Certainly when the girls and Jon gifted me with a greenhouse for Mother’s Day last year, this is not what I was hoping for when I walked to the back of the house one recent blustery day! The winds blow so hard on our property that securing this house to the ground somehow becomes a [...]
Each year when we visited my grandparents for three summer weeks in their rural home in New York, we’d spend our time doing essentially nothing. It wasn’t exciting, it wasn’t exhilarating and it wasn’t elucidating. Sometimes it was boring. The funny thing is, however, that now I look back on those days with a rosy, [...]
The word “casserole” conjures up images of canned cream of-fill-in-the-blank soup from my childhood. I grew up in the Midwest, in a household that watched the price of milk and bought in bulk when it went on sale, which meant that we were no stranger to casseroles of the tuna variety and others. While my [...]
This recipe came to me as one of those happy accidents. During the middle of a catering job for 50 people, I popped what was meant to be a lightly cooked cabbage and squash slaw with flecks of both strewn throughout, into the oven. A few guests arriving, a few mini-catering emergencies later and this [...]
Braised Chicken Breast with Bacon and Swiss Chard We serve Swiss chard to our guests all summer long because it’s one of the staple vegetables that our CSA offers as it grows well in cold climates. We’ve served it with lemon, balsamic vinegar, garlic, roasted garlic, roasted pine nuts and crumble feta cheese (not necessarily [...]
I love all kinds of food. The art, craft, smell, taste… My favorite meals are ones that look and taste good without taking a ton of time. I like landscaped food too (by this I mean fussy food that takes a long time and has lots of garnish) – it’s just better when someone else [...]
I pulled into my driveway to the sight of this HUGE pile of wood chips! These are for yet another garden expansion with the chips layered over newspaper or office paper to become the pathways in the free form beds. Last year, we installed about 500 square feet of free form garden space which held [...]
The Rockland Farmer’s Market opens today and through no fault of my own, coincides perfectly with this weeks column in the PPH about salads and greens. With all of the micro and baby greens available to us this time of year, the old stand by of tomato, cucumber and lettuce salads dressed with ranch should [...]
The things that I use everyday that give me a moment’s pleasure are some of the best gifts I’ve ever received. When the kitchen faucet handle came off in Jon’s hand the other day and I turned to see what his sound of ‘uh, oh’ was all about, I almost jumped up and down. Being [...]
Our two hives struggled this summer with a swarm, mites and robbing each other of honey, yet they still managed in their first summer to draw comb for two hives, both with two deeps (the lower boxes) and one super (the upper box.) While we were able to harvest only a disappointing pint… total, it [...]
