Few things raise Minnesotans’ collective glee quite like when our frosty state earns mention in the New York Times — particularly when America’s paper of record gets Minnesota very, very wrong. Remember “Mort’s”? And so we greeted with a good deal of mock outrage and secret merriment the Times’ strange assertion, in an article about the Thanksgiving […]

In the early season, when trips to the farmers market yield just a few bits of local produce, the pressure’s on. As a cook, you’ve got only one or two chances to enjoy the fruits of the land before it’s back to the winter slog of canned whatever, dairy, starch and meat. So you’d better […]

The word ‘oatmeal’ technically just refers to dried oats — be they steel-cut, rolled or quick — or a porridge made thereof. Long habit and family tradition, though, conjure up a whole dish for me: oats cooked soft, mixed with raisins and milk and generously sprinkled with brown sugar — you know you’ve got enough when […]

Ingredients 3 pounds apples, quartered Honey or sugar (optional) Lemon juice (optional) 1/2 teaspoon of your favorite spice: cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, cloves (optional) Now, to begin. Step 1: Get thee to the Kingfield Farmers Market/Fulton Farmers Market Holiday Market… Market Market Market this Sunday and grab a peck of apples. These beautiful Ruby Jons originated there this time […]

I didn’t set out to veganize Cook’s Illustrated’s ‘Sichuan Stir-Fried Pork in Garlic Sauce’ — it just sort of happened. It’s not that I have anything against vegans, and if you are vegan and ever come to our house for dinner I would enjoy the challenge of preparing a strictly plant-based meal. Personally though, I’ve […]

The most striking feature of Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield is the wetland that sits at its center. Even in winter — if you want to call this winter — when the pond is iced over and almost everything is dead, it brings a certain thrill of being an explorer or a pirate to […]

To paraphrase Sara Bareilles, I’m not gonna write you a ratatouille recipe. (I promise that will be the last Sara Bareilles reference — ever — on this blog.) I’ve done it before, and with farmers markets overflowing with more zucchini and eggplant than a blogger knows what to do with, you can be sure you’ll […]

I buy zucchini blossoms exactly once per year, and not because I want to. Sure, they look pretty, and I love the concept of fried zucchini blossoms — crisp and airy, redolent of fields of flowers — but I’ve never been able to deliver on that idea. Instead of light and crunchy my fiori come […]

It all started with an acute lack of pickles. As in, I had not a jar of pickles to my name, not even in the deepest back recesses of the middle shelf of the refrigerator. But golf-ball sized potatoes from yesterday’s Midtown Farmers Market were demanding to be made into potato salad and if there’s […]

I make as much an effort as anyone to feign enthusiasm for ramps, but the real excitement of spring and the produce it brings doesn’t begin for me until I see the first spears of asparagus at the farmers market. Asparagus is a bellwether crop, like the late summer tomato, that signals the arrival of […]