My friend Bernadette from New Classic Recipe (https://newclassicrecipe.com) came up with the wonderful idea to have an on-line cookbook club with some of her blog buddies. What a fun, and great way to choose a recipe or two from the books, cook them, and review them. Then, you decide if the book is worth you…
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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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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Meyer Lemon and Herb Hummus with Confit Garlic
So many possibilities! What do you like? Anyone who has been to my kitchen knows there is always a bowl of hummus in my refrigerator. It is often lunch, a snack, sometimes even breakfast or supper. We have it on a salad, offered up with cucumbers or endive leaves, smeared on rye crackers, or dressed…
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Coaxing Spring one Root at a Time
Spring turnips and radishes are the flavors of right now. It has been chilly this week, but we’ve had some breaks of sunshine in the spring rains. These blessed showers brought the green grass, and the trees are starting to leaf out as well. Perfect weather for the daffodils and tulips. It does the heart…
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When Life Hands You Dandelions, Make a Salad, but Let the Experts Make the Wine
Pest or gift, they live in our memories in so many ways! Long before the peas grow and blossom and fruit, when tomato plants are just inches high, and well before even the radishes are ready to slice, the weeds begin to grow in the garden and lawn. If the weeds happen to be dandelions,…
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Spring-Dug Parsnip Purée with Seared Sea Scallops
Right after maple syrup, the second New England crop of the year is spring-dug parsnips, and now’s the time to find them. Parsnips are a bit finicky to germinate and grow, but they are well-worth the effort because they keep well in the north for use all winter. Many farmers “store” a certain portion of…
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Cookbook Confidential: The Moosewood Cookbook, Gado Gado, then and now
How time flies when you are enjoying great recipes! My friend Bernadette from New Classic Recipe (https://newclassicrecipe.com) came up with the wonderful idea to have an on-line cookbook club with some of her blog buddies. What a fun, and great way to choose a recipe or two from the books, cook them, and review them….
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The Potato Pages: How do I love Thee? Can’t possibly count the ways!
Pan Roasted Baby Potatoes with White Wine and Herbs, that’s one! How many ways can one make potatoes? I think probably countless ways, and there seems to always be something new or different to add to this simple staple. I’m always ready for one more. Anyone who knows me, knows that potatoes are in the…
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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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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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New England Stewed Yellow-Eyed Beans with Greens
This New England classic tastes like no other bean, and can be slow cooked all day on the stove, in the oven, or in a slow cooker. However, you can make them in a fraction of the time in a pressure cooker, or multi-cookers. My mother was known for her baked beans, a long-baked…
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How do you top a Finnan Haddie? With Potato Peelings of course!
This chowder is dairy-free, but you’d never guess! Many New Englanders and Canadians grew up with the classic Scottish Finnan Haddie, a delicately smoked haddock with a funny name. It was used in chowders and fish cakes when I was a kid, and was often served frequently during Lent. I loved the chowder the best….
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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…
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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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Put A Little Sole in a Late Winter Seafood Dish
Winter Flounder (or sole) is a bountiful, seasonal New England delight, full of soul and flavor. I am tired of root vegetables, and they are getting just plain tired of me as well. My frozen local veggies are pretty much depleted, and even the fresh from elsewhere in the country leave much to be desired….
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Celebrating Spring with a Flower Show and Salmon Glazed with Sambuca Maple Syrup
It’s Vermont’s first crop of the year! Once you spy steam escaping from your neighbor’s sugarhouse, you know spring is truly here, even if it is snowing. The temperatures have been above freezing during the day (barely) and below freezing at night, and that means the sap is running in Vermont, the nation’s…
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So, where was this Toll House and why did they make chocolate chip cookies?
We’ve all made them, possibly your first cookie adventure. But how did they become such a part of our baking landscape? When I was a kid, I loved baking chocolate chip cookies; you know, the recipe we all made. My kids followed in this love, and my grandkids do now. During the baking frenzy of…
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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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Because sometimes we all need to be coddled.
Coddled eggs may have gone out of fashion, but they are always a delight. One of the last gifts my mom gave me was a set of egg coddler cups from Williams Sanoma. They were beautiful little treasures in Delft white with blue, which she knew I loved, with shiny stainless-steel tops. She thought my…
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Jazzy Rutabaga and Black Bean Soup
Full of flavor, this soup will warm you, wake you up, and make you want to dance. And it won’t break the bank! I was talking to my friend Chris recently, and he was making black bean soup. The thoughts of the soup stuck in my mind, so that evening I put a pound of…
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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…
