I love grilling when the weather finally turns and Autumn whispers “hurry up, I’m almost here, get your grilling in!” I’m not a fan of standing over a grill filled with red-hot coals while it is 95 degrees out and extremely humid. But as soon as September creeps in, I’m out there grilling whatever I…
Napa Cabbage Salad with Ginger and Lime Dressing
Crunchy, a little savory, a little sour, and a little sweet! I love a salad with lots of interest! A salad that serves as a meal needs to have a lot going for it in my book – color, texture, a variety of flavors, and a good balance of sweet, salty, sour, and savory, with…
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Grilled Red Pepper Soup – Three Ways
The farm stands right now are filled with bargains. You’ll find sweet red peppers, pricey most of the year, offered by the basketful! They are so pretty! Beautiful, deep red and delicious in so many dishes. Stuff them, chop them up for the freezer, sauté them with onions and serve atop a bed of rice….
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Stale Bread, Onion Skins, and Pesto from Trash
The magic of cooking and feeding families can happen with a well-equipped modern kitchen, an ill-equipped apartment kitchen, a hotplate, or even a campfire. All you need is a desire to feed people and a heat source! Repost from 2016, with a few updates. My first kitchen way back at the dawning of the Age…
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Zesty Ginger Peach Chutney
This chutney uses the best of the harvest, including Northern grown ginger! It’s harvest time in Vermont, and that means lots of beautiful produce just waiting to be preserved for the rest of the year. Apples, squashes, corn, tomatoes, berries, peaches, ginger. Yes, fresh ginger! There are quite a few…
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Lemon and Lavender Shortbread Cookies
Shortbread cookies are simple and delicious. With the addition of just a few things, they are all ready for a party. Planning for a Zoom baby shower, I was looking for a treat for us all to share together since we would not be physically present. I decided a shortbread cookie would be tasty, and…
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Poblano Peppers Stuffed with Fregola and Summer Vegetables
We have an abundance of beautiful peppers of all sorts at the farm stands and farmers markets right now, all types and all sizes, hot and sweet, large and small. One of our family’s favorite peppers is the poblano. It carries just a little heat (although you never know, sometimes you can get one that…
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Corn and Black Bean Salad with Malt Vinegar Dressing
During corn season in Vermont, we often have left-over corn we’ve cut from the cobs, perfect in salads, especially with a little accent of craft beer! Actually, sometimes it’s a big container leftover! I’ll usually buy a full dozen ears of corn, and what we don’t eat gets cut off the cob and either frozen…
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Smoked Trout and Shiitake Appetizers
A quick little bite that is packed with flavor! This has been the summer of physically distanced mini dinner parties on my front porch. We lugged our houseplants outside, added two long tables together, set up a separate serving area, and added some fans. We’ve made it work, and have been able to enjoy the…
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Iced Lemon and Wild Rice Soup
It’s still summer, it’s still nice and warm, and I’m hanging on to the season as long as possible. The calendar says September, and the humidity has broken here in the Green Mountain state. But it’s still summer in my book and that means chilled soups and anything lemon! Pat’s Iced Lemon Soup I had…
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Haricot Verts with Cherry Tomatoes and Hazelnuts
With a few little twists, these thin French green beans are company’s-coming delicious on a week night. (subtopic, am I the only one having trouble with this new editor?????) It’s a good day when I find the beautiful little French green beans, called haricot verts, at the market. Straight and thin, tender and quite flavorful,…
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Corn and Camembert Frittata with Red Pepper Sauce
You can put just about anything in a frittata, from leftovers to carefully planned ingredients. Sometimes the combination turns out just right! After a physically distant (I use that term because we are not really distant socially, just physically!) mini-dinner party for four last weekend, I had a few choice foods leftover: some Camembert, corn…
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Savory Rice Pudding with Corn and Coconut
It’s savory, but also sweet, and bursting with corn flavor. For a while, I’ve been thinking about making a savory rice pudding, something that could serve as a side dish or base for a stir fry or other veggies. Since it is Corn Season in Vermont, the idea of combining rice pudding with corn pudding…
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Peach and Raspberry Crisp
A couple touches of ginger make this seasonal treat just a bit different! These are the moments in the New England summer when we think we have everything we could possibly want. There’s corn and tomatoes in abundance, just about every other vegetable, so many treasures it is hard to find enough meals to squeeze…
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Something refreshing and cool to drink?
