Like uncovering buried treasure, the perfect potatoes appear as I gently move the soil in the potato patch. They are new, very new, potatoes with skin so delicate it can be rubbed off as you wash them.

Washed.

The small ad in the newspaper said “Pick your own Red Currants.”

Riverview Farm in Plainfield, New Hampshire was the place. The sign at a bend in the Connecticut River pointed at the lane to the fields and the currants. The bushes were filled with stems of ruby spheres and picking was easy. There were no bugs, it wasn’t raining, the sun was shining and the sky was blue. In less than forty minutes we had picked three pounds of red currant.

Paul Franklin, proprietor of Riverview Farm weighted the currants and we talked recipes for a few minutes. He told me about his breakfast biscuits with red currants folded in.

Another farmer told me that red currants had been hunted and eliminated by federal agents in the early 1900′s because of concern for the ‘white pine blister rust’ and fear that white pines would suffer the same devastation as the elms. He went on with a smile, ‘If they had tried to take Granny’s red currant bushes, she would have met them with a shot gun.’

Let’s get to the juicy part. Here’s how I did it: … read more

As a child, I looked forward to the monthly arrival of Children’s Digest magazine. One of my favorite features was the Rebus Puzzle page.

I loved to figure out what the combination of pictures and letters and numbers meant. If you think creatively, put together the elements in this painting you will be able to figure it out. The answer is at the bottom of this post.

Now, on to the important matter – food!

I decided to made Panisses before I knew their proper name. I had eaten them as a side dish, served with a burger at a pub and liked them, but only knew them as chickpea fries. So I went off to the Upper Valley Food Coop for inspiration and supplies and learned that what I wanted is called besan and that the fries are called Panisses. This additional information enabled me to figure out how to proceed. Here’s how I did it: … read more

Today is the thirty-fourth consecutive day with a rain shower, I spent the morning at the farmers’ market, setting things up, hiding from the rain, setting things up, drying things off, setting things up, running from a thunder storm and heading home.

The plan was to celebrate the Fourth at a potluck picnic with friends. Having run out of time, I decided to ‘cheat ‘ by doctoring canned baked beans. At the grocery store, I picked up a rack of spare ribs and and small head of cabbage along with the beans in case the picnic was the victim of yet another downpour. I got ready while the beans where baking, (heating) in the oven. You don’t need a recipe to doctor canned beans but here’s how I did it: … read more

Baking a fabulous cake is fun. Tonight we celebrate Denise’s birthday at a pot luck dinner with friends.

I’ll bring the cake. When I have finished, the cake will be delicious and beautiful, but at the moment my kitchen looks as if Lucy and Ethel have had yet another disaster.

I’ll post the details of this delight later today, but first I have to tidy up the kitchen before Ricky gets back.

Okay, most of the sugar and coconut is off the counter, there may be some on the floor but I’ll mop after I post the details.  Here’s how I did it. … read more