Nancy Taylor Robson

Mild Habanero Hot Peppers

The garden’s a mess, but I’m still picking the very mild habanero peppers. They’re beautiful – lime green with shiny, pleated skin. The plant’s lovely, too — about thigh-high with lime-kelly green flouncy leaves that tend to hide the many peppers they produce. The peppers are delicious. Aromatic with a distinct flavor that shines inContinue reading “Mild Habanero Hot Peppers”

January is National Soup Month

It may not surprise you, but it threw me for a loop. Apparently we have a national food day of some description virtually every day of the year. And of course, there are national food months, too, but there are so many recipes and only so many months, so some are crammed together. For example, JanuaryContinue reading “January is National Soup Month”

Making Spiced Pumpkin Butter

In what seems like another lifetime, I was cook/deckhand on an old coastal tugboat on which my then-young husband was captain. We hauled barges up and down the Atlantic seaboard. Occasionally, we would make a trip that was far enough offshore that US Coast Guard regs would compel us to take on some extra crew. Continue reading “Making Spiced Pumpkin Butter”

Healthy,Delicious and Filling Winter Salads

Don’t get me wrong: I love rich, once-a-year holiday foods. But for balance in both taste and texture – to say nothing of waistline — I crave salads. We’re not talkin’ lettuce and tomato at this time of year though. We’re talkin’ winter vegetables — shredded, roasted, sautéed, and raw. There are plenty of options. Continue reading “Healthy,Delicious and Filling Winter Salads”

Prevention’s Seven Foods to Avoid

It’s probably not news for anyone who’s been paying ANY attention at all over the past 20 or so years, but according to Prevention magazine’s website, there are seven foods that should never cross your lips. The list is a piece of affirmation for organic living. Link to the article below. http://www.prevention.com/7foodsthatshouldnever/index.shtml?cm_mmc=Content_Ads-_-Outbrain-_-Prevention-_-7foodsthatshouldnever/index.shtml

Christmas Trifle and the Mysteries of Fruitcake

Many of the ‘traditional’ foods we eat around Christmas are English. Yet for generations, English ‘cookery’ has enjoyed a well-earned reputation for ghastliness. Bangers (bready sausages), toad in the hole (bready sausages in bready egg custard), nettle pudding, and spotted dick (now I ask you!). One of the exceptions to this ghastly Victorian gastronomy is trifle,Continue reading “Christmas Trifle and the Mysteries of Fruitcake”

Christmas Cake Recipe for the Seasonally Depressed

This recipe isn’t mine; it was emailed to me by a friend and didn’t include attribution for the author. But while the creator won’t get credit, it will strike a lot of people as a good recipe to follow this time of year. Christmas Cake Recipe 2 cups flour 1 stick butter 1 cup ofContinue reading “Christmas Cake Recipe for the Seasonally Depressed”

Vinoteca, Wine and Food in the Half-Frozen North (Creek)

I don’t remember exactly when I first read Bread and Wine by Ignazio Silone, but I think I was in my very early twenties (if that). The volume, a paperback with a worn cover and thin pages that had the musty smell particular to old books, had belonged to my mother and she had faint memories ofContinue reading “Vinoteca, Wine and Food in the Half-Frozen North (Creek)”

Food, Ales and Friendship

Anna Bowers, my unofficial goddaughter and dear friend, writes two blogs, one for TimesUnion and another for herself. The TimesUnion Blog she does in large part for the benefit of the Bowers family’s cafe/wine bar, barVino, in the Adirondacks town of North Creek, NY, but we’re also partial to beers, various Dogfish Head concoctions fromContinue reading “Food, Ales and Friendship”