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Whetting Your Whistle with a Refreshing Drink
Hot and muggy summer days are still with us, and you yearn for a refreshing beverage – something beyond a cool glass of water – that will not only satisfy that thirst but tingle your taste buds. I found a…
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The Many Delights of Baked Beans
A half-century ago when I was serving in the Army, my boss periodically ate lunch at his desk. To my curiosity, one of his periodic lunches was a baked bean sandwich, a taste sensation that I had never experienced growing…
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Creating a Community Cookbook
The New York Times declared in April that the community cookbook is experiencing a renaissance. I hope they’re right: Mrs. Farmboy and I are responsible for shepherding creation of our own local community cookbook: The Community Cooks, The Newbury Town…
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Cool as a Cucumber
My garden is about to produce a big crop of cucumbers, and I want to put them to good use. After all, cucumbers are among the human race’s oldest cultivated vegetables – technically, a fruit. The Oxford Companion of Food…
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Cool It This Summer
The heat of summer is upon us. Growing up on the farm in Illinois, for me, July and August were centered around baling hay, harvesting oats, and then baling the oat straw. That meant spending those 90-degree-plus, extremely humid days…
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Parsley, Sage, Red Madder, and Thyme
My kitchen garden provides a pleasant variety of fresh herbs to enhance our meals. Those plants had their origins in our local nurseries. But I recently learned that I had a lot more to learn about herbs from my long-time…
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Take Care of Your Base with Aromatics
You can’t build a good house or any other structure without first installing a strong foundation. The same is true of many food recipes, from simple soups to elaborate casseroles, stir-fries, curries, braises, and sauces. As we all know, those…
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Rubbing Your Meat the Right Way
Want to up your grilling game? I’ll advise paying more attention to the foundations of flavor. It’s about more than just lighting the fire and attending to the heat. Steve Raichlen, the author of several books on barbecue including The…
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Going Green
Welcome to prime vegetable season. The earliest entrants have already appeared in local farmstands: the first fiddleheads and spring onions, then peas. There is a whole assortment of greens to be had, all fresh, crisp, colorful, and delicious. Of course,…
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Conjuring Memories with Flavors and Scents
Suppose you simply could not find an ingredient essential to one of your favorite dishes. I raise this question for two reasons: first, because shortages are occurring more frequently these days. Second, because a request from a friend got me…
