Recipe Testing. Copy Editing. All Things Food. (& Latin Tutoring, too!)

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All Things Food

 
Posts in My Columns
As You Like It! (Berkshire Eagle Column)

Of course I brought food for the freezer, including five 10-packs of Dan’s favorite meatballs, when we traveled to our kids’ house for some babysitting help because of work trips. How happy I was when we arrived and they told me that their sister-in-law, who lives about a mile away and has a brand new two-week-old baby, had asked if I could make some for her freezer! However, she has a number of food issues, including being gluten-free. No matter, though. I can always find ways to accommodate whatever is necessary, and the recipe from last week’s Berkshire Eagle column is just one possibility for that! 

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My ColumnsElizabeth Baer
Pears, Pears, Everywhere! (Berkshire Eagle Column)

We are still enjoying this year’s pears! Besides the soup below which was featured in the Berkshire Eagle this past week, we’ve enjoyed pears in salads with blue cheese crumbles (with one fancy presentation in radicchio leaf cups), several baked goods with pears, including pear babka, and slices of pear over yogurt with granola and honey. I’m still planning to make one or two more things, perhaps a pear focaccia and/or pear preserves.

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My ColumnsElizabeth Baer
Eat Your Veggies! (Berkshire Eagle Column)

My readers surely know by now that it gives me great joy to cook for those I love. It is especially fun to cook for my granddaughter, Naomi, who eagerly eats whatever I make for her! Her dads love this recipe as it includes a vegetable and is easy for her to feed to herself. In fact, she loves it so much that the day before this column appeared in the Berkshire Eagle, Ben sent us a video of her finding and eating every last bit, and after each bite she let out a dramatic and satisfied “Aaahhh!” 

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My ColumnsElizabeth Baer
Soup It Up! (Berkshire Eagle Column)

Maybe your leftovers are gone. Maybe you are tired of your leftovers. (If so, put cut up turkey and gravy in the freezer. Defrost later and put together in a baking dish with frozen peas and carrots, and top with store-bought puff pastry for a quick turkey pot pie!)

The Monday after the long weekend (for most of us) it’s back to a full week in the busiest season of the year, both because of holiday events and activities and because of any year-end items on the agenda. With this in mind, I felt that last week’s Berkshire Eagle column had to include an easy recipe!

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My ColumnsElizabeth Baer
Hard Cider House Rules (Berkshire Eagle Column)

Although I have not seen the movie, we here in Lenox, MA have a connection to The Cider House Rules because a local landmark, Ventfort Hall, a gilded era “cottage,” served as the exterior set for the movie.

In any event, the column I wrote for this past week’s Berkshire Eagle offered three recipes using hard cider. I have long enjoyed cooking with hard cider, and it’s becoming much easier to find with more and more producers of fermented beverages.

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My ColumnsElizabeth Baer
Open Sesame! (Berkshire Eagle Column)

Tahini adds great flavor to so many recipes, and lately I’ve been adding it to quick breads. I often have some shredded zucchini in the freezer, and so began a series of baking efforts (from fresh zucchini, from frozen, with regular flour, with gluten-free flour) that made everyone quite happy!

This recipe was in the Berkshire Eagle this past Wednesday, and I’ve already heard from a few people who have made it! One friend even used a Turkish tahini-molasses blend because that’s what she had in the house, and now I have to explore that product!

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My ColumnsElizabeth Baer
Cozy Comfort – Chicken and Rice (Berkshire Eagle Column)

Not too long ago, I had a student who wrote about the Maurice Sendak poem Chicken Soup with Rice, and it brought back so many memories of singing Carole King’s version with my kids when they were little!

Though delicious, rice is not my personal favorite addition to chicken soup, but I love serving roasted chicken or chicken pieces with a side that can soak up all the good juices. Then I came up with the idea of roasting the chicken right on top of the rice and wrote about it for last week’s Berkshire Eagle column, a perfect cozy meal as the weather gets cooler!

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My ColumnsElizabeth Baer
American as…Mac & Cheese! (Berkshire Eagle Column)

For years and years I resisted making homemade mac & cheese. As much as I love cooking projects, I hated having to boil the elbows and make a roux and then a cheese sauce before putting the casserole dish in the oven. Then people started cooking pasta in just enough liquid (such as with the pasta cooked in red wine I wrote about previously).

Now, this recipe from last week’s Berkshire Eagle column is our to-go with ribs, with fried chicken, with so many different dinner possibilities!

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My ColumnsElizabeth Baer
Lola’s Love Language (Berkshire Eagle Column)

As I wrote below for my most recent Berkshire Eagle column, Lola was tremendously special to our family when we were young. And like me, her love language was cooking. I learned years later I could have been making bank if I had been more stubborn, because she used to give my sister, Linda, a quarter every time to get her to take a bath!

My fried chicken will never taste the same to me as Lola’s did, because there is something special about knowing someone cooked something for you with love. I hope people feel the same love from me when I cook for them.

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My ColumnsElizabeth Baer
Corn off the Cob (Berkshire Eagle Column)

When I was a kid, my grandmother had this gadget with a row of “teeth” that she would scrape along an ear of corn to open up all the kernels. She would say that she and my grandfather needed this because their teeth could no longer handle the skin of the kernels, but this way they could still enjoy corn on the cob. In this recipe from last week’s Berkshire Eagle column, I devised a different way to minimize this problem, cooking corn cut from the cob as if it were risotto.

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My ColumnsElizabeth Baer
Easy as (Cherry) Pie (Berkshire Eagle Column)

Well, it’s easy as long as you have a cherry pitter! When ripe summer fruit is available, I try to make pie fairly often, and my most recent Berkshire Eagle column celebrates this seasonal treat.

Sometimes I even make enough pie crust dough for several pies, and keep it in the freezer to streamline the process. On the other hand, refrigerated or frozen store-bought crusts are quite good, and there are even gluten-free pie crusts available! This recipe adapts well to other summer fruit, so enjoy while you can!

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My ColumnsElizabeth Baer
Hasselback Squash? (Berkshire Eagle Column)

Although I have often made quiche and other similar recipes with many combinations of produce and/or protein, I wanted to make something a bit more striking for a change. Thinking about the visual effect of Hasselback potatoes, I created a recipe for this past week’s Berkshire Eagle, that looks dramatic. Getting the squash slices to stand on end took a bit of finagling (and, of course, that’s not at all necessary for a delicious dish), but if you have company coming, arranging the slices Hasselback-style makes for a pretty presentation.

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My ColumnsElizabeth Baer
Getting to the Root of the Matter (Berkshire Eagle Column)

While root vegetables have risen in stature over the years, sometimes it’s tough to know what to do with them, and with radishes there are fewer ideas for cooking them. Add to that the sharper flavors of this family of plants, and I like to temper that with some sweetness. In last week’s Berkshire Eagle column, I shared a couple ideas for glazing these roots to provide a contrast of flavors.

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Bear-y Season (Berkshire Eagle Column)

I know it’s early – and I hope the recent frosts didn’t cause too much damage – but just about every other day I am checking to see if any pick-your-own strawberry farms have opened yet! Last year’s bumper crop inspired the salad I wrote about this past week in the Berkshire Eagle, and I am looking forward to enjoying it again this year, along with other berry good treats!

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