Category Archives: food

Another National Donut Day

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dd victor

Chef Victor, in Quechee.

…comes to a close.  Dunkin’ Donuts has 3 things going for it:  donuts, coffee, and Victor.  He offers excellence in service, witty volleys, and fashion advice (the Miche bag).

dd dogs

Dawgs, chips, and sodeys…yEs!

Dovetailed gastronomically with the Customer Appreciation BBQ at a local store — rained out but, gamely, hotdogged in.

dd tank

Feeding frenzy at the Wat.

With fare like this, who needs the healthiest Asian fusion cuisine in the Upper Valley (Chef Chy’s Angkor Wat, in Woodstock)? Clearly:  All.  Try the spring rolls, coconut shrimp, curry soup, Thai custard…really, anything on the menu…dy-no-miiiite!

If you’ve never attended an Eastern Orthodox Easter service…

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EOE icons      EOE circlingEOE out frontEOE prettyEOE family pondering  EOE traditional Easter foodstuffs…here are images for you.

EOE baskets

Traditional Easter foodstuffs brought to church to be blessed.

EOE sausage

Don’t forget to get your sausage blessed!

At one point, everyone leaves the service to circle the church three times while a madman pounds on the bells in the carillon  —  crazy loud. Crazy good.

eoe tree

Tree of eggs.

XPUCTOC BOCKPECE! Looks like Zuptock Bockpeace to me, but  is of course pronounced nothing like that. And no one finds it funny. At all.

If You Hate Keurig Cup Waste

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Every day is Earth Day with Ekobrew.

…and I know you do, here’s a swell little gadget by Ekobrew just in time for Green Up Day. You fill it with your own coffee (at a mighty savings) and throw nothing into landfill. Ahhh.

Tips: I got mine on eBay. Use a medium to coarse grind. The basket empties much easier if you let it dry out. It’s hard to get the full aroma with decaf, so I switched to flavoured coffees. There are videos on YouTube on its use; this guy fairly compares the rivals. I refuse to buy Keurig’s version of the device because, welllll, they certainly took their time in making it, now didn’t they?

Find out what your Vermont town is doing for Green Up Day here. Catch you by the river.

DEET Plus…at Renys* of Maine

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LP BG

Pinky is loaded with fresh DEET for spring fishin’.

You always find something at Renys. Today’s mouthwatering score: a Little Playmate. It’s no longer called that ~ prolly some trademark dispute with Playboy.  I got my first from bigmama12 on eBay.

Next, at a church sale, I bought a weird knockoff that seemed more suited to organ transport. Could be…they hold blood drives at that church; maybe they removed parts from donors high on blood loss — and my Little Fauxmate got left behind. I named it Pentagram.**

I hope Pinky Tuscadero holds up like the true Playmate from the 80s. Shaped suspiciously like a six-pack, this vintage workingman’s lunchbox can withstand being driven over by a pickup. But you can’t run it through a dishwasher and don’t ask me how I know that.

Charles named his The Real McCoy.

*No apostrophe. That’s rural punctuation for you!

**Always name your Little Playmate.

All That and a Bag of [Kale] Chips

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Showcase kale’s greenery with a contrasting serving bowl.

November’s a dreary month in northern New England. It’s overcast without enough snow to do anything in. So we put on pilly sweaters and beater corduroys and move inside for workshops on Nonviolent Communication. BYO kale chips.

Kale chips. With the nutrition baked out of them and all the oil and salt you can stand ~ and so richly deserve.

Living the Dream

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Who needs bread?

I don’t know who invented inserting pimientos and olives into loaves of meat (served best on…paper); obviously, it was an Italian, but that doesn’t really narrow it down. Point is, when I went to photograph this little beauty, I didn’t notice the maple syrup in the background. Probably because there’s so much syrup here that we don’t even see it. We use jugs of it as door stoppers, medicine balls, spare tires, home plate, nautical ballast, aeronautical ballast, emotional ballast, whatever.

Somebody’s going to see this and get an idea.  Vermonters will put maple syrup on anything.

It’s Not a Memorial Day Party without…

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Ball of Floam®

– McKenzie Franks

– Someone making a bad drink out of desperation (today, a Red Wine Spritzer)

– Mischievous children pulling a fast one on the adults (the kids were playing Floamball, in which the ball breaks apart upon impact with the bat, and an ungovernable free-for-all ensues. Between innings, the kids secretly  made “cookies” out of the Floam and placed them on the buffet until, yes, an adult tried one.  Her gastronomic report?  “Tastes like plastic.” In fairness, they looked delectable and the Floamball “diamond” was far enough away that we didn’t know what Floam* looks like up  close.)

“Cookies”

BYO rodent.

*a mixture of borax, glue, dyes, and polystyrene beads that resemble nonpareils sprinkles.

Remember, if it exists in the world, it exists in nail polish.

Mama You Ain’t Lived

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I EAT IT WITH A FORK AND KNIFE

…till you done ate a Fried Twinkie.  All molten goo on the inside/re-heated donut on the outside, with a dusting of powdered sugar on top…the South has risen. At least until the chapter-elevening Hostess quits [baking?] them at the [laboratory?]  Get your order in now at the Square Biscuit in Northfield, VT.

Sooper Cake for a Sooper Bowl

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IT’S SOOPER

“What is it?” I asked a no-nonsense farm woman at the grocery store.  She glanced briefly. “A helmet.”

Two friends thought it was Louisiana. Which is nowhere near Indiana, New York, or New England. Maybe the mold was left over from Sooper Bowl XLIV–or the prior year’s Mardi Gras.

Or perhaps this baked good was outsourced to Indonesia where they don’t play football. I thought the (edible?) XLVI circle thing should be orient-ated 45 degrees counter-clockwise, but my sources tell me it’s good.  So if you lose your helmet, technically, you could wear this.

My Favorite Things

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Frantic for last-minute gifts? Here’s some for not a lot of quid:

“Mind Blowing Funk Hits”

The Ziploc Vacuum Starter Kit. With no battery or plug, your giftee will be pumping his or her way clear to obsession~and I’m not talking off-label use. Then you got your Avon Moisture Therapy hand creme. Sure, I dig l’Occitane at 4 times the price, but not so the metal packaging you can’t get product out of after a certain point. For readers and jokers, one of my all-time faves is The Joys of Yiddish; if you’re a real schnorrer, which may or may not mean “cheapskate” in Yiddish, you can get it used for 23 cents plus shipping here. There is a new version out but I can’t vouch for it [enter Yiddish punchline]. For the gift of beauty, might I suggest Laura Mercier’s face polish; a pricey scrub at 30 bucks but worth it. Lastly, for hair, I have yet to top Terax Crema conditioner (buy American!) but that could be because I can’t find a good shampoo. Which, you know, might make a nice gift, as would … Bose headphones. No pressure.