Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn Buffer It! JoomShareBar In Maine, we have enough strawberry and clam festivals to pack the summer calendar. So it makes perfect sense that in Stockton, California, people celebrate the incredible and versatile asparagus at an annual asparagus festival, complete with a Chef of the Fest competition, an asparagus-eating contest, and a Spear-it Run. While we don't have a festival devoted to asparagus, we do want to highlight this remarkable and very popular vegetable, which is at its best locally in early to midspring. Asparagus is one of...

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn Buffer It! JoomShareBar Sweets made simple with strawberries and key limes Strawberry Sour Cream Tart - Coastalhg.com - Photographed by Jim Stott Two delightful spring fruits have no culinary connection to each other, but we are going out on a limb and featuring both of them anyway! Each speaks to the freshness of spring in color and taste, and both make wonderful desserts. The tiny, bright, and remarkably flavorful key lime and the luscious, ripe strawberry are two of nature’s finest accomplishments. Peak season for key lime...

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn Buffer It! JoomShareBar The New Englander’s favorite fall and winter fruit Photographed by Jim Stott   The apple crop is the quintessential New England harvest. Although not native to North America, the apple represents all we hold dear about life in the United States. “As American as apple pie” says it all. Food historian Constance J. Cooper says settlers carried seeds from Europe to North America. In 1625, William Blaxton, an Anglican priest, planted New England’s first apple orchard on land that became Boston’s Beacon...

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn Buffer It! JoomShareBar PERFECT PATTIES FOR GREAT SUMMER COOKOUTS Photographed by Jim Stott Everyone loves burgers…well, almost everyone. And if you don’t eat them, you will wish you did when you see burgers like these! While going vegan would be easy for us on most days, most of us would cave immediately when a big juicy cheeseburger hot off the grill comes into focus. There is nothing better than a perfectly cooked burger, especially in summer, when the weather allows wonderful options for grilling outdoors.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn Buffer It! JoomShareBar A simple cure for a snowbound weekendWritten by Jim Stott and Jonathan King    Photographed by Jim StottMany of our most treasured recipes for slow cooked foods are old New England favorites. Jim and I thoroughly enjoy the slow cooking process almost as much as the finished product. And it is no wonder: is there anything better than cooking during a blustery, windy, damp or snowy winter weekend? We are positive that early Americans knew exactly what they were doing. With no...

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn Buffer It! JoomShareBar No Wonder It Is Everyone’s FavoriteWritten by Jim Stott and Jonathan King    Photographed by Jim StottPizza, a basic bread crust topped with tomatoes, cheese and a couple of herbs, has probably had more written about it than any other food in history. Entire books are devoted to the worldwide and regional history of everyone’s favorite food, and there are more cookbooks about the “tomato pie” than we can count. Deep dish or thin crust, simple cheese or “loaded,” everyone has a...

Try a crisp white wine this spring

Italy’s pinot grigio stems from pinot gris, a white grape from Burgundy, France. During the 1300s, the grape made its way to Alsace and then other parts of Europe, including Switzerland and Germany, later arriving in Italy, where it was given the name pinot grigio. James Busby, credited as the “father of Australian wine,” brought the grape to Australia in the 1830s. Eventually it landed in the United States.

Mixing it up

Photo by 3523studio

Vermouth, the ultimate cocktail builder, was originally believed to be a magical potion used for medicinal purposes stemming from the presence of certain botanicals.

The versatile varietal

Spring, the season of many types of weather, is a fine time to drink wines based on the chenin blanc grape, which offers styles of wine to suit every taste.

A great and noble grape

One of the best bets you will find on any wine list is malbec.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn Buffer It! JoomShareBar Photograph by Joe St.Pierre Stroll around the cafés in Southern France on a summer afternoon and you cannot help but notice a lovely bottle of pink wine on ice at every table. This is not your grandmother’s white zinfandel or sweet wine cooler, it is a rosé, a wine that distinguishes itself by drawing upon the refreshing qualities of a dry white wine while offering some of the bold characteristics and tints of red wine. Not all rosé wines taste alike. A...

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn Buffer It! JoomShareBar Timing is everything After an early freeze more than 200 years ago, what might have been a disaster resulted in a delicious natural wonder. Luckily for sweet wine lovers, the outcome was ice wine (also known as Eiswein). A winemaker in Germany pressed the frozen grapes and produced delicious, pure sweet juice. Eiswein is from Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland; ice wine is from Canada (British Columbia and Niagara Peninsula), the Finger Lakes in New York, northern New England, and the Northwest...

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn Buffer It! JoomShareBar Photography by Thomas M Perkins/www.shutterstock.com     Photography by Gianluca Figliola Fantini/www.shutterstock.com   Curvy roads, breathtaking hillside vineyards, olive groves, cypress trees, medieval castles, restored farm houses, and historic villages all complement the breathtaking terroir that produces Chianti, the quintessential Italian red wine that pairs perfectly with pasta, pizza, and other Italian favorites. From grapes grown in the heart of Tuscany, Chianti is a voluminous and widely sold wine. It is made in eight district zones of neighboring areas that cover a...

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn Buffer It! JoomShareBar Wine Suggestions From Vineyard Travels Written by JoAnn Actis-Grande Now that the weather is cooler, I find myself wanting to spend much more time at home in the kitchen and very close to the wine cabinet in order to create new menus to serve with the wines I have discovered while traveling. Recently, I spent time in California, including on the central coast where Paso Robles is located, and where you still can find acres and acres of rolling farmland and lush...