Articles by Sandy Oliver
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Tzatziki uses cukes from the garden
It is Mediterranean diet time around here. It is true that the weather feels fallish, the calendar just marked the equinox and, at the supermarket, the keepers such as winter squash still ripening in my garden, and which I won’t eat until Thanksgiving, are now on display. Meanwhile, the garden, …
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Strawberry Cake great for the Fourth, or any time
If you put a little whipped cream on this strawberry-studded cake and garnish it with blueberries, you could call it Fourth of July Cake, and I like the idea of coming up with one that doesn’t need frosting. Or you can just eat it anytime for dessert. Actually, it would …
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A different way to cook neglected vegetables
When in doubt, roast. For years when I have been at a loss for what to do with a given vegetable, I’ve roasted it. Well, not lettuce or spinach, but I am seldom at a loss for what to do with them. It has usually been something lurking in the …
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Currant Scones for special occasions
Scones are the sweet first cousins of biscuits and are comforting fare when buttered and served with jam. I made some to accompany pumpkin bread (made from my last stored pumpkin) for a little reception following the committal service for a native islander brought back for burial in his family …
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Fiddleheads and Pasta a perfect spring combination
What a thrill to cut fiddlehead ferns and eat them an hour or so later. Plenty of Mainers are prowling in the woods right this minute gathering the new ostrich fern sprouts before they unfurl, but I was recently in Massachusetts in the front yard at my friend Barbara’s house …
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Milk toast not just for when you’re sick
You don’t have to be sick to relish milk toast, though many, many of you wrote to say that this was what, as Bette Adkins in Corinth wrote, “My mother made for us when we were under the weather.” Other times, it was a simple supper for a large, hungry …
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A cheaper way to make chocolate chip cookies
You could buy chocolate chip cookie dough in those plastic covered logs to slice off and bake whenever you want the house to fill up with sweet baking smells. Or you could mix together this dough, roll it up in waxed paper or plastic wrap and stick it in the …
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Blue Cheese Butter great on roasted vegetables
First off, it would never have occurred to me to roast a radish, never mind blend together butter and blue cheese to put on it afterwards as a sauce. Apparently, blue cheese butter is a common sauce for steak. That is probably the rub: not much steak being eaten around …
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Easy apple sorbet
Who knew that sorbet was so easy to make? I made an apple sorbet out of apples lurking in the cellar threatening to turn brown and ugly. All I did was make applesauce, add some lemon juice, a sprinkle of cinnamon and some simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar), …
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Fritters an answer for what to do with remaining winter squash
This crazy weather has my gardening instincts in an uproar. It was warm enough last week that I had deep-seated urges to plant stuff outdoors, but right now the forecast is for 29 degrees overnight tomorrow night, not very salubrious for seeds sprouting outdoors. Meanwhile, inside, the two or three …
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Ginger cookies, straight from the freezer
Dinner with friends on Sunday in Yarmouth with Ben and Carrie Yardley kicked up this dandy recipe for delicious ginger cookies — crisp on the outside and a little chewy on the inside. Plus, it’s a great idea for making ahead and baking later. I certainly have moments when I …
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Easy recipe makes perfect farmer’s breakfast
Farmers and other folks will like this dish for breakfast or brunch or, come to think of it, even supper if you add salad or vegetables alongside. I met up with it at a diner eons ago, and whenever I cook potatoes, I make sure I cook extra so that …
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Pretend panini uses waffle iron
Some people have those special electric panini presses they use to make hot crusty sandwiches. I use my waffle iron. I actually learned to do this about 50 years ago when I was a teenager, visiting at my friend Sue’s house after school. She would make snack sandwiches using two …
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Galette Dough useful for almost any kind of filling
Firstly, oops. Last week for the oatmeal bread recipe, I listed 7-8 cups of flour among the ingredients, but in the instructions I left 2-3 cups out. Several of you emailed or wrote to ask when to add them in. So, everyone go get a pen and annotate your recipe. …
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Easy oatmeal bread great for sandwiches
This oatmeal bread is one of my absolute favorite homemade breads, along with no-knead bread and foccacia. It is still a favorite for slicing for sandwiches. I found it in a community cookbook I’ve had a long time called “All Maine Cooking.” This recipe was submitted by Mrs. Norman Hilyard …
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Comfort food for dealing with a cold
There is a lot of sneezing, blowing and hacking going on around here this week. This rotten little cold has turned both good friend Toby and me into zombies. So how does it go? Drown a cold and feed a fever? So I have taken the drowning business pretty seriously, …
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Chocolate Torte in time for Valentine’s Day
Here is a fine chocolate dessert suitable for expressing your affection on Valentine’s Day for your nears and dears, or for your own chocolate enjoyment. I spoke Sunday at the Freeport Historical Society, giving a historical overview of chocolate consumption in our country. Chocolatier Andy Wilbur of Wilbur’s of Maine …
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Two bean dips for Super Bowl Sunday
This coming Sunday