Holiday Angel Cake

Just for fun: A festive angel food cake that's easy to make, with flavors of hazelnut, almond and cherry.

Panettone!

Panettone!  Tall, crisp Milanese brioches, studded with homemade glazed chestnuts, golden raisins and citrus peel.  Fragrant, tender and with a flavor you can only get by using 100% natural leavening. Perhaps the best thing I've ever baked.  I'd like to share some photos and thoughts on the project.

Alsatian Holiday Cake

This year, try making Kugelhopf, the light brioche cake from Alsace.  This yeasted coffeecake makes an excellent holiday present.

Choucroute Garni Two Ways

The joys of making your own sauerkraut, and a couple of variations on choucroute garni. This is great Winter food, whether paired with traditional pork garnishes, or smoked turkey (above).

Taint Season: Mini Cheddar Loaves

Individual loaves with sharp, clothbound cheddar in every bite!  Quick enough for a weeknight dinner, and right for any occasion.

Remains of T-Day: Turkey Fritters

How to convert Thanksgiving leftovers into Turkey Fritters.  A great way to use cooked turkey, cornbread dressing, wild rice and creamed onions! 

A Fall Breakfast Cake

For a crisp Fall morning, here is a breakfast cake featuring ingredients that might be left over from the feast!  Squash, pecans and currants enrich this brown-sugar praline-topped cake.  Nibble this while tidying up.

Thanksgiving: Divide and Conquer - Diagonal Split Turkey

Technique for splitting a turkey to roast white meat and dark meat separately for optimal results, then reassemble for the table.

Thanksgiving: Arkansas Cornbread Dressing

This is an old family recipe from my husband's family: real Southern skillet cornbread dressing. 

Maple Walnut Bars with Maple Fudge Icing

Here's another Grange Favorite for Fall:  Maple Bars with oats and walnuts.  Topped with my Maple Fudge Icing, they are just what you need after stacking firewood.

Thanksgiving: Pumpkin Mousse Cake

For this Thanksgiving, here's a new take on pumpkin:  Pumpkin Mousse Cake.  Pumpkin-enriched sponge cake with a hint of Fiori di Sicilia surrounds an ethereal Pumpkin Chiboust Cream center. Vermont maple syrup flavors the glaze.

Thanksgiving: Chocolate Walnut Tart with Crisp Walnut Crust

Here is an impressive and delicious addition to the Thanksgiving feast:  Chocolate Walnut Tart with Crisp Walnut Crust.

Whole Wheat 60-Minute Rolls

Crisp, hot, perfect whole wheat rolls; ready in one hour.  My best dinner roll recipe yet.

Autumn Linzer Cookies

Autumn Linzer Cookies, made with butternut squash and filled three ways.

A Vermont Pissaladière

Here is a Vermont version of a classic: tender olive oil crust covered with lots of caramelized onions, Niçoise olives, buttercup squash, romano and goat cheeses.  Tastes like Fall.

Apple Coffee Cake Tatin

Tarte Tatin meets Upside-down cake, for breakfast!  Scrumptious individual cinnamon coffee cakes, topped with caramelized apples.  Truly, this is one of the best things I have ever baked, and it was Easy.
Make it today.  Please.

Cheddar Carnitas Empanadas

Cheddar Carnitas Empanadas with purple potatoes, capers and olives, baked in a sourdough puff pastry crust.

A new Cheddar

Tonight, I opened up a wheel of my one-year clothbound cheddar, and I thought you might like to see it.  Becoming a proficient cheesemaker has been great fun, and one of the most rewarding things I've done since moving to Vermont.   Maybe I can get you interested in cheesemaking! 

Three-Cheese Pesto Calzone

Three cheeses combine to flavor and melt over fresh pesto and ham, in a tender calzone crust.  A simple but absolutely delicious dish that goes together in about an hour.

Pull-Apart Cinnamon Brioche Rolls

The Ultimate melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon rolls.  Here's how to make them!

Southwestern Lamb Stew with Stout and Quinoa

This is an easy, hearty and delicious stew for Fall.  Chunks of lamb are simmered with chocolate stout, tomatoes, corn and quinoa for an unusual and warming dish.

The 2010 Vermont Life Wine and Harvest Festival

On a beautiful Fall day, we visited the 3rd annual Vermont Life Wine and Harvest Festival.  Here are some pictures and impressions of the day and this very enjoyable event, which you might want to visit next year!

Crumble-Topped Apple and Currant Tart

Fall Favorite.  A crumble-topped apple and currant tart, flavored with crystallized ginger and Calvados, in an almond cookie crust. 

Acorn Squash Bisque and Flan

When you have roasted enough acorn squash with maple syrup, and are ready for a couple of new ideas, try these: acorn bisque and flan.

Grange Favorites: Pattypan Pie

How an overgrown pattypan found happiness.

