Ever notice how those great big portobello mushroom caps almost exactly match the mini pita breads in size? When my neighbor wondered what to do with portobellos, I adapted a recipe from a women’s magazine, sending in a whole portobello cap to replace the suggested chopped white mushrooms. Think lunch! Think hors d’oeuvres! Think how tasty!
image: examiner.com
Continue reading “Cheese ‘n’ Chutney Portobello Pitas” »
You should keep all these ingredients on your pantry shelf at all times–even the clam juice, which comes in handy in fishy things and transforms tomato juice into a gourmet elixir–so that all you have to do is run out to the fish market for a pound of haddock and, presto: a fine kettle of fish!
(image: foodnetwork.com)
Continue reading “Tomato Fish Chowder” »
Marvin, my boss, was the art director of his own ad agency. I was his assistant, fresh out of art school. From him I learned plenty about advertising and design. Once he wrote me a bit of doggerel that ended with this affectionate put-down:
If you really try your hardest
Maybe you’ll become an ardest.
He also taught me about squaring things up. Marvin never left the office without lining up his pencils, all parallel, straightening up the papers on his desk, and arranging his layout pad flush with the edge of his drawing board. He told me his closets at home got the same treatment. I imagined his wardrobe of shoes resembling the disembodied feet of a precision drill team. Continue reading “The Square Route to Dinner” »
Congratulations are in order for Tess Gerritsen, Maine mystery writer whose novels are soon to become a TNT series. The Boston-set ‘Rizzoli and Isles,’ based on a series of mystery novels stars Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander as detectives, with Lorraine Bracco playing Harmon’s tough, but loyal mother. Exciting news!
Maine Food & Lifestyle magazine featured Tess, her work and culinary talents in the Holiday 2006 issue.
New England’s beloved berries are the basis for the sauce that enrobes this succulent roast, the perfect centerpiece for a festive winter menu. The recipe is Randy Decoteau’s adaptation of one from Eating Well, with tinkering by Cook & Tell.
Continue reading “Cranberry-Glazed Pork Roast” »
These delectable little meatballs, which came originally from the recipe files of my madcap mother-in-law Mamie (a very good cook), have a really pleasant sweet-and-sour thing going for them. Some slightly sweet elements (applesauce, cornflake crumbs) are offset nicely by the sharp edge of the vinegar that gets added at the end. Spoon the little meatballs over cooked egg noodles or Mashed Mainers and add some steamed green beans to the plate for a scrumptious supper. Continue reading “Little Meatballs with Applesauce-Cider Gravy” »
Yorkshire pudding was traditionally baked in the roasting pan with the roast, but I always bake it separately, as I suspect most people do. It’s best made with the pan drippings from the roast, but you can use butter if need be. Just make sure the fat is sizzling hot when you pour the batter over it.
(mini-Yorkshire pudding image courtesy of Wikipedia)
Continue reading “Yorkshire Pudding” »
It’s interesting to note that certain ingredients that become trendy are very often found in a large percentage of old traditional recipes. Crystallized ginger has had its day in the limelight and perhaps will go the way of jicama and other outdated fad foods, but I will always like it in this excellent gingerbread. It’s best served warm with a generous dollop of whipped cream. (Although it’s passé, I like to add a bit of nutmeg to the whipped cream.)
Continue reading “Gingerbread with Crystallized Ginger” »
Festive and fun to make, this is also one of the quickest dinners in our repertoire. When it’s just us, and a batch of stuffed shells will make enough for a second meal, we keep the sauce simple and serve a separate vegetable, either sautéed, steamed, or in a salad. But if making this as a vegetarian main-dish casserole, you could add a mix of summer vegetables—Romano beans, eggplant, summer squash or zucchini, lightly sautéed with extra onion and garlic—to the sauce in place of the sausages. Continue reading “Ricotta-Stuffed Shells with Rustic Tomato Sauce” »
Practically speaking, almost everyone four hundred years ago was a locovore. And sure enough, in the autumn of 1621, the Plymouth colonists had enough local fare to celebrate a traditional harvest festival similar to ones they had observed in old England. Continue reading “The First (Locovore) Thanksgiving” »
Somewhere back along, I picked up the incidental intelligence that the Native Americans of greater Plymouth, Massachusetts, introduced their Pilgrim friends to the three major crops of the New World – squash, beans, and corn. Of course, the world in which they encountered each other was not new to the Native Americans. But to the Pilgrims, everything was new, including the wild, barren land they would need to tame and till, in order to build houses and plant vegetables.
