Our Cookbook Club is back in business! In early 2023, Bernadette from New Classic Recipes started a cookbook review club. We’d review a specific cookbook selected by the group, post a recipe and decide whether (or not) that book deserved space on our (physical or digital) shelves. After a brief pause, we have resumed our…
Lean into ‘Stick Season’ with vibrant Potato Coated Halibut Steaks
Make this just for the halibut!” My mother used to say this all the time to the point where we would roll our eyes. The annoying thing is that I find myself using the same tired old line. I guess it is part of our cooking repertoire, and she probably got it from her mother….
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Marvelous Miso Mushrooms perk up any meal!
The weather has been all over the place the last month. We finally got a hard freeze, but it was followed by 70-degree F. weather last week which brought all the ticks out of hiding. Then it turned cold again, good to get rid of the ticks we thought, but here we are at 65…
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Scrap Happy Planet: Frittatas and Omelets to the rescue!
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, but we’ve rolled up our sleeves before to save these resources, and now’s the time…
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Roasted Lemon and Garlic Potatoes
Potatoes. I grew up on them. They appeared on our plates most evenings in some form or another because they are also my dad’s favorite. We enjoyed them mashed, boiled, fried, baked, twice-baked, puréed, roasted, and scalloped, and were part of just about every soup, stew, casserole, or pot pie. They were always there, and…
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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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After the frost, the menu changes for the season, let’s start with cabbage and squash.
Roasted Cabbage with Pears & Curried Roasted Butternut Squash Mash We had our first frost last night, or rather a freeze. The cherry tomatoes have finally stopped producing, and only the hardier herbs, fennel, and Swiss chard remain in the kitchen garden unscathed. It was time. The irony is that the weather is turning again,…
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Let’s chase a rainbow, then make a vibrant Autumn Salad from all the colors!
There’s no doubt that Autumn is in full swing here in Vermont. The leaves are at their brilliant best, my backyard is surrounded by red and yellow, and temperatures are dropping, especially after the sun goes down. We still haven’t had a frost, but with the night temperatures in the high 30s and 40s, it…
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Apple Cheddar Walnut Bread
There’s a tradition in New England to eat our apple pie with a slice of cheddar cheese on top. Give it a try, and expand on the idea! It may sound strange to some, but many think it is the only way to enjoy that thick slice of pie. Way better than ice cream or…
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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…
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Farmers Market Pasta with Mixed Autumn Vegetables
It’s here! Autumn arrived at precisely 8:43 a.m. yesterday in Vermont. It doesn’t feel like fall yet, but we’ve got some color beginning and the promise of more to come. The leaf peppers are starting to arrive to view our annual colorful foliage show, in a couple of weeks our roads will be full. The…
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Summer Sidekicks, while they last…
The Autumnal Equinox is almost upon us, but with the temperatures still steamy hot, we’ll hang on to summer a little longer. With the temperatures back in the mid-80s this week, summer has decided to hang on as long as possible this year. While the Autumnal Equinox is on Sunday, the 22nd of September, marking the…
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Swiss Chard Wrapped Cod with Late Summer Vegetables
The garden and farmstands often tell me what to make for dinner. Sometimes, it is about using whatever is coming in fast and furious, but right now, even though prolific, I’m giving the cherry tomatoes a break. Swiss chard is abundant right now in my garden, and in all the tables at the farmers market….
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Late Summer Plum and Blueberry Upside-Down Cake
We’ve lots of delightful stone fruit right now, peaches, apricots, nectarines, and plums of many sizes and colors. Plums can be all over the place in terms of sweetness, but most work well in a tart or cake, and who doesn’t love it when it’s an upside-down cake with fresh fruit? Topsy turvy treat Our…
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Simple Pleasures: Haiku from the Place Just Right
I am delighted to be the next stop on a blog tour through northern New England featuring a new book by my friend Elizabeth Gauffreau, a lovely little volume that holds not only her beautifully crafted haiku, but exquisite nature photos as well, one enhancing the other. “Simple Pleasures: Haiku from the Place Just Right”…
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Scrap Happy Planet: Fromage Fort, from refrigerator bits to star of the party!
Let’s use our kitchen scraps to create better, more flavorful meals, and help in our own little ways to cut down on food waste. Once a month, we’ll offer some little tips on using up those items that normally go in the compost bucket or trash stream. It always starts with us. You rummage through…
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How about an Heirloom Tomato Toast with Whipped Ricotta?
Sometimes it is fun to recreate a dish that you have at a nice restaurant. At times, we succeed, sometimes we fail, but it is always fun to try, and we bring along the memory of that night in the process. I’ll always remember a seafood paella I had at a sweet little restaurant in…
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Love a big bean with lots of flavor? Try Beer and Mustard Braised Romano Beans
It’s such a delight at this time of year to stroll through the local farm stands with all they have to offer. We still have the best of summer, the summer squashes, berries, corn, tomatoes, cukes, greens of every kind, and we have lots of the fall crops coming in as well. Yesterday, I watched…
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Grilled or Roasted Shrimp (or Mushrooms) and Lentils with Lemon
One thing most of my family and friends agree on (with the exception of a vegetarians or two,) is shrimp, just about any way. We like it roasted, grilled, sautéed, in soups and stews, spiced up, and even as a little cocktail appetizer dressed up in many ways. One of our daughter’s favorite dishes is…
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A week in the life of a dozen ear of corn!
Fresh corn on the cob is a ritual of summer and into fall in New England. From the first ear to the last, we are hooked whether eating it slathered in butter right off the cob, simmered in a chowder, creamed in a casserole, corn pudding, or soufflé, fried as a fritter, stuffed in a…
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Another bean burger? Let’s start with A for Adzuki!
Nope, it doesn’t taste like a hamburger, but it does taste delicious! Over the years, I’ve made dozens of different veggie burgers, and most were disappointing in texture, or fell apart in a crumbly mess on my plate. I’ve used black beans, white beans, beans of every size and shape. Rice, lentils, bread, carrots, even…
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High Summer, so lets’ make Blueberry Pie
Our blueberries are still coming on strong, large and sweet this year, it has been a most rewarding harvest. My granddaughter and I decided to make a pie this past weekend after picking for the second time, six pounds before the heat got to us. I now have lots in my freezer for the winter…
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Artichokes with Sunday Seafood Salad
A lovely summer salad, and we’ve got a delightful vegan alternative as well! One of the women in my life who taught me a lot about cooking, and entertaining, was my father-in-law’s second wife Pat. She was an incredible chef, owning two very popular restaurants in the heart of ski country in southern Vermont –…
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Cod and Cherry Tomatoes over Creamy Spiced Cauliflower
It happens all at once. My tomato plants are extremely large this year, a combination of really hot temperatures, tons of rain, and of course, our long days. They have started ripening, have sprawled out of their raised beds, and I now have a windowsill full and the abundance of cherry tomatoes at my fingertips….
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Let’s fill some summer vegetables with Mushrooms and Radicchio!
There’s lots going on in the garden right now, and farmstands are filled with just about anything we could want from peas and squash to corn and tomatoes. Many an evening meal around here consists of nothing but vegetables in just about every preparation. Little vegetable boats Since my kids were little, we’ve loved to…