Autumn Vegetable Cobbler with Cheddar Biscuit Crust

Welcome Autumn with a savory cobbler combining roasted Summer and Fall vegetables, under a Cheddar biscuit crust.

Apple-Pear Brioche Cobbler

This apple and pear cobbler is a little more sophisticated, due to a light, cardamom-scented brioche crust.

Maple Cornbread

The last sweet corn of the summer gets a great sendoff: maple corn bread is a wonderful and warming September dish.

Buckwheat Galettes (Galettes de Sarrasin)

Thin savory buckwheat crepes, filled with homemade Gruyere, Vermont ham and fresh scallions from the garden.  Definitely one of the best things I brought back from Quebec.

Harvest, part 1

First, Tomatoes.

Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Cake

Here is a delicate, delicious breakfast cake using the first Vermont apples of the season.  

Ultimate Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Intensely chocolate, moist and richly delicious, you'd never know that this is a zucchini cake.

Maple Canelés

These little cakes combine the deep caramelized crunch of their shell with a light, custardy interior, flavored with Vermont maple liqueur.  Dusted with powdered sugar, they're heaven.

A trip to Quebec

This week, I visited three fromageries while travelling the back roads between Quebec City and Montreal.  Although the cities are fascinating, their hotels luxurious, and their restaurants marvelous, in many ways this was the highlight of the trip.  Quebec has some great cheesemakers, and is really moving forward with new and renewed facilities and government support of the industry.  We found some terrific cheeses out in the country that I'd like to tell you about.

Spiced Peaches

Spiced peaches are the best condiment to serve with turkey.  Make them now and enjoy in November!

Peach Week: Part Deux

Here are a couple more ways to use fresh peaches:  Peach Almond Cake with Peach Compote, and Poached Peaches with Blackberry-Cassis sauce.

Peach Week: Peach Jam

The peaches are ripe in Vermont!  That means peach jam.  So we made a trip with Heidi to the orchard to buy this year's supply. 

Corn and Crab Chowder

This chowder makes a quick and delicious summer dinner.  It's full of fresh summer vegetables, crab, herbs from the garden and a bit of Pernod to round out the flavor.

Dark Chocolate Gelato

This is a very dark chocolate gelato.  Two kinds of cocoa combine to give the deep, rich color and flavor.

A letter from Italy: Pecorino Canestrato di Castel del Monte

I have a beautiful daughter, Charlotte, who is an opera singer.  Last year, she spent a lot of time singing in Italy, and this year she went back to actually enjoy the country.  She has written to me about her visit to a Pecorino cheesemaker in Puglia.

The 2010 Vermont Cheesemakers Festival

cheese from Hildene

Yesterday, we attended the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival, held at the coach house of Shelburne Farms, on the shores of Lake Champlain.  I can't imagine a more delightful way to spend Sunday, than to meet 50 fascinating cheesemakers, sample countless wonderful cheeses, sip a glass of Vermont wine or microbrew, taste an array of creative local food products, and listen to the remarkable Steve Jenkins lead a panel discussion. Come with me, and I'll show you some of the highlights.

Packing a Picnic: Cheddar-Sausage Calzone and Peach Galette

Tomorrow is the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival, and so it's time to pack the picnic basket.  I'll be bringing along some cheese, of course.  Here are another couple of packables to consider: Cheddar-Sausage Calzone and Peach Galette. 

A Summer Terrine

Here is a light, cool terrine for a Summer lunch.  Chicken surrounds a central layer of vegetables and asparagus mousse.

Just for Fun: Quick Croissants

While nothing matches real croissants, in a pinch you can make a very reasonable facsimile from pizza dough.  Here's how.

Fresh Peach Gelato and Almond Peach Madeleines

Fresh peach gelato served with delicate almond-peach madeleines.  Scrumptious and refreshing, this is the perfect Summer dessert.

Risotto with Snap Peas, Vidalia Onions and Salume

 

Here's a July risotto filled with delicate peas and onions, aged salume, cheeses and of course white wine.  Tastes like Summer.

Grilled Quail Breast with Pomegranate-Maple glaze

Some of the best things are the most simple.  In this case, local Vermont boneless breast of quail is quickly charcoal grilled, then mopped with pomegranate-maple glaze.  It's a perfect combination that doesn't need any additional enhancement.

Parchment Grilled Potatoes with Chanterelles and Smoked Paprika

Idaho potatoes grilled in parchment, with chanterelles, fresh thyme and Spanish smoked paprika.  This is a subtle, smoky, delicious dish you can quickly produce on the grill.

Fresh Nectarine Tart with Almond Souffle

Fresh nectarines are one of the best things about Summer.  This tart makes good use of the ripe fruit, nestled in a delicious almond souffle filling. 

Spring Pea Flan

This savory flan is packed with the flavor of spring peas, fresh from the garden.  Quick and easy to make, it's perfect as a first course, or paired with a salad as a light lunch.