It’s snowing. We are well into April and it’s snowing. Poor man’s fertilizer is what they called it when I was growing up; that little cover of snow just when things are looking like winter is done. It only lasts a day, the warmer ground and air temperatures see to that, and usually we are…
Category: Vegan options
How ya’ doing dumpling? Just fine, enjoying the homemade life!
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…
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What to cook when your fingers are frozen and you fall asleep by the fire.
Well, they had thawed out by the time I actually started cooking. It’s been cold. Winter is here, and temperatures have been unseasonably lower than usual, just 1 degree F. when I woke up yesterday, certainly more frigid than recent years in early December. Time to go to the fair So, what do hearty Vermonters…
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Write down those family recipes! They really might not be paying attention while you cook.
The dishes served to us as children tend to linger in the back of one’s mind, carved there by repetition, but truly embedded with aroma and taste; it takes just a whiff to send you back in time. Sometimes it is hard to recreate a dish because taste buds and even the memories themselves change….
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Milking your corn is the secret to more flavor!
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…
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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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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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Peaches and blueberries decided they wanted to be cobbled together.
Peach season is always greatly anticipated here in the north. While apple season stretches from summer through late fall, peaches are here for only a short time. But while they are here, there’s nothing like them in the world. Peachy memories When I was a child, a friend of mine had both peach and pear…
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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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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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Say strawberry shortcake, and you’ll make new friends. The cream on top is a bonus.
And if you indulge beneath a strawberry moon, what could be better? Last night, we got a double treat from the skies. First, a brilliant sunset. Then, a beautiful moon rise, the strawberry moon of June that this year was a brilliant red, in part, sadly, from the haze we are still experiencing from the…
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Let’s celebrate the amazing asparagus! We might have a party, or maybe brunch.
There is probably nothing we look forward to more in the spring at our house than asparagus! My mother would not have agreed. Asparagus was one of the few vegetables she did not like, and I give her credit because she tried it every way under the sun. Luckily, I did not inherit that from…
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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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Welcome spring! Let’s clean up the garden and make something hearty for supper.
Happy official Spring, The Vernal Equinox arrived at 5:01 a.m.! Shh, the snow has gone. I am saying this quietly, lest I tempt the fates and end up with a surprise blizzard. It’s happened in the past if I celebrate the turning of the wheel too early. But the snowbanks finished melting over the weekend,…
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Scrap Happy Planet: Can I tell you about Peppermint Pesto?
Once a month, we’re looking at ways to help reduce food waste and keep our planet happier and healthier by using all those scraps that often end up in landfills and contribute to our ever-growing environmental problems. The worldwide statistics are sobering, over a third of everything we produce is tossed out, over a billion tons of…
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It’s’ a real snow day, so let’s make a pot of cream of broccoli and mushroom soup!
We’ve had snow here and there this winter, but this week’s storm saw closings called the night before for many, an invitation to sleep in a bit and linger over some home-cooked comfort food. It’s one of those days where just about everything is closed, the schools, some shops, town clerk’s offices, community college, the…
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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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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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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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Scrap Happy Planet: Stale Bread for the Banquet?
Once a month, we’re going to look at ways to 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, but we’ve rolled up our…
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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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Scrap Happy Planet: Leftover Rice could feed the planet!
Once a month, we’re going to look at ways to 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. We’ve rolled up our sleeves before to save these resources, and now’s the time to do so again. Sunday or…
