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Pie Revival

Sour Cherry Hand Pies

July 27, 2022

Hand pies take a person back. To fourth grade, maybe (or even earlier,) when you’d bike to that corner grocery store with friends after school, finding the rack of pies, wax-paper-sleeved, sugar slicked, and skimpy on the filling, but easy to grip in one hand as you wheeled to somebody’s house before piano lessons. We’ve built on that nostalgia with better flavor and fresher fruit. Our pies are full of fresh-picked sour cherries, in a tender, oven-baked butter crust with optional sugar glaze. A bit of almond flour and red wine vinegar in the dough adds to the texture and flavor. Continue Reading…

Mile High Srawberry Pie

Fresh Strawberry Pie

July 25, 2022

This fresh strawberry pie, stacked high with just-picked farmers-market berries in a strawberry-juice glaze, comes with a great backstory. Liberace (pianist Vladziu Valentino Liberace)—once the world’s highest-paid entertainer, loved this pie, ordering it by the dozen from the place it was born: the now-defunct Hess Bros. Department store, of Allentown, PA. The man who sold it to him–Max Hess, Jr., was nearly as big a showman as Liberace himself. Continue Reading…

Salad Days

Tender Wedge Salad with Homemade Blue Cheese Dressing

July 3, 2022

Wedge salad is the perfect showcase for garden-grown lettuce and tomatoes. We tender it up by using Baby Butterhead (aka Boston or Bibb) lettuce rather than iceberg. One lettuce head, quartered, fills a platter for a beautiful presentation—enough for two to share as a first course. To dress the salad, I dot it with homemade blue-cheese dressing, some fresh-made bacon crumbles and a few grinds of cracked black pepper. Add a sprinkling of minced chive or green onion if you like. Continue Reading…

Fall-Off-The-Bone

Rosemary Garlic Pork Roast Tacos

June 10, 2022

Low and slow. There is no better way to cook a nice, big pork shoulder roast–one that you have marinated in a delicious rub of garlic, rosemary, mustard and miso. At 250°, the oven seems barely on. But as the hours pass, four… six…seven, the house fills with the most delicious aroma. And when you pull the roast from the oven and slice it, the meat falls off the bone, breaking into tender morsels of savory goodness. Filling tacos with the meat and adding some pickled onion and cotija cheese crumbles on top is our favorite way to eat this.

To make the roast, we used a seven-pound, bone-in pork shoulder (also known as pork butt) with the fat cap scored, searing it for 20 minutes at 450° and then turning it down to 250° and roasting uncovered for the remainder of the time. If using a smaller-than-seven-pound roast, start checking for fall-off-the-bone tenderness at the four-hour mark. If larger than seven pounds—say, in the nine-to-10 pound range, you’ll roast from 8 to 10 hours. Recipe adapted from Katie Workman, with big thanks to Tyler Wolff-Ormes for the idea of adding miso to the marinade.

Continue Reading…

Fall-Off-The-Bone

Rosemary Garlic Pork Roast

June 10, 2022

Low and slow. There is no better way to cook a nice, big pork shoulder roast–one that you have marinated in a delicious rub of garlic, rosemary, mustard and miso. At 250°, the oven seems barely on. But as the hours pass, four… six…seven, the house fills with the most delicious aroma. And when you pull that roast from the oven and slice it, the meat falls off the bone, breaking up into tender morsels of savory goodness. Eaten that way, sauced with juices, and paired with vegetables, it’s irresistible. But you can also fill tacos with the meat as we like to do, adding some pickled onion and cotija cheese crumbles on top.

To make this roast, we used a seven-pound, bone-in pork shoulder (also known as pork butt) with the fat cap scored, searing it for 20 minutes at 450° and then turning it down to 250° and roasting uncovered for the remainder of the time. If using a smaller-than-seven-pound roast, start checking for fall-off-the-bone tenderness at the four-hour mark. If larger than seven pounds—say, in the nine-to-10 pound range, you’ll roast from 8 to 10 hours. Recipe adapted from Katie Workman, with kudos to Tyler Wolff-Ormes for the idea of adding miso to the marinade. Continue Reading…

Seafood

Sauteed Fish with Melted Tomato, Spring Onion + Asparagus

June 4, 2022

Taking the short walk across the Piscataqua River from Kittery, Maine to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Cathy Wolff points out historic points of interest. There are a lot of them, as Kittery– incorporated in 1647, is the oldest town in Maine. And Portsmouth, established in 1653, came just after. We’re on our way to Strawbery Banke a historic cluster of restored buildings at the site of one of Portsmouth’s earliest settlements.

 It’s here that Wolff spends her Friday afternoons, handing out freshly caught fish to hungry locals who buy from New Hampshire Community Seafood—supporter of sustainable fisheries and local fishermen.

When the work is done, Cathy and I head back to her house, a fat package of fresh haddock in hand. This recipe, with skillet-melted cherry tomatoes, spring onion (sometimes called knob onion) and asparagus, is a snap to make and a great way to feature haddock or cod. Continue Reading…

American Classica

Flint-style Coney Chili Dog

May 31, 2022

There are chili dogs, and then there are Flint-MI-style Coney chili dogs, grilled and topped with a very specific spiced-meat and onion sauce.  Go anywhere near Southeastern Michigan, and you’ll be sure to find one. To set the record straight on all of the lore and legend that grew up around these saucy dogs in the last century, food historian Dave Liske spent about 12 years researching, culminating in his just published, “The Flint Coney, a Savory History,” (American Palate, a division of The History Press.) Continue Reading…

Rice Entrees

Wild Ramp Risotto with Spring Asparagus

May 13, 2022

Last year, we planted our first crop of asparagus and were delighted to see the spears shoot up from the earth at the same time the woods filled with ramps—those mild and garlicky wild onions that gave Chicago its name. I just had to pair the asparagus and ramps together in a recipe. Having done a book, Risotto & Beyond (Rizzoli), featuring 100 Italian rice recipes that I tested and wrote about for Chef John Coletta, risotto seemed the perfect transport. Note: For a little added earthiness, you can add a handful of sauteed mushrooms to the mix when you stir in the ramps and asparagus.

Cake Walk

Carrot Layer Cake with Cheesecake Topper

March 10, 2022

I’m a carrot top who loves carrot cake! I’ve made many over the years, never quite as unusual as this one which has a cheesecake top baked right with the batter. I got the idea from the NYTimes, although they did theirs as a sheet cake. My version uses a favorite batter recipe–not too sweet, with pineapple and carrot in the mix, and has toasted pecans on the sides of the cake. Continue Reading…

Soup Kitchen

Egg Lemon Soup with Spinach and Meatballs

March 8, 2022

With my husband’s maternal grandparents Greek and Armenian, one or another deliciously lemony chicken soup was often on the table.  In our own home, we’ve kept that going with this fortified version of avgolemono (Greek chicken, egg and lemon soup) that has tiny meatballs and baby spinach stirred in, Italian Wedding Soup style. Continue Reading…