From the category archives:

local

Monthy Meat-Up

March 1, 2010
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Another month, another meat score. The people at Stillman’s have spoiled me for any other chickens. Now, when I “settle” for a Bell & Evans bird, it still tastes bland compared to the free-range version.
The rest of the delivery was hot Italian sausage, a pork loin roast, and pork cutlets. I supplemented those with a [...]

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Whole Lotta Umami

January 5, 2010
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The cooking buzzword last year was umami, the “fifth taste” responsible for our sensing “meatiness.” Before that taste had a name, however, cooks in the know had a pantry full of components they could add to boost a dish’s savory notes. A quick look through the Belm Research Kitchen turned up these (not including the [...]

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Where Fluff Comes From

December 9, 2009
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The Fluff Boy comic, which I mentioned previously, is always available at Hub Comics, my local purveyor of all things graphically geeky. Last week, while making my weekly subscription pickup visit, I noticed that the original artwork was available for sale. I immediately snatched up my favorite panel, one of a series of pages that [...]

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In the Basement Mixing Up the Medicine

December 4, 2009
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Until my recent birthday dinner, I used to tell people that the best birthday present I ever received from She Who Must Be Obeyed was a house. We signed the closing papers on November 28, 1995 – my birthday – but we didn’t move in until the following weekend, which corresponds to this weekend.
On move-in [...]

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Tony’s Top Ten Tips

November 4, 2009
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For our 16th wedding anniversary dinner, She Who Must Be Obeyed and I had dinner (menu here) on Craigie on Main, site of the Whole Hog Dinner. It has become a tradition with us, and besides, chef Tony Maws (or his customer database) had personally invited us. I was impressed by how Maws has managed [...]

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Market Closing

October 31, 2009
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Today was the last day of the season for the farmer’s market, so I stocked up on a few items. I tried to buy something from each vendor to encourage them to return next summer. It’s a good thing we have a second freezer in the basement to hold everything while we go into hibernation [...]

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Messing with a Beloved Cultural Icon

October 27, 2009
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At the end of August 1977 I packed everything I owned into the family Toyota, which Dad drove all the way to Cambridge, Massachusetts. I was heading to MIT, and as we got closer to our destination I could barely sit still. We made the right turn from River Street to Mass. Ave. (a turn [...]

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Market Selection

October 24, 2009
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Natural selection is in full force at the market this week, having winnowed out any vendors that don’t sell root vegetables, baked goods, or meat. As usual, I needed all of those things, so I did my part to provide more evolutionary pressure.
The mixed cherry tomatoes are from the greenhouse instead of the field, but [...]

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Market Shift

October 17, 2009
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Apples and squash everywhere, snow yesterday morning — it must be fall in new England. I was hit with a nasty cold this week, which kept me out of the kitchen for a few days, so I still have most of last week’s veggies to work with.
Still, I couldn’t pass up the mixed fingerling potatoes, [...]

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What the Fluff?

September 28, 2009
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In addition to being the location of the raising of the first American flag, my neighborhood of Union Square also holds the honor of being the birthplace of Marshmallow Fluff, invented in 1917 by Somerville resident Archibald Query. Three years later Query sold the recipe to H. Allen Durkee and Fred L. Mower, and the [...]

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