Continue reading “Thanksgiving Pea Dish” »
This sweetly savory quiche is great for a dinner party or potluck, since you can make it ahead—in fact, it’s better that way, giving the flavors a chance to come together. Somehow the combination of nutmeg and winter savory, with a touch of cayenne, is just right with the squash filling, encased by a golden crust and cheesy top. Scallions, leeks, or late-garden onion tops add some tender green.
Continue reading “Autumn Pie” »
This all-American staple hardly needs a recipe—every cook has a favorite formula—but since it’s a component of several recipes in the book, here’s how we do the mashed potato.
We always make more than we can eat at one sitting, since leftover mashed potatoes tend to inspire other meals: as a topping for a Shepherd’s Pie, lofted with beaten egg; as the base for a Creamy Potato-Cheese Soup; herbed and fried or baked as Potato Pancakes or Puffs. . . . Continue reading “Do the (Garlic) Mashed Potato” »
Even though we seldom get trick-or-treaters anymore, I still like making these cookies at Halloween—treats for grown-ups! Studded with colorful Peanut M&Ms, they are festive, nutty, and wheaty, using Wheatena cereal as one of the flours.
Halloween Cookies
Jane Crosen, Maine Mapmaker’s Kitchen
5 Tablespoons salted butter
¾ cup dry Wheatena (cracked wheat and bran cereal)
⅝ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 large egg
½ cup toasted wheat germ
2 Tablespoons canola oil
¼ cup oat flour
Juice of 1/3 orange, about 2½ Tablespoons water
1½ cups whole-wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Peanut M&Ms, 3 per cookie
¼ teaspoon salt
Cream together wet ingredients in large mixing bowl.
Sort M&Ms into about 20 groups of 3 complementary colors. Combine remaining dry ingredients (Wheatena through salt) in separate bowl and add to wet mixture. Mix until flours are moistened.
Preheat oven to 365°, and oil 2 cookie sheets. Spoon evenly sized lumps of dough onto cookie sheets, about 8 per sheet, and press 3 different-colored Peanut M&Ms into the top of each one, to both decorate and flatten the cookie.
Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until a light nutty brown; be careful not to overbake. Cool slightly and remove to rack.
Makes 18-20 cookies.
Jane Crosen is the author, with husband Richard Washburn, of the cookbook Maine Mapmaker’s Kitchen: Creative, healthy recipes for home, camp, and afloat.
Is well named. Hauling yourself out to Unity on the 24th for MOFGA’S annual apple jamboree is a great way to spend a fall day and that’s because Maine has a lot of great apples. Somewhere well north of 50 apple varieties laid out for tasting.
The tasting part is a unique opportunity to check out all sorts of flavors and textures, and of course to sample apples not routinely sold in stores.
A lot of the tastiest varieties are not likely to win beauty contests, although some do have their spectacular aspects.
The tasting by itself would be more than enough, but there are all manner of other attractions: instructive talks on apple growing, cider making and other obvious tie-ins; a (small) market of apple and cheese sellers, and a chance to – maybe! – learn what that mystery apple in the backyard really is.
The more you know about your tree’s history, the better your shot at learning its identity.
For more of this story, read Leslie Land’s blog, Leslie Land In Kitchen and Garden and All Around the House.
This improbable combination was a whim that paid off. Butternut squash loves butter, and cabbage turns tame in the company of both. When you’re planning a vegetarian meal and you’re in the market for for something substantial, colorful, and texturally interesting to accompany brown rice and black beans, for instance, put a squash and a cabbage on your shopping list. Continue reading “Squabbage” »
A delicious, unusual, and easy to make pasta dish that’s sure to please those you serve it to.
Tomato, Mascarpone and Kalamata Olive Pasta
Anne Mahle, At Home At Sea
1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
4 to 5 large plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced
32 black Kalamata olives, pitted
8 ounces Mascarpone cheese
2 Tablespoons white wine
Salt and fresh black pepper to taste
Garnish:
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Continue reading “Tomato, Mascarpone and Kalamata Olive Pasta” »
There’s something about this particular combination of ingredients that makes people think they are eating something more substantial than toasted nuts. Everyone loves this appetizer, and many have offered guesses as to what they are tasting–and have never been right. Continue reading “Walnut Salad in Endive” »
I almost wept when I heard, earlier in the season, that something possibly awful was going on in certain sections of Maine’s blueberry barrens. The rains had come, the rains had stayed for a while, and a fungus had moved in. This sounded dire for the crop, on which so many growers depend for their livelihood, and on which so many pancakes, pies, and muffins depend for their very identity. Pray tell, what is a blueberry pie without blueberries? Continue reading “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Blueberries” »
