PHOTO BY BEENTREE/WIKI Spring and morels. For mushroom aficionados the two are inseparable. For the last five years, morel mushrooms have also been linked locally to Springfield’s Slow Food chapter, thanks to their annual fundraising morel dinners at Maldaner’s Restaurant. What is slow food? Well, basically, it’s the opposite of fast food. The movement began […]
Food & Drink
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Ravioli
PHOTO BY METRO CREATIVE CONNECTION “What’s your favorite cuisine?” It’s a question I’m frequently asked – and one I’m never comfortable answering. Do I really have to choose? My answer at any given moment may depend on the season, a cookbook I’ve been reading, a restaurant at which I’ve recently eaten, recipes I’ve been developing, […]
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Ham or lamb?
I couldn’t find statistics, but apparently ham is the centerpiece of most American Easter dinners; lamb is also traditional, though less so. My family has always been firmly in lamb’s camp. My grandmother’s roast leg of lamb was legendary, not least because of its gravy. The correlation between lamb and Easter is obvious: lamb and […]
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Eggs for dinner
Oeufs en meurette PHOTO BY Arnaud 25 VIA WIKIPEDIA.ORG Americans primarily think of eggs as something appropriate for breakfast and, on weekends, brunch. That’s changed a bit recently: fried or sunny-side-up eggs have been showing up as burger, steak, pizza toppings and more. Even though egg-topped dishes are sometimes overdone by chefs seizing on the […]
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1950s food fun
ILLUSTRATION BY KATHY HAGEDORN/TNS Reading Judith Jones’ newest book, Love Me, Feed Me, inspired me to reread her memoir, The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food. Jones, an editor at Knopf Publishing, was responsible for recognizing Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking as a masterpiece and getting it published. Then her memoir made […]
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The hills are still alive
Salzburger Nokerln PHOTO BY TOURISMUS SALZBURGA/WIKI This month marks the 50th anniversary of an extraordinary number of notable events. There were the three historical Selma-to-Montgomery marches in Alabama. An outgrowth of the Selma Voting Rights Movement, the marches highlighted the obstructions faced by Southern blacks in registering to vote and had a major influence on […]
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Sprout into spring
Locally grown ones are available throughout the year, even in darkest, coldest winter. And it’s also possible to grow your own all year long. Sprouts. They are simply the first growth of seeds. There is actually very little difference – both nutritionally and flavor-wise – between the first little peeps of green pushing through the […]
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Surviving winter’s end
Switzerland cheese toast with butternut squash apple bisque. PHOTO BY PETER GLATZ Enough, already! I am officially sick of winter. Living in a place that has changing seasons is actually something I prize. That even includes winter. True, I don’t get quite as excited as I did when I was a child about the first […]
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Reading recipes
PHOTO FROM METRO CREATIVE CONTENT When my husband, Peter, was a college freshman, he and a friend developed a shared longing for liver and onions. The friend had an apartment, so they decided to make themselves a liver-and-onion feast. “It says here to dredge the liver in flour,” said Peter’s friend, reading the recipe. “What […]
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An appetite for love
Almost flourless chocolate cake with fresh raspberries and raspberry coulis. PHOTO BY DOUG YOUNG/TNS From Like Water for Chocolate, by Laura Esquivel: Tita’s blood (which got into the sauce when she pricked herself on the roses) and Pedro’s roses proved quite an explosive combination. …when Pedro tasted his first mouthful (of the quail in rose […]
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Alzina
Alzina in her kitchen. PHOTO BY Sara Roahen She’s been called “The Greatest Cajun Cook Alive” – not least by people with the expertise to say so. A documentary has been made about her, magazine articles written, other media have featured her. Culinary “pilgrims” from far-away Brooklyn and even further-away France have come to eat […]
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A bowl of super snacks
For New England:Nothing says “New England” more than lobster. This is a less expensive, delicious way to put lobster on your Super Bowl menu. Potted lobster 1 1/2-2 c. finely minced cooked lobster 1 T. unsalted butter plus 8 T. cold, unsalted butter, cut into small cubes 1 heaping T. minced shallot, preferred, or […]
