Celebrate summer fruit in simple tart July 27, 2018 by Merry Post on Food, Lifestyle, Recipes Charming summer rentals do not always have well-equipped kitchens, so it is good to know a few equipment improvisations. For example, a roasting or broiling pan flipped upside down can serve as a cookie sheet. Large cooking pots can be mixing bowls. A chilled bottle of white wine works as a rolling pin. Clothespins are …
Old diary entry inspires pie baking marathon June 29, 2018 by Merry Post on Food, Lifestyle In researching what New England women were cooking in the 19th century, I have read a few diaries by farm women who recorded the work they accomplished indoors and out, the weather, their health concerns, visitors and family events. The diary of Jane Briggs Smith Fiske (at the American Antiquarian Society) was a gold mine …
It’s prime picking for rhubarb pie May 24, 2018 by Merry Post on Food, Lifestyle May brings fresh local rhubarb and thoughts of rhubarb pie. One of the first plants harvested in the garden, rhubarb, which is packed with vitamins and minerals, was a traditional spring tonic. New England’s Shaker communities grew rhubarb for pies, preserves, sauce, tea, and even rhubarb wine. They bottled rhubarb chutney to sell. The prolific …
Remembering Admiral Dewey and U.S.S. Maine April 24, 2018 by Merry Post on Food, Lifestyle Every April, I like to think of a frugal recipe to mitigate the financial pain of Tax Day. The following economical recipe is a blond version of onion soup that has ties to the Spanish-American War. If you ask most Americans what they know about the Spanish-American War, some will know that we should “remember …
Cream of Onion Soup April 23, 2018 by Merry Post on Recipes The following recipe for cream of onion soup comes from “The Dewey Cook Book,” which was published as a fundraiser by the Women’s Auxiliary of the YMCA in Montpelier, Vt. The title honors Adm. George Dewey, and the frontispiece shows his birthplace in Montpelier. The cookbook was published in 1899 when Dewey returned home from …
New England classic brown bread has rich history March 16, 2018 by Merry Post on Food, Lifestyle “One of the finest phenomena which the curious and reverent visitor in Boston notes is the appearance on his breakfast table of a shapely loaf, rounded and domed and richly browned in hue,” the Rev. Francis N. Zabriskie, an essayist and churchman, rhapsodized about his breakfast in the 1870s. Zabriskie likened steamed brown bread’s aroma …
