Food – Julianne Glatz

Untitled Document Frank Parker is not a tall man — but the minute he starts blowing his trumpet, it seems as if he’s 10 feet tall. He’s no slouch in the kitchen, either. Since 1986, Springfield has been fortunate to be home to this outstanding professional jazz trumpeter, who moved here because of wife Molly’s […]

Untitled Document What happened to Merlot? During the 1980s and ’90s, Merlot was the most popular U.S. red wine. In 1985, there were less than 2,000 acres of Merlot vines in California; in 2003, 50,000 acres had been planted with Merlot grapes. By the mid-’90s, ordering a glass of red wine had become almost synonymous […]

Untitled Document Cookies and Christmas. Is there any more universally traditional food of the holiday season? Sure, there’s fruitcake, though many people regard it as something best avoided rather than embraced — but everybody loves cookies. Even folks like my dentist husband, Peter, who don’t care for sweets, eat cookies during the holidays. For years, […]

Untitled Document Remember Ding Dongs? Even as a kid, I didn’t really like them. They sounded fun, though, and every so often I’d succumb to advertising hype or the desire to eat what my friends ate and nag my mom into buying them. The same thing happened with cereal. Tony the Tiger, Count Chocula, Lucky […]

Untitled Document Ratatouille got me my first new kitchen floor. I’m talking not about the movie but the classic French vegetable stew (pronounced ra-ta-TOO-ee) that gave the movie its name. We’d moved into our historic farmhouse a month before. Farm kitchens are usually envisioned as large, warm, and welcoming, but the folks who’d built our […]

Untitled Document Jerk. Even the name’s fun — it could’ve been created by fast-food marketers trying to come up with a product name appealing to adolescents. Jerk originated centuries ago in Jamaica when maroons — runaway slaves — fled to the hills to escape their British masters. Wild boars were their main food source. Because […]

“Hi, Mom! Hey, how much do chicken wings cost? Some guys are coming over tonight to play cards, and I want to make hot wings. I’m going to have to get them at the grocery store, ’cause the farmers’ market hasn’t started yet.” It was my son, Robb, calling from New York last April. I […]

I’ve taught several cooking classes about grilling, for which I developed a guide to grilling vegetables and fruits. It’s pretty comprehensive, covering a wide range of produce with specific instructions for each. The fruit section says, “Most fruit is too delicate to stand up to the dry heat of the grill,” then lists the fruits […]

At the beginning of the month there was just the tiniest trickle of tomatoes. One of the earliest varieties is the aptly named “Fourth of July.” The tomatoes from this plant are small — about the size of a golf ball — but provide a true taste of summer flavor. The trickle has now widened […]