Tag Archives | Food & Recipes

How to Make Amazing Gravy from Scratch

How to Make Amazing Gravy from Scratch

Gravy, real gravy, has to be one of the best foods on earth. It makes everything taste better (rice and gravy, potatoes and gravy, stuffing and gravy, bread and gravy, gravy and gravy…yum!). Gourmet machinations just mess it up. It’s got to be simple, pure, heavenly gravy. I know some people make it in a […]

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Stuffing Wars: Mrs. Cinquino’s Recipe Wins Them All!

Stuffing Wars: Mrs. Cinquino’s Recipe Wins Them All!

I grew up with my mother’s favorite stuffing, which is really “potato filling.” I never really liked it, and much preferred my grandmother’s Pepperidge Farm stuffing—even though she would put dried apricots in it. But I never liked either stuffing enough to bother getting the recipe. Then I met my husband, and tasted his mother’s […]

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The Cranberry Sauce Controversy (with Poll and Recipe!)

The Cranberry Sauce Controversy (with Poll and Recipe!)

Generally, there are three types of people: Those who won’t eat cranberry sauce at all. Those who like it cooked and gelatinous. And those who prefer their sauce raw. I fall firmly into the raw camp. It is simply not a Thanksgiving meal without that tart, sweet, fresh, palate-cleansing, and gorgeously magenta blob of cranberry […]

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How to Find and Cook an Organic Turkey

How to Find and Cook an Organic Turkey

As Barbra Kingsolver writes so charmingly in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, turkey farming is a brutal business—unless you can find an organic, preferably small-farm, source. My mother raises turkeys every year on her farm, and the birds are surprisingly sociable, friendly, and enjoyable to watch. It almost makes me feel bad about eating them. But then […]

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'Tis the Season for Hot Apple Cider

‘Tis the Season for Hot Apple Cider

Actually, the season is almost over. That’s why we have to enjoy every second left of apple season, and with it, apple cider both cold and hot. Here in Pennsylvania the leaves have already fallen, and the frost has killed off everything in the garden except for the kale, garlic, and celery (which, honestly, I […]

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The End of Farmer's Market Season…Waaaaaaah!

The End of Farmer’s Market Season…Waaaaaaah!

November is here, and the last farmer’s market of the season in Emmaus is on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. This week things are already winding down. The vendors are thinning out, and the crowds are filled with hard-core regulars rather than the summertime occasional shoppers. In the few short years that this market has been […]

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Dinner for 23—Part 2

Dinner for 23—Part 2

Well, actually, it turned out to be dinner for 25 (plus one kid with swine flu quarantined in her room with Ramen noodles). The day of preparation went as planned—except that Wegmans did not have any decent organic grapes. I got the usual look, and a few comments, from people as I pushed my cart […]

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Restaurant Review: Founding Farmers, Washington, DC

Restaurant Review: Founding Farmers, Washington, DC

Wherever I go, I always try to find the farm-to-table restaurants—in fact, my annual top 10 farm-to-table restaurant list is coming up in November! So I had to check out Founding Farmers in Washington this past weekend. The idea is appealing: a casual, family restaurant that’s supplied and owned by a collective of American family […]

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