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Sandwiches for Summertime
I tend to associate this time of year with the ultimate convenience food – the humble sandwich. The beauty of this meal is that you can put almost any food you love between two slices of bread. It’s not just…
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A Meditation on Farm Foods of My Youth
During these dog days of summer, I’m having a hard time gaining any enthusiasm for cooking a meal. Instead, I find myself musing upon the favorite foods of my youth. Food nostalgia is built into our DNA early in life,…
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Making Stock of the Christmas Feast
Holiday feasts are the gifts that keep on giving – and I don’t mean the leftovers. You can do great things with the bones from your roast, whatever than might be, and the vegetables that didn’t get used. Yes, I’m…
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Scandinavian Christmas Traditions
In mid-December Scandinavia, it’s dark – just six hours of light each day. The sun rises in Oslo at around 9:20 a.m. and sets at about 3:15 in the afternoon. Winter is setting in now, and the locals are happy…
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Old-Fashioned Family Food Nostalgia
Each of us has a portfolio of recipes that we ate as children, but that are no longer on our adult menus. Think about your own experience. You can probably come up with a goodly number of meals that were…
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Modernizing Classic 1950s Farm Recipes
On a rainy spring day, I’m musing about some of the recipes that I miss from my wastrel youth, and I’m thinking that some of those out-of-favor dishes deserve a second, modern look. I’m not talking about tuna noodle casserole,…
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Ham and Dumplings
When visiting my mother for her 97th birthday, she requested that I make her some ham and dumplings. My version uses 2-3 ham hocks, which can be bought in most supermarkets. However, this is a good way to use…
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Scalloped Potatoes with Ham
A modern version of a classic Midwest dish.