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A Guy’s Gotta Eat!
My mother was a farm wife on a 400-acre farm in northern Illinois in the 1950s. She could feed a hungry crew during the harvest and could help in the fields, when necessary. This is the environment in which she…
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Those Tart Little Cranberries
One of the biggest crops produced in Massachusetts is cranberries, that little fruit that helps make the holiday season red. In fact, the Bay State is not only the second-largest producer of cranberries in the country, but it’s also home…
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A World of Dumplings
When I ask you about dumplings, what comes to mind? Your answer likely varies, depending on your ancestral food culture. These tasty morsels of cooked dough (made from a host of starchy – usually flour – sources) are often wrapped…
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Going Wild with Bison
I know that many of us are trying to cut back on our consumption of meat, especially red meat. But what if we could consume as a substitute a tender, lean protein, slightly lower in calories and higher in protein…
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Another Take on Thanksgiving Contributions
Are you, like me, celebrating your upcoming Thanksgiving feast as a guest? Are your hosts asking you for a dish to share? That’s a great deal! True, you won’t have those heavenly aromas in your kitchen, or leftover turkey and…
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Homemade Soup
Here we are in cool weather again, hungering for a big bowl of soul-satisfying soup. That got me thinking about the way the original human habitants of our region fortified themselves in the cold months. Native Americans had a dish…
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Celebrating Democracy with Election Cake
Activists these days have been busily encouraging voters to participate in the upcoming election. Forget the ads and mailers; these folks are using postcards, texts, e-mails, phone calls, social media, friends-and-family networks, and old-fashioned door knocking to get out the…
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Is Yours a Potatoes or Rice Family?
Did you grow up in a rice or a potato household? Mine was definitely potatoes. In the 1950s Midwest, it was likely an inherited generational and cultural decision. The local Scandinavians who settled in the area in the late 19th…
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Regional Dishes You Didn’t Even Know You Wanted to Try
Travel adventure, for me, includes the chance to try some of the local dishes that I don’t find at home. Not some new, fussy French or Italian fine meal but the foods the locals share at the small diners or…
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The Wide World of Curry
When most Americans think of Indian food, they usually think of well-known curry dishes such the chicken tikka masala pictured above – rich, creamy sauces, a variety of spices, served with naan bread. But in Britain, curries come in countless…
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Comfort Food in Another Language
Fall is the season for comfort food, that chow that stokes nostalgia for our childhood meals and home cooking. It’s the pot roasts and beef stews, fried chicken and ham and dumplings, and, of course, spaghetti and meatballs. Typically, they’re…
