Whether you do ham or lamb for Easter dinner, mashed potatoes make a terrific accompaniment. Actually, mashed potatoes are good almost any time, so maybe you’d rather have scalloped potatoes for Easter and save this artichoke-enhanced version of mashed for another time. Of course, plain old butter, milk, salt and pepper mashed potatoes are wonderful […]
Do you remember a couple of years ago when we talked here about peanut butter sandwiches for grown-ups? We explored non-sweet savory combinations like garlic jelly or chutney and peanut butter. All that conversation prompted Ruth Thurston to send along a recipe for cheddar bread that she reported made terrific peanut butter sandwiches. Recently I […]
It isn’t just corned beef and cabbage for St.Paddy’s Day, anymore. And even though an awful lot of traditional Irish cooking leans heavily on spuds, onions or leeks, and oats in various states—ground, rolled, cut—pork, ham, and sausage also graced the tables of the Auld Sod. According to Theodora Fitzgibbon who authored one of my […]
Even if you and I barely noticed, a month or more ago our chicken friends observed the days getting longer and began to lay eggs after taking their winter vacation roughly from November into January. Bless them. What a compensation some brilliant golden yolks are for gray and cold days. I am so old that […]
One young mom I know with three wiggly, energetic, and always-hungry kids aged six and under, never sets out in the family car without packing snacks. Sometimes a couple apples cored and cut up, some almonds, cheesy little crackers, plain popcorn—usually some sort of low-fat, low-salt, short on sugar and as relatively wholesome as she […]
If a dish tastes great, who quibbles over authenticity? France’s famous bean stew rich with duck, pork, and sausage with generous lashings of duck fat, and onion, herbs, and a crust of browned crumbs on top probably has as many variations on its home turf as cooks who make it. So the version that follows […]
Valentine’s Day ought to be subtitled, “Annual Let’s Eat Chocolate Day.” Boxes of bon bons, truffles, heart shaped cakes, chocolate cupcakes with pink icing and heart-shaped sprinkles in red, you know–the whole nine chocolate yards, with a few roses and diamonds stuck in for luck. Sweets for our sweeties. So add these chocolate chocolate-chip cookies […]
Besides opening a can, there can hardly be an easier homemade soup than this simple, tasty hamburger soup. Depending on the contents of your fridge and spice rack you can tweak this one to add vegetables or beans, grains or pasta; or to change the flavor from plain to Tex-Mex or Italian. One pound of […]
Spinach and artichoke dip is a classic appetizer-time offering; you can even acquire it ready-made. It’s an appealing alternative to beany, cheesy, burger-filled, scoop-worthy goo found on the Big Game Day snack table. Not, mind you, that this dip with its hearty portions of cream, cheddar cheese, and sour cream will qualify as a serving […]
Breakfast seems to be the one meal of the day for which we tolerate repetition. A slice of toast with peanut butter; a bowl of cereal with milk and half a banana; cooked oatmeal with raisins, nuts, chopped apple, day after livelong day; all of these breakfasts I have witnessed among friends. Personally, I like […]
