• Food,  Recipes

    Peach Cobbler

    Summer is fast approaching and my little freezer out back is still full of last year’s fruit. The problem, if you want to call it that, is that watching my diet all winter long really cut into my baking, resulting in an embarrassment of riches still waiting to be used.

  • Food,  Gardening & Crafts,  Recipes

    Dilly Beans and Pickled or Dilly Carrots

    If you haven’t tried Dilly Beans you are missing a treat. Crisp-tender green beans, they are pickled in a simple vinegar, salt, and water solution and seasoned with garlic and dill. Hot peppers or pepper flakes can be added if you like them with more of a bite. Preparation is fairly simple. They can be canned by hot water processing, or if not processed they must be kept refrigerated. I also pickle carrots the same way. Just peel, cut into 4” lengths, and quarter them on the length, and then process like the green beans. Don’t bother using multi colored carrots to make them look nicer, though. I tried that and found that the vinegar bleached all the color out of them during pickling anyway.

  • Food,  Gardening & Crafts,  Recipes

    From My Herb Garden

    Fresh herbs, snipped this morning at the peak of their flavor, washed and laid out on towels to air dry.  Top left is parsley, lower left if French tarragon, center chives.  These will be chopped and blended together, put into a zip lock freezer bag, and stored in the freezer for use throughout the year to flavor scrambled eggs … a combination that elevates eggs from ordinary to sublime. On the far right is rosemary, just waiting to be finely chopped and added to Orange-Rosemary Biscotti (recipe to follow). Yesterday I harvested a big bunch of chives.  Washed, air dried, and finely chopped while still garden fresh, they keep like new when placed in zip lock freezer bags and frozen.  They remain as green and supple as when they were harvested, ready to use in soups, stews, mashed potatoes or…

  • Food,  Recipes

    Dynamites (Recipe)

    Rhode Island dynamites

    Dynamites are a delicacy found only in a very small area in and around northern Rhode Island. They get their name from the fact that they are traditionally hot…as in spicy…although they can also be made very mild. They’re kind of like Sloppy Joes because of the meat sauce in a bun thing, but otherwise they are dramatically different, made with ground beef, onions, peppers, and tomatoes. Hot seasonings optional. Just as some places have Ham & Bean Suppers, in this part of the country political gatherings and/or fundraisers are often billed as Beer & Dynamite Parties. Most local restaurants have dynamites on their menu. They are often served at large family gatherings and get togethers as well as being made at home just for a regular meal. In fact the batch shown in the accompanying photo was made last…

  • Food,  Recipes,  Seasonal

    Blueberry Bread Pudding

    Another blueberry dessert that is to die for is one of my own inventions, Blueberry Bread Pudding.  It’s on the same order as the Blueberry Cobbler, but with a delicious bread pudding topping instead of cottage pudding. I hope you’ll try it and let me know how yours comes out. Check out my other posts celebrating blueberry season: Blueberry Season Blueberry Cheesecake Blueberry Muffins Blueberry Cobbler