Side Dishes

Spicy Kuri Squash With Harissa and Lemon

Spicy Kuri Squash With Harissa and Lemon

Cooks have long understood the impact of color on eating habits. The ancient Egyptians and Romans used herbs to color their foods and wines in an effort to enhance their appeal. Instinctively, I think, most of us understand that color suggests flavor, ripeness, and sweetness.…

Not Your Momma’s (Or Dorcas’) Holiday Green Beans: Green Beans With  Dried-Cherry Vinaigrette

Not Your Momma’s (Or Dorcas’) Holiday Green Beans: Green Beans With Dried-Cherry Vinaigrette

According to Smithsonian Magazine somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000,000 people will be eating green bean casserole this Thanksgiving, many of them following some version of the recipe Dorcas Reilly (pictured below) created in 1955. Dorcas was a food expert working for Campbell’s Soup Company…

Cheesy Potato Heaven! Gratin of Asparagus and Potatoes

Cheesy Potato Heaven! Gratin of Asparagus and Potatoes

When an Irish girl tells you that a potato dish soars, you should listen. This potato dish soars! Potatoes should definitely be on your Thanksgiving table anyway. The potato carbohydrates will give you the energy you need to keep things on a mellow Norman Rockwell-esque…

‘Tis The Season : Maple Baked Beans

‘Tis The Season : Maple Baked Beans

  In this season of everything pumpkin and maple, what better treat than Maple Baked Beans? Maple syrup is, after all, good in just about everything and the contrast of sweet and savory flavors in baked beans never gets old. If you’ve been wondering about…

Tomato Galette With Honeyed Goat Cheese, Caramelized Shallots and Fresh Thyme

Tomato Galette With Honeyed Goat Cheese, Caramelized Shallots and Fresh Thyme

Summer tomatoes. **sigh** While we still have some late summer tomatoes in our gardens and stores, here is a beautiful galette that showcases their beauty. It is especially beautiful made with some of those big multi-colored heirloom tomatoes.   Tomato Galette Save Recipe Print Recipe…

Gene’s Beans: Green Bean Salad With Cherry Tomatoes and Feta

Gene’s Beans: Green Bean Salad With Cherry Tomatoes and Feta

  Oh, how I wish I had a vegetable garden! I would try my hand at growing everything. Gene, my good friend and neighbor, has a flourishing vegetable garden this year. On occasion, he lets me come down and dig around to get my fix.…

Pearl Couscous With Creamy Feta and Chickpeas

Pearl Couscous With Creamy Feta and Chickpeas

I’m loving this dish. Couscous has long been a staple food in North Africa’s Maghreb but it has become popular around the world in recent years. I remember discovering it on a long-ago trip to startlingly-beautiful and exasperatingly-strident  Morocco. Most of us here in the…

Like A Boss: Glazed Shiitakes With Bok Choy

Like A Boss: Glazed Shiitakes With Bok Choy

Do Asian vegetables confuse you? Don’t know your bok choy from your choy sum? Neither do I, but when David Tanis, one of my favorite food writers,  published this recipe for Glazed Shiitakes With Bok Choy in his New York Times column City Kitchen, I soon found…

Smooth As Butter: Roasted Butternut Squash With Lentils and Stilton

Smooth As Butter: Roasted Butternut Squash With Lentils and Stilton

How do you feel about butternut squash?  No, really. For those of you who might shy away from the squash, consider the following: It is a fruit; who doesn’t love fruit? It is a healthy food; who doesn’t want to eat healthy?  It is inexpensive;…

Spilling The Beans On Guinness Baked Beans

Spilling The Beans On Guinness Baked Beans

  Truth be told, I love baked beans. There are few meals that I enjoy more than a big bowl of baked beans and a generous side of coleslaw. To my taste, the crunch of the coleslaw perfectly complements the sweet/savory flavor of the baked…