One of my favorite things is a picnic, the old-fashioned kind where goodies magically appear out of a bottomless picnic hamper and there are covered dishes galore containing all the foods my grandmother and aunties used to make. I can dream, can’t I? But for real, let’s make it happen. Why not have as many picnics […]

This simple pasta dish with its garlic butter and spinach sauce is perfect as is, but if you want to mess with it, add bumps and clumps of ricotta or feta cheese, steamed peas, broccoli, asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, grated carrot … It’s a canvas for all kinds of farm and garden goodness. The roasted garlic […]

Recently I vacationed in Williamstown, Massachusetts, a meeting point for my siblings and me to get together for the weekend. We enjoyed a beautiful brunch at The Barn, a restaurant behind The Williams Inn near the college campus. The avocado toast I ate was so sublime, I had to order it again the following day, […]

I eat cucumbers nearly every day and this is the salad that I turn to in any season for a quick side dish, or for my whole lunch. It’s not your mom’s cucumber salad, trust me. Cool and crunchy with sauciness spread on the bottom of the bowl, it’s something like crudite and dip, but […]

Chicken was on sale this past week for 97 cents per pound so I stocked the freezer and saw that this was an opportunity to use up the bit of chorizo I had on hand. I added a few pantry items and voila, a cozy, flavorful supper for myself with plenty left over for another […]

I remember the first time and place I ate sweet potato fries – it was the spring of 1999 at Periwinkle’s in Essex, Massachusetts. My daughter, a junior at a nearby college, took me there for lunch just to introduce me to the fries dipped in maple syrup. Those fries and the pulled pork sandwich […]

If you’re looking for a comfort meal to get you through to barbeque and picnic season, this is it. Don’t be intimidated by the long ingredient lists. I wager that most of these items are in your pantry right now, waiting to feel useful. If not you can easily substitute here and there. Use your […]

One of my daughters suggested having one of our occasional jazz brunches on Easter and I thought it was a fine idea. While planning the menu, I decided these two recipes each deserved a spot. Roasting strawberries in the oven really deepens their flavor and practically turns them into candy. To make these special toasts, […]

It’s important to have a few little tricks in our culinary repertoire to throw together in a hurry, especially these days when grocery prices are hitting an all-time high. A glossy chocolate spread, a savory sauce, a popular salad dressing and salty-sweet, yet healthy small bites can all be made with ingredients you probably already […]

That’s right, here we are at one of my favorite times of year – Maple Sunday. Many of us will bundle up, drive to our favorite sugarhouse and make our (perhaps muddy) way through the line to sample all things maple. It’s definitely doable here in Maine where the production of maple syrup is happening […]