We give thanks for pies!

How many pies are too many pies?  Well, if you’re running a bakery, you need an endless supply.  But what about the Thanksgiving dessert spread?  Can there be an overabundance when you are entertaining and it’s a special holiday?  That may have been the issue here yesterday – totally by accident of course,  or else it’s [...]

A Good Cause

I get emails from the New Entry Sustainable Farming project  (which is out of Tufts, but must have some Lowell connection), and most recently they are asking for input on a new way to raise funds for Massachusetts farmers and markets.  In collaboration with the Massachusetts Dept of Agriculture and the Mass Federation of Farmers’ Markets , [...]

The T’day Menu….a preview

On the menu so far… Apps: Brie with cranberry walnut chutney Shrimp cocktail Soup - the curry corn chowder and tortilla soup Relish tray of Armenian olives, marinated artichokes, pickled cucumbers and beets from the garden The dinner: Turkey – local and humanely coddled…with Henry and Bernice’s Lovin’ Oyster and Chestnut Stuffin’ Ham ( if we can [...]

Guest chef for T-day!

Rumor has it that there will be a guest chef in the Acton kitchen for Thanksgiving-eve preparations.  While little known in previous years for holiday preparation, this rising star of the local food scene has lately earned reknown for his creative approach to sandwich making.  Referred to by fans as “bartwiches”, these vary according to [...]

A harbinger of Thanksgiving

Food fight friend Peg passed along a photo of Beth’s apple pies which were enjoyed at a recent gathering: We’re looking forward to the SEVEN pies that are on the menu next week!  I’m sure we’ll have apple….

Happy Birthday, Jeff!

Ed left us this HUGE container of real maple syrup! Mark made chocolate chip pancakes and we thought of Jeff on his birthday!

He’s in love with a meatball

Walking through Firenze with our cooking partner Chef Sindoni,  whom many thousand of readers will no doubt remember from  an earlier post we remember his insistence that we try the tripe at Restaurant Nerbone, located in the Mercato Centrale. “It’s Florence in  a sandwich” was the way he described this offering.  Though we like to [...]

Pizza Time!

For Doug’s 60th birthday (he is the Country Director and hails from NH) , I was asked to make pizza.  He was planing to have about fifty attendees but there would be other food choices besides pizza.  He has a mud brick pizza oven at his house that the husband of the country director who [...]

Perfect Popovers

MC, our best teen bake chef, has been perfecting popovers for years now.  Find details below, but start off with a proper popever pan if  you want to succeed at this endeavor.   Ours is  from Nordic Ware , purchased at Acton’s own excellent cooking emporium, KitchenOutfitters . These are tasty at any meal, but provide an especially decadent [...]

Tuscan style green braise

We made some feeble attempts at braised greens before chef Michael Sindoni, currently of  Againn, actually taught us how to do it. As  earlier noted, I’m not a recipe sort of a guy, but let’s have a go at the whole procedure anyway in the most gruesome detail which we can manage. . Start off by [...]