It’s August, we’re drinking a lot of water, but we’d like something a little more interesting and refreshing as well! Spa Water Virgin Cosmopolitan Kombucha and Tonic Haymakers Switchel it’s hot. Humid. Hazy. I seem to be drinking a lot of water, but not always feeling refreshed. At dinner, I like filling…
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Mixed Berry Clafoutis
It’s a baked pancake, but more custardy, not quite a flan but kind of, and in a class of its own. Although traditionally the French dessert clafoutis is made with cherries, you can use any fruit you like. It is also delicious using a mix of berries, and since we are at the peak of…
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Tofu Salad with Tarragon, Toasted Pecans, and Dried Apricots
Sometimes a new gadget makes cooking more fun! I have a new toy –– a tofu press. So many of my recipes for tofu call for pressing it first and then baking or cooking in some other way. It involves placing the tofu between two towel-lined plates, placing a balanced heavy can or pan on…
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Thai Coconut Mussels
Packed with flavor, this dish is quick to put together and fun to eat! I’ve wanted to make mussels for a while but never hit it right at the fish market. This week I got lucky and found some beautiful ones, and my fish monger told me how she likes to cook them the best. Not…
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A slice of homemade bread with some fresh blackberry jam?
Both of these recipes are quicker than the vintage versions, but just as delicious! It’s berry season and that means time to make some jam. I usually make strawberry jam, sometimes blueberry, raspberry if there are enough to be found, but always blackberry! It is one of my favorite kitchen gifts, and on the rare…
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Summer Squash and Broccoli Rabe Sauté
Fresh from the farm Broccoli Rabe and Summer Squash combine with Toasted Garlic and the unexpected pop of Preserved Lemon for a bright and pleasing summer dish At this time of year, we can easily make a quick ands simple meal out of what is available at the farmers market and farm stands, which is an awful lot!…
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Blackberry Syrup, or would you rather a slice of pie?
Berries are plentiful right now, and the squirrel in me is transforming and tucking away these treasures for the rest of the year. I went to the berry farm today and what a selection! I was looking for blackberries, but went away with more blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries! They also offered currants and black raspberries, but…
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Green Beans, Potatoes, and Mushrooms on the Side
It is the time of plenty, so many vegetables, so little time! I always feel incredibly lucky in the summer when there is so much fresh produce available. The farm stands and farmers markets have so many options, it is easy to get carried away and buy too much! Luckily, because it is so fresh,…
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First Corn Salad with Orecchiette Pasta and Wasabi Dressing
New Englanders wait for Sweet Corn Season all year, and for two months we delight in using it as much as possible, from breakfast to dinner, and the occasional midnight snack! Of course, the absolute best way to eat that first ear is quickly cooked (steamed, grilled, roasted, boiled, your choice) and served with lots…
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Very Berry Coffee Cake
The berries are everywhere, and we never run out of recipes using these treasurers. The grandkids and I joke that sometimes the berries don’t make it all the way home, so we have to buy double! My mom loved making coffee cakes, usually simple recipes with a light streusel topping. She made these little cakes…
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Kamut with Cherry Tomatoes and Green Beans
The cherry tomatoes were falling out of every nook in my kitchen, I had to come up with something! This is certainly a good year for cherry tomatoes. We’ve had lots of really hot weather here in Vermont, and I can almost see the plants grow! The cherry tomatoes have been producing a bounty all…
