks and golds, all invite you to eat that rainbow everyone is always talking about. However, as much as others in my family adore beets, I don’t really care for them, and…
Category: Vegan options
Brown Butter Broccoli Rabe with Macadamia Nuts
Save that butter wrapper! One of my first lessons in kitchen frugality was watching my mother unwrap her stick of butter for the butter dish, setting the wrapper aside. Once the green beans were cooked and drained, she placed them in the serving dish and topped them with the butter wrapper, to act as a…
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So, What to do with all that fennel…
Stuffed Squash. 1/2 gallon Fennel Stock. Tomato Fennel Soup. Fennel Pesto. Toasted Fennel Au Gratin. I came home from this week’s CSA with two massive fennel bulbs complete with long stalks and the biggest toppings of frilly fronds I’ve ever seen. This was going to take a little work, and I suspected there would be…
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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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Creamy Corn, Cauliflower & Crab Chowder
A simple classic dish with just a little taste of the sea to liven it up Corn season cannot go by without some more chowder, and it is going fast. As corn season progresses, this native treasure gets sweeter, and the price gets lower, so this is the time of year we pull out those…
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Let’s go to the fair, they have blooming onions!
The solution to Wordle on Saturday was onion. How could we not got to the fair and get a blooming one? Of course, I have an alternative. We try to eat healthy most of the time. However, when the fair opens, all bets are off the table and I plan my appetite around the sharing…
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Fresh Ginger and Marmalade Glazed Cod
A tropical crop in the the north country? Why not? The fresh ginger harvest is starting in the Northeast, and it’s a delightful addition to our meals. For the last five years or so, fresh ginger has appeared at our farm stands in late summer and fall. Until then, I had never seen or tasted…
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Super Corny Polenta with Roasted Heirloom Tomatoes
Some of the best flavors of summer combine for a memorable dish. Tomatoes and the sweetest corn imaginable are everywhere right now. Red tomatoes, green, purple, yellow, orange, striped and tie-dye too. All sizes, shapes, and flavors, and so many recipes to make! It was really hard to make my choice at the farmers market…
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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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Phyllo Nests with Blueberries and Lemon-Lavender Cream
Light, refreshing, and guilt-free. Did I say tasty? It’s blueberry season, and we’re having a really good year here! The surplus of these gems always gets me excited, and although my absolute favorite way to eat them is right out of hand, it’s fun to dress them up. Lots of blue memories Blueberries have 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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Chicken (or Mushroom) Medallions in White Wine with Wild Mushrooms
We have three options here, including two vegan: local chicken but more heart healthy than my mom’s original, mushrooms replacing the chicken, or tofu replacing the chicken. All delicious, so take your pick. My mother’s version of this dish used a whole cut-up chicken or thighs, all parts skin on and bone in, lots of…
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Snow Peas with Brown Butter and Miso
This is a 10-minute side dish from start to finish that tastes and looks like you fussed! Peas are precious in Vermont, the growing season being quite short. But, during those fast and furious weeks of harvest, we have more than we know what to do with! We eat them raw, we turn them into…
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Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
The Spring Song in Vermont! When the rhubarb hits the farm stands, you know the first strawberries will be close behind. The two spring treasures are a perfect balancing act – the berries sweet and vibrant, the rhubarb tart and sour. The good news is that both the strawberries and the rhubarb freeze beautifully, so…
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Those Funny Little Fiddlehead Ferns Play Nicely with other Spring Treasures
Fiddlehead ferns are a ritual in the northeast, and with a fleeting season, you have to be quick. From my youngest childhood, I remember foraging fiddlehead ferns with my Uncle Leonard. The appear only for a few weeks, and then become the beautiful fronds of the ostrich fern that greens our woodlands. They are delicious,…
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Finally, we have asparagus! Now, let’s make some mayonnaise.
They’re here, and what a glorious season it is in the north! That first bite of fresh local asparagus is like a gift from the heavens. There are certain vegetables I only eat when they are in season. I’ve learned disappointment is likely to follow if I’m tempted to buy corn on the cob or…
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Secret Recipe Toffee Squares: Now you know!
This is THE recipe to contribute to the bake sale; first to sell out, and always popular. And now, you know the secret. For years, my friend C. helped me stock the green room for our performing artists at the Roots on the River Music Festival. It was a great deal of fun, and our…
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Cream of Party Platter Soup
First step in recipe: Throw a party There’s one at every party, a crudités platter, beautifully cut-up vegetables, arranged in vibrant color swaths, decorated with herbs and little treats. Sometimes, depending on what else is available, it even gets eaten! Always some left over However, usually there are lots left over, especially if a large…
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Shrimp and Artichoke Paella: Sometimes it does matter what pan you use.
The hand-me-down pots from your mother are more than just kitchen utensils! My kitchen is lusciously littered with items from the women in my life. My grandmother’s cast-iron frying pan, my mother’s bread bowl, my sister’s coffee press. Various pastry making items from aunts. A special wooden spoon from a reporter from a rival newspaper….
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Cookbook Confidential: Whole Wheat Pasta with Walnut Sauce and Swiss Chard
My friend Bernadette from New Classic Recipe came up with the idea to have an on-line cook book club with some of her blog buddies. What fun, and a great way to choose a recipe or two from the books, cook them, and review the books. “Milk Street Tuesday Nights Mediterranean,” from Christopher Kimball The…
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A few twists on (American) Chop Suey, or was that Hungarian Goulash? Your choice!
It was one of our standards growing up in New England, a hearty pasta meal that is cooked and served in one pot, great on a weeknight, and pretty much loved by all. But all that fat and carbs! We loved it as kids. A big dish of macaroni with browned ground beef and onions,…
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Honey Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread with Anise
Slightly sweet, beautifully textured, with the subtle fragrance of anise It is a frigid day, so a perfect time to bake bread and make soup. I needed to feed “Ginny Junior,” my sourdough starter, so bread making was definitely in the cards. Sweet and sturdy I wanted a sturdy loaf, whole wheat with a lot…
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Quick Cod Curry with Mushrooms
A colorful weeknight dish that takes little time but packs tons of flavor! We didn’t eat a lot of curry in our house when I was growing up. Typical old time New Englander, my father liked things on the plain side, but my mom loved spices and heat. Dad usually won the battle, telling my…
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Traditional Boston Baked Beans? May I introduce you to their great-granddaughter?
A New England favorite with lots of twists! In years past, every New England cook had their own recipe for Boston Baked Beans. Inexpensive, filling, and nutritious, peasant food at its best. Baked beans were a Saturday night staple dating back to Colonial times when cooking on the Sabbath was forbidden and the beans could…
