On a rainy autumn evening, a burger and fries and a favorite Hitchcock film is perfection. The movie may be Rear Window, Dial M for Murder or The Man who Knew Too Much and the burger may be red meat, poultry or fish.

Yep, a FISH burger! Made with minced cod, this burger is delicious, an excellent low-calorie source of protein, a good source of omega – 3 fatty acids, a good source vitamin B12 and B6, and niacin. When you taste it, you will forget the health benefits and simply enjoy dinner and the movie.  Here’s how I did it. … read more

When the ingredients list on the side of the box of any prepared food is longer than a centimeter (half an inch) I don’t buy it. This pronouncement was the beginning of a grocery store game for my sons when they were too young to “sound out” words like disodium inosinate or monoglycerides. Rather than dealing with arbitrary decisions like, “No,” imposed by a tyrant, (me), the ingredients list was undeniable. My sons are grown now and my grandchildren play the game and I still check the length of ingredients lists.

The cracker aisle at the market is a special challenge. The ingredients list for simple, no frills saltine crackers is longer than three centimeters (one inch) and includes partially hydrogenated cotton seed oil and high fructose corn syrup. Not what I want to serve with soup made with carrots, onions and dill from my garden and milk from a nearby dairy.

According to the Farmers’ Almanac, hardtack, the predecessor to crackers, originated in New England in the 18^th century. It is a simple cracker made from flour and water. Baked hard and dry and stored properly, it lasts forever, or at least long enough to be a dietary mainstay on long sea voyages.

Legend has it that crackers were the creation of Massachusetts’s baker, Josiah Bent. He combined a common kitchen mishap, over-baking a batch of biscuits, with Yankee ingenuity.  Inspired by the sound they made when chewed, he introduced the crisp biscuit as a cracker.  More than two hundred years later, the G. H. Bent Company in Milton, Massachusetts is still baking hard tack with just two ingredients, wheat flour and water.

Alas, the cracker has changed radically since it simple beginnings. There are whole grain, gluten free, low fat, no fat, salt free, cheese, herb, poppy seed, sesame seed, naturally flavored, and artificially flavored crackers waiting in the cracker aisle hoping for a ride in your shopping trolly.

You can turn away from the fancy boxes and follow my centimeter rule if you make crackers rather than buy crackers made by faraway food corporations. You can say no to crackers shipped hundreds of miles, in excessive packaging, supplemented with un-pronounceable ingredients and preservatives and sold at prices that rival designer chocolates. Homemade crackers are delicious, simple to make, and won’t make a shocking dent in your food budget.

Crackers can be seasoned and shaped to suit the occasion. Served with local cheese they are an elegant snack. Homemade crackers spread with butter and jam will be welcomed with a smile. Rye cheese sticks and a glass of wine say welcome to friends. I have two cracker recipes that I modify to suit my needs. Here’s how I do it. … read more

Gossip has it that Peter Peter the pumpkin eater, and his wife were having domestic difficulties.

Perhaps Mrs. Peter would have been happier if Mr. Peter had been willing to expand his diet to include other squash rather than sticking to the somewhat dry, perhaps a bit boring, pumpkin. Don’t get me wrong. Pumpkins have an interesting past, after all Cinderella would have had to walk to the ball if there hadn’t been a pumpkin in her kitchen.

Pumpkins, like all winter squash, grow in the summer and are harvested when the fruit and seeds have matured fully and the skin has hardened into a tough rind. Summer squash is in the market all winter and winter squash is available in the late summer, fall and winter. It might be less confusing if winter squash were called Good Keeper Squash and summer squash were called Eat Soon Squash.

The assortment of Good Keeper Squash at the farmers’ market this week included varieties I’d never cooked. I bought carnival, acorn, buttercup, butternut, and Hubbard squash. The bag weighted twenty-three pounds!  That’s a lot of squash – dinner party time! I invited friends to a squash sampling dinner party, and began to consider how to include five varieties of squash in one meal. I set guidelines – there would be no baked or mashed squash topped with maple syrup, brown sugar and/or marshmallows. I decided to roast a pork loin to accompany the squash. With others bringing an appetizer, a salad and a dessert I had four hours to cook. Luckily, my range has two ovens.

