Posted in Baked goods, Eating in season, tagged Boston Food Swap, chocolate chips, food, local food, recipes, zucchini bread on September 18, 2011| 2 Comments »
Sometime in August my friend Monica forwarded me an e-mail with the note: “Why haven’t we heard about this?”
It was an invitation to the Boston Food Swap. Essentially, it’s a silent bidding auction where you bring something you made or grew and use it to bid on items from other people. It’s low-key, fun, and a nice way to meet other people who are interested in making and sharing their own food.
Posted in Baked goods, Dessert, tagged baked goods, cookies, dessert, Thanksgiving on November 20, 2010| 3 Comments »
These cookies are a riff on the recipe found inside the lid of the Quaker Oats canister. They use less butter and have some of the best flavors of Thanksgiving: cranberry, pumpkin, and cinnamon. I find them to be a great treat to make a day or two after the holiday meal as friends and family still linger on the sofa and the leftovers start to ebb. (more…)
Posted in Baked goods, Dessert, Holiday dishes, tagged baked goods, cookies, dessert on October 31, 2010| 11 Comments »
This weekend felt like fall’s grand finale. The temperature dropped and dry leaves skittered through the air like colorful confetti. It was, in a word, magnificent.
There was this other event going on, too, called Halloween. But for me the real costume parade was happening overhead. (more…)
Posted in Baked goods, Side dish, tagged apple, baked goods, cheddar, savory, scones on October 28, 2010| 9 Comments »
I was settling sweetly into fall, having allowed those feelings of rush rush rush pass me by when I suddenly realized: My apples were going “off.” This means all those apples I had gathered from beneath the trees just a few weeks ago were beginning to look a little wrinkly and soft. Oops. So much for my reverie.
It’s good practice to buy fresh produce but that actually requires doing something with this produce. And I sometimes don’t follow through. (I am ashamed to admit to how many bell peppers I have tossed out recently.) I needed to snap awake before the apples were for naught. (more…)
Posted in Baked goods, Cookbooks, Dessert, Recipes, tagged cookies, dessert, jam sandwich cookies, picnic on August 12, 2010| 3 Comments »
‘Tis the season for lounging about on the grass. There’s nothing like getting down low on a blanket under a leafy canopy, or a starry sky, or an illuminated cityscape and just … being. It’s even better if food is within lazy reach.
Last weekend I did some serious lollygagging. I can justify this because there was some serious high-minded expression of artistic talent going on not too far away. (more…)
Posted in Baked goods, Recipes, tagged baked goods, banana bread on May 10, 2010| 5 Comments »
For Mother’s Day I headed down to the Cape for a quick visit with Mom and the sea. I feel pretty fortunate that Mom relocated on the Cape a few years ago so I can zoom down for a few hours to escape the city and then zoom back up again.
The lilac bush behind her old Cape house was in full bloom, the first time I’ve seen it. Mom told me I should take back as many blossoms as I wanted. This is pure joy for me, being a city dweller. The lilac display in the arboretum is just a couple of blocks from my apartment and I can go sniff them anytime I want but to pick them would be criminal. So I settle for paying way too much for fresh, cut flowers at Whole Foods. Driving down to the Cape means I can have my pick of whatever Mom’s garden is offering.
I arrived with a hydrangea bush and a couple of paperbacks, good for beach reading. Mom has two great loves: Gardening and books. As long as her house has enough room for all of her books and as long as her back garden is big enough to dig around in, she is happy. If for any reason a Christmas or Mother’s Day goes by without a new book for Mom, we hear about it. “That was a lovely holiday,” she’ll say, “but I didn’t get any new books.” (more…)
Posted in Baked goods, Dessert on February 7, 2010| 6 Comments »
It’s Superbowl Sunday and I’m tasked with bringing the brownies to the party. Usually I rip the top off a cardboard box and mix the contents for a chocolate win. But this year I made a little extra effort.
Fair Trade Brownies
For Christmas gifts I gave fair trade chocolate from Taza Chocolate, and having a few bars left I thought I’d try their brownie recipe. Taza is a small company just over in Somerville, Mass. I toured their factory before the holidays with my friend Jessica. It was no Willy Wonka experience. It was crowded and the highlight was watching an old Italian-made cacao bean grinder painted fire engine red do its work.
But what makes fair trade special is all the stuff you can’t see. Taza’s beans are grown in the Dominican Republic by local growers organized into cooperatives. The business is financially and environmentally stable and community-oriented. Basically, no mean people or practices are involved. It’s stone-ground chocolate that has a heart. (more…)
Posted in Baked goods on February 2, 2010| 18 Comments »
At the center of my Boston neighborhood sits the Loring-Greenough House, a historic mansion. It was the home of a wealthy British naval officer Commodore Joshua Loring. Loring, a Loyalist, followed his good intuitions and abandoned the property in 1777 right before the Revolutionary War broke out. The house was confiscated by colonial forces, served as headquarters for Gen. Nathaniel Greene, and eventually as a hospital for soldiers wounded in the Battle of Bunker Hill. It is local legend that George Washington paid the hospital a visit.
That’s a lot of history for a place that I consider one of my bus stops. Despite how badly things turned out for the British in my neighborhood, I have the courage to admit that when it comes to scones, I am a bit of a Loyalist. America may be about bigger, faster, better, but this unfortunately has resulted in scones that are much, much too large and heavy – colonial one might say.
Proper English Scones
When researching a recipe for this essay I wrote about superior English scones for the Monitor I called my good friend Glenda who has years of professional baking experience in England. She told me the secret is in using self-rising flour and working very quickly and lightly so that the dough doesn’t get too dense.
She was right. I swear my tea kettle whistled a Tory tune when the scones came out of the oven in my Boston kitchen. (more…)
Posted in Baked goods on September 12, 2009| 3 Comments »
With this year’s rainy, cool summer there are still baskets of blueberries to be found at Farmer’s Markets. I made this delicious and easy blueberry buckle recipe for a recent book club gathering. I’m not really sure where the term “buckle” originated, but it means a basic coffee cake.
Blueberry Buckle
Posted in Baked goods, Dessert, Food musings on July 1, 2009| 6 Comments »
Michael Pollan, the foodie journalist and author of “In Defense of Food,” has coined a new anthem for locavores
Strawberry Rhubarb Pie and Mock Apple Pie
with his pithy phrase “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Michael, forgive my foolish ways. I could not resist the temptation to make this recipe and try it out on unsuspecting friends.
Ritz Cracker is celebrating its 75th year and it seems their Mock Apple Pie is making a bit of a comeback this spring.
Mock Apple Pie first appeared in 1934 on the cracker’s package.
It’s hard to imagine WHY anyone would want to substitute crisp apples for buttery
crackers. Were they a stand-in for hard-to-come by apples during the Great Depression? Hard to say, especially since many people turned to selling apples on the streets during those difficult days. Some references suggest that Mock Appl
e Pie was invented by pioneers on the move who didn’t have space or access to fresh apples out on the trail.
Kitchen Report 