Seasons in Vermont

Gnocchi with Vodka Sauce, Smoked Mozzarella and Crispy Prosciutto

I love light and fluffy gnocchi but all too often my attempts at making them at home have resulted in slightly heavier than desired (read: little leaden lumps..) and not the ethereal, fluffy little pillows I know and love. I really wanted to learn the technique for making a consistently delicious and light gnocchi so I headed over to Craftsy Cooking and purchased the online class: How to Make Gnocchi Like a Pro with Gerri Sarnataro. Wow, what an epiphany! I am blaming my potato masher for all my past frustrations. It turns out there are a few basic tips to… Read More

Mini Apple-Maple Crisp with Salted Caramel Sauce

I’m a little bit snowed in today. The snowplow left a nice big pile for me at the top of our steep driveway, so while I contemplate looking for the snow shovel (..I saw it last year) and trudging my way up the hill to dig out, I figured I’d bake something instead. Well, isn’t that what you’d do? These mini apple-maple crisps are decadently delicious, and when topped with Vermont granola, vanilla ice cream and quick, easy-to-make salted maple caramel sauce, it’s an over the top dessert that’s perfect for your holiday dinner, or as something to indulge in… Read More

Grittibänz – Swiss Bread Men

There are so many great things to love about Switzerland. Chocolate, Emmentaler cheese, fondue, Roger Federer, Raclette cheese, precision timepieces, Gruyère cheese, Swiss banks, Roger Federer, stunning mountains, rösti, alpine hiking, .. did I mention Roger Federer…? Lucky for me, I have a good friend who is Swiss. Whenever Pamela comes back from a trip to Switzerland, she always brings back wonderful goodies from her home country, like chocolates, cookies, and biscuits. She’s also a fabulous cook and baker who knows a lot about Swiss food traditions (and incidentally hits a mean tennis ball). Last week she invited me to spend a fun morning in… Read More

Lobster and Veggie Chowder

Soup season is here! There’s a fall nip in the air, a steaming bowl of chowder would hit the spot. As a New Englander, I love all kinds of chowder. The other day I was looking through pictures from a recent trip to Maine and they got me thinking about (and craving) a really good clam chowder we ate at Peter Ott’s restaurant on the waterfront in Camden. They do chowder really well there. Not overly heavy or rich, but full of warmth and flavor, and super fresh clams of course. But for my first chowder of the season, I decided… Read More

Sausage and Chèvre Stuffed Acorn Squash

All of a sudden the leaves have turned. Just a week and a half ago Vermont was all green and I was wearing flip flops. Now my backyard glows yellow as the morning sun shines through the trees, and electric reds and oranges punctuate the woods around me. Definitely my favorite time of year. The crisp chill in the air is energizing – so energizing in fact that I was moved to plant 200 tulip bulbs yesterday, and my back is ticked off at me today for the effort. I planted a combination of early and late blooming, single and… Read More

Vermont Apple and Maple Sugar Tart

This crispy, buttery, maple-y apple tart with a silky, maple pastry cream filling is doused in caramel. It is my first in a series of Eat-Local recipes that I’m making as part of the Slow Food Eat Local Challenge (see more about that below). I love cooking in season with regional ingredients, so here’s my chance to share some love with many of my favorite food-producing Vermonters! Check out the list and links to my local resources below. Wikipedia describes Slow Food as “…an organization that promotes local food and traditional cooking. It was founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy in 1986 and has since… Read More

Five Spice Buttercup Squash Pie

Our farmer-in-training daughter dropped by the other day with a bag of gorgeous stuff – some produce she’d just harvested that didn’t happen to make the cut to sell at the local farmers market. Score for me! Beautiful, striped Delicata squash and buttercup squash along with white and purple scallions, peppers of many colors and apples. I’ve seen more unique and different varieties of squash this season than ever before. Maybe a perk of having a farmer in the family? But really, who knew there were so many types of squash. The world of winter squash in particular is so diverse… Read More

Peaches and Cream Cheese Tart with Basil

Vermont peaches are back! After a dismal year in 2016 for the stone fruit crop (due to a couple of early spring deep freezes that virtually decimated the peach crop), Vermont peaches and plums have made a rousing comeback this year. We’re having a great Indian summer, a lovely stretch of hot, sunny weather and the peaches (and wine grapes) are loving it. The peach trees I’ve seen are loaded with big, heavy, perfect fruit. There’s such a short window for stone fruit here in Vermont, that I for one intend to make the most of it by beating multiple… Read More

Blueberry Mint Martini

Here we go, already into fall. Ugh. I love fall in Vermont but honestly I feel like summer just got started, and I’m not ready to say goodbye to it quite yet. While I love fall baking, along with the warmer, heartier foods that we begin to crave making at this time of year, there’s still time for another summer cocktail on the patio. And I still have blueberries in my freezer and mint growing in my potted herb garden, and maybe you do too! So….today, this is how I choose to get my daily vitamin C. This blueberry mint “martini”… Read More

Blistered Shishito Peppers with Aioli and Fried Breadcrumbs

Rhetorical question: How can something so simple be so elementally good? This simple dish of blistered peppers is an homage to a deliciously unexpected and uniquely memorable lunch at Nina June in Rockport, Maine one recent summer afternoon. Chef Sara Jenkins offers an amazing Sunday lunch in the time-honored Italian tradition of a long, leisurely mid-day meal with lots of wine, simple rustic food, and conversation. And deliciously leisurely it is. Consider a small, sunny table on the terrace overlooking the gently rocking boats in the harbor, a very cold bottle of Italian white and a parade of… pickled herring… Read More

Blueberry Banana Shortcakes

Still more blueberries. Blueberries every which way. This is a different take on shortcake. I love bananas with blueberries. In fact, tropical fruits like banana, coconut, pineapple and mango all work superbly well with blueberries. Without further adieu or yapping, here’s my recipe for Blueberry Banana Shortcakes. It’s an easy and tasty adaptation of one of our favorite summer sweets. Blueberry Banana Shortcakes Save Print Author: Lisa Cassell-Arms Serves: 8 Ingredients Banana Shortcake 2 cups flour 2 tablespoons sugar ¼ teaspoon salt 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon cardamom 6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into little pieces ⅓ cup buttermilk… Read More

Spicy Blueberry BBQ Pulled Chicken

It’s blueberry season in Vermont, and my freezer is not big enough. It happens every year. I go blueberry picking (only a couple of quarts I tell myself, don’t go overboard..) and then two hours later, I’m emerging from my purple-haze with flats and flats of blueberries in tow. Blueberries will find their way into almost everything I make for the next couple of weeks–it’s a lucky thing they’re so darn good for you! This recipe (the second in my blueberry mini-series) is one of my favorite ways to use blueberries in a savory dish. It’s an easy, spicy BBQ sauce that you… Read More