The strong flavors of horseradish tend to create strong feelings: you either love it or you hate it. I love it on a roast beef sandwich or in a shrimp sauce. For most people, horseradish comes in a small bottle that languishes forever on the door of the refrigerator. But, just like tomatoes, fresh homegrown […]

BEAVER, Pa. The trappings of a little boy are everywhere. Parked in the hallway is a big, cardboard firetruck. A village sprawls on a long coffee table in the living room. Beneath it are children’s books. Police cars, ambulances and more firetrucks are piled in a corner. “I can’t decorate like I used to,” Doris […]

As I’ve been writing this column for 15 years, it’s natural that readers start to feel like they know me and my family. Nothing brings this fact home more than when we are in the middle of a restaurant (or a fair, grocery store, bookstore, what have you) and I snap at one of my […]

This recipe is a template for topping sauteed steaks or chops of most any kind with a wilted salad, a splendid dish for an early fall dinner. Mostly, I’m taking my cues here from the Italians. In Florence, they like to pep up their grilled steaks with a drizzle of olive oil and a spritz […]

Almost every flower gardener has great June flowers: peonies are dramatic and go well with the Siberian iris that bloom at the same time. Bachelor buttons are blooming and poppies are popping out everywhere. But now, in September, some gardens have plenty of green but lack color. It need not be that way. The first […]

LOUISVILLE, Ky. He reaches for a particular brick on the side of his building and scrapes his fingernail across it once, twice, three times until the nail is filed to a satisfactory smoothness. The marks on the brick show his fondness for that particular stone. Somewhere on Frankfort Avenue live dinosaurs, buffalo, long-horned cattle, steam […]

I’m not a serious lawn guy. My motto? “If it’s green and you can mow it, it’s a lawn.” But I recently filled in a few bare spots. This is a good time to sow seed. Fall is much better than spring to plant seed, as the soil is warm and the seed will germinate […]

Since I first became a mother in 2000, my reality — my “now” — has also been my children’s. The babies were an extension of myself, and with no parameters of their own for what is past, present or future, they simply lived in and experienced the world through my perspective. All of that has […]

This week’s Italian squash bake is a true workhorse. Want an easy, make-ahead weeknight side dish? This will do the trick. Hosting both vegetarians and meat eaters for dinner? Serve Italian squash bake along with grilled chicken or fish on the side for the carnivores, and you’ll be all set. Since the recipe is quite […]

GORHAM Geoff Keating grows a prized plant at the northeastern edge of the country, some 3,000 miles away from the region of America most associated with his crop — hops. Americans’ growing thirst for bitter, flavor-packed styles of beer has brought an unprecedented demand for hops, so growers are looking to new places to harvest […]