Posted in Holiday dishes, Side dish, tagged Butternut squash, kale, pumpkin seeds, Thanksgiving side dishes on November 19, 2012| 7 Comments »
At warm-up Thanksgiving this year, the annual pot luck my friend Jenna hosts a few days before Thanksgiving, I brought a butternut and kale side dish that was a hit. The butternut squash is tossed with spices and olive oil before it is roasted, and then sautéed onions, dried cranberries, and toasted pumpkin seeds are added to a bed of leafy green kale.
Not only does it look pretty on the table, it tastes delicious! This dish quickly emptied out at our pre-Thanksgiving meal.
Posted in Dessert, Holiday dishes, Mary Baker Eddy Library, tagged Mary Baker Eddy, Pumpkin pie, recipes, Victorian on November 18, 2012| 4 Comments »
On most American Thanksgiving tables, pumpkin pie is as much a presence as the turkey centerpiece. In modern forms it may appear as a flan, a cheesecake, or a frozen whipped delight.
In a Victorian-era cookbook, “The Art of Cookery: A Manual for Home and Schools” by Emma P Ewing, I found a recipe for a pumpkin pie that surprised me for two reasons: the heavy use of molasses and no cinnamon.
Posted in Main dish, Mary Baker Eddy Library on November 10, 2012| 4 Comments »
Say the words “boiled dinner” to today’s epicurians and you might be greeted with a grimaced face that seems to say, “Boiled? It sounds simply awful!”
In fact, boiled dinner is quite delicious. The corned beef is cooked until it melts in your mouth and the root vegetables are so tender they can be sliced with a spoon. It’s also so easy to prepare without much watching that it could be called the original slowcooker meal.
Posted in Appetizers, tagged Appetizers, Election 2012, recipes on November 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »
The Nov. 5 cover story for The Christian Science Monitor weekly edition shares the voices of voters in swing states. In addition to the resounding chorus of “Washington, get something done!,” the sentiment from these towns, which may be deeply divided politically and with serious concerns about our individual and collective future, is that neighbors and friends are still able to get along.
“My best friend in the world is a super-left-wing liberal,” Anne Wanke, an unswerving Republican, from Janesville, Wis., told the Monitor. “I mean, she’s pro-abortion. I’m pro-life. She’s very Democrat. But we’ve worked on projects for 30-something years in this town and love each other dearly. I wish our politicians did the same thing.” Read the full story here.
If you are watching the election returns tonight with friends who may or may not share your political persuasion, maybe you should break out a bag of blue and a bag of red tortilla chips (and maybe a plain corn one for Third Party fans) and dig into this delicious, warm artichoke and spinach dip.
Posted in Dessert, tagged dessert, elections, Historic recipes on November 5, 2012| 3 Comments »
The first known recipe for Election Cake, one of the first foods to be identified with American politics, was published as early as 1796 in Amelia Simmons’ “American Cookery” cookbook. In the 1800s, the cake was served at election time and by the 1830s it had became popularly known as Hartford Election Cake. (more…)
Posted in Dessert, Mary Baker Eddy Library, tagged dessert, Mary Baker Eddy, Victorian recipes on November 4, 2012| 5 Comments »
An easy place to begin for a month of Victorian recipe testing is custard pie. With its short list of ingredients, not much go wrong with this simple dessert.
Posted in Dessert, tagged apples, dessert, food, pie, recipes on October 26, 2012| 1 Comment »
This is my second apple pie of the season. My first apple pie came after an annual trek out to an apple orchard to ride in the tractor pulled wagon, pick a bag of apples, and eat way too may cider doughnuts and fist-fulls of kettle corn. It’s one of those things we do to mark the passing of time in New England.
Posted in Baked goods, Dessert, Recipes, tagged Blondies, Brownies, chocolate chips, dessert, food, recipes on October 12, 2012| 1 Comment »
This is a blondie recipe I put together while watching the vice presidential debates. I wanted to make something simple that wouldn’t have me babysitting the oven the way a batch of chocolate chip cookies would. I also needed to use up the miscellaneous ingredients I had in my pantry leftover from making Presidential Cookies with recipes from Michelle Obama and Ann Romney.
After poking around online, I found this recipe to serve as my base and then added white and dark chocolate chips, walnuts, and toasted coconut to make a blondie brownie bar. (more…)
Posted in Baked goods, Dessert, Recipes, tagged cookies, presidential election, recipes on October 11, 2012| 2 Comments »
Michelle Obama’s “White and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookie” (l.) beat out Ann Romney’s “M&M Cookies” (r.) by a slim margin with readers of Family Circle. (Courtesy of Family Circle)
If you are one of the scores of independent voters yet to decide how you will cast your vote come November, here’s a taste test that could tip your ballot: the great Presidential Cookie Bake-Off. A recipe for success is what this country needs, after all.
For the past 20 years, Family Circle‘s Presidential Cookie Bake-Off has squared-off the mixing bowls of the candidates’ spouses and asked their readers to decide: Who has the better cookie recipe? The editors at Family Circle claim their contest, in which readers test the dueling recipes and vote for their favorite, has resulted in correctly calling the actual elections outcome since 1992 – except once. (more…)
Posted in Dessert on September 27, 2012| 6 Comments »
Candy corn, peanut butter and chocolate, and rice krispie treats all say “Halloween.” So why not combine them all into one decadent treat? A crunchy, gooey crust topped with a creamy milk chocolate-peanut butter layer and topped with a dark chocolate ganache and a candy corn gem.
Rice Krispie treats may say “kiddie food” to you – but so what? You should have stopped wearing Halloween costumes a long time ago, too. Get in the make-believe spirit by whipping up a batch of these delicious treats. The only trick here is to set aside (one or two) for yourself before they all magically disappear.
Kitchen Report 