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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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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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This Spud’s For You
Spuds get no respect. I was reminded of that when, this past week, we needed a no-nonsense evening meal. A late meeting meant that we would not be dining until about 8:30, so we needed a fast repast. Thanks to…
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Harvest Pick: Japanese Sweet Potatoes
Some people (like me) grow a few vegetables in their garden plots. Then there are my friends Catherine and Greg, who live nearby. Their large gardens yield bushels of vegetables throughout the growing season. As we approach a potential frost,…
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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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Making Hash Out of Holiday Dinners
We’re getting to the end of the festive holiday meals, and the leftovers are piling up. Now’s the time to think about that old standby: hash. All those potatoes, vegetables, and that large hunk of meat are just asking to…
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Mom’s Fastest, Easiest Supper
Every once in a while, my mother would send me out in the late afternoon to gather a dozen-plus eggs for supper, as we called the evening meal. I recently asked her why. Was it that we were short on…
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Uncle John’s Beer and Potato Salad
From The Ultimate Guide to Grilling by Rick Browne
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Kerala Chicken Stew
From The Complete Indian Regional Cookbook, this dish known as Ishloo offers chicken on the bone slow-cooked in a subtle coconut broth.
