By Debra Samuels Globe correspondent APRIL 02, 2013 By April, weary New Englanders are looking for anything to poke through the thawing ground. It is often a crocus, welcomed like an old friend. To help lift our culinary spirits, we asked you to peek into your recipe collections for favorite dishes featuring spring greens. For …
Read moreBy Debra Samuels GLOBE CORRESPONDENT The Boston Globe JUNE 26, 2012 Summer draws New Englanders to decks, porches, picnic tables, and beach blankets with all kinds of light fare. When we asked readers to send their favorite dishes into The Recipe Box Project, we found ourselves with a vegetarian picnic basket. Add grilled chicken, hot …
Read moreBoston Globe, October 14, 2009 Carrot and daikon salad–Serves 4 Light vinegared salads, known in Japan as sunomono, can be made with most any vegetable. In Shizuo Tsuji’s “Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art,’’ the author pairs carrot and daikon radish in a light and refreshing dish with a sweet and sour dressing called amazu (the …
Read moreBoston Globe, July 29, 2009 Photo by Debra Samuels Think spicy tuna and a sushi bar comes to mind. But there are other ways to meld rich fish and hot condiments. One is this composed canned tuna salad, made with the same spicy sauce used in those popular sushi rolls. You can make the same dish …
Read moreThe cucumbers in this recipe are slightly crushed under the broad part of the blade of a knife. This breaks the skin of the cucumber creating a craggy surface to allow the hot sesame oil and dressing to seep in instead of slide off. Listen for the sizzle as the hot oil hits the cold …
Read moreBurlington’s Elsa Tian is a lively lady of 70 and a superb, instinctive cook. Elsa and her husband, Jan, immigrated to the United States 38 years ago from Jakarta, Indonesia. Elsa loves to share her cooking with friends. One day last month, she dropped off some of her wonderful peanut sauce, and over the next …
Read moreDon’t pity the poor antipasto according to Lynne Rosetto Kaspar, author of “The Italian Country Table” (Scribner), even though its origins are in peasant cuisine, many of the dishes, developed from leftovers, have now become antipasti, often translated as appetizers. The word “appetizer,” however, barely does justice to the long list of antipasti at restaurants …
Read moreSometimes it’s OK to have egg on your face – or banana or yogurt or apricot or avocado. Just call it a food facial. Facials at salons can be expensive, great for a birthday present for a friend, maybe, or a splurge for yourself. Instead, consider shopping for your salad and your beauty at the …
Read moreAdmit it. You miss those old Jello-O salads. Remember the desserts? Mini-marshmallows, Cool Whip, nuts, and pineapple suspended in luminescent layers of primary colors like prehistoric species in amber. Open the fridge and the multi-layered form comes to life when the reverberation of the door sends it quivering. Cherry-flavored Jell-0 with banana slices. Tuna aspics …
Read moreNEWTON – It’s Burr Elementary School at 12:25 p.m. Stomachs are growling, excitement is mounting. ”Line up!” Squeals of delight and they’re off to the lunchroom – the teachers’ lunchroom. It is ”Salad Bar Wednesday” for the second-lunch-period teachers and almost nothing gets between them and their meal. No stopping in the halls for a …
Read moreShe unfurls her cloth napkin. She lays out her silverware. The aroma of a real meal emanates from under the lid just lifted. With anticipation, she begins her lunch. Everyone asks: ”Do you eat like this every day?” Inadequacy is in the air. Excuses are floating thick and fast. Lunch mates reach into wrinkled paper …
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