Dinner was a success, a autumn harvest meal with friends and conversation interspersed with irreverent jokes including one whose punch line was “They’ll call us vegetables.” It’s not a stretch to say that each of our friends is a Good Keeper.

Here’s how I did it: … read more

My painting of a turnip was featured in the Fall issue of Edible Green Mountains along with an article entitled Edible Traditions – Vermont roots: Gilfeather Turnips.   Inspired by the article and delighted to find locally grown, organic gilfeather turnips at the farmers’ market I decided to try this heirloom vegetable in my version of Turnip Soup. Worried that it would be too ‘turnippy’ I added potato and a bit of sour cream to the pot.

I wanted to serve the soup for dinner and decided to toast some pita and top it with cheese and tomato. I put the pita into the oven, set the timer for four minutes. Unfortunately, the broiler in my new oven is much more robust than the broiler in my old oven.  At the three minute mark, there were flames coming out of the oven vent. I opened the oven, dumped the flaming pita into the sink and filled the kitchen with smoke.

Twenty minutes later, the smoke was gone, (no we didn’t need the help of those folks who come in the big red truck), I made toast and dinner was ready and delicious. Here’s how I did it:

… read more

Help! I have found that it is easier for me to paint eggplant than to cook it.

After a trip to Sicily, I tried to make the classic Sicilian dish, Pasta alla Norma. I made an acceptable version of this simple combination of pasta, tomato sauce, eggplant and cheese, but I was not happy with the eggplant.  It was oily and the skin was tough.

I need help. I would love to hear how you cook eggplant so that it is creamy and  not too oily. What do you do about the skin? Do you salt it or soak it in salty water? What’s your favorite variety. Please leave a comment or a question and if you want to know my ‘recipe for painting eggplants’.

I’m confident that you have wisdom to share.

Ciao!

Autumn. The air is brisk. The leaves have changed from green to a rainbow of warm reds and oranges

and the surprising smell of cumin floats across the village green. Yes, cumin, for autumn is the season when town greens are transformed into arenas for annual chili cook-offs.

I never thought of cooking as a competitive sport, but I do enjoy a good bowl of chili, so I ignored the rain and went to the 20th Annual Chili Cook-Off on the green in Woodstock, Vermont.

For five dollars I received a scorecard, a small cup and a plastic spoon. I set out to sample eleven different bowls of chili and then cast votes for my two favorites. With rain bucketing down, this was not an easy task. Huddled under canopies, my fellow judges and I tasted, discussed and rated the offerings. It was impossible to make notes on the sodden ballots.

The spices overwhelmed my tastes buds. A cook-off neophyte, I had reached my limit after sampling the eighth cup of chili. Determined to do my part, I pushed through my culinary confusion and voted. My stomach was filled with chili and my head filled with a hodgepodge of chili facts.

Was the first pot of chili created in a chuck wagon on a cattle drive somewhere west of Laramie, Texas, in the 1800’s or four centuries earlier in an undisclosed location in Mexico where legend has it enraged Aztecs seasoned Spanish conquistadors with chili peppers and served them for dinner?

Although the history is a mystery, certain facts cannot be disputed. The Incas, Aztecs, and Mayan Indians ate stews of meat, beans, peppers, and herbs, long before Columbus and the conquistadors came calling. Nearly five centuries later, in 1967, the first documented chili cook-off was held in the remote Texas ghost town of Terlingua.

There are three basic types of chili – chili con carne, chili with beans, and vegetarian chili – but there are endless variations. The carne part may be beef, pork, chicken, turkey, buffalo, venison, moose, bear, rabbit, etc.

The list of vegetables is limited only by one’s imagination. Beans may be black, purple, red, pink or white. Chili toppers include corn chips, sour cream, guacamole, grated cheese, chopped onions, and fresh chili peppers.

The chili cook-off reminded me of a non-competitive chili dinner I served to a group of friends after a play reading last spring. A vegetarian in the group was pleased to hear that that the ‘meat’ in the chili was bulgur wheat. Here’s how I made it: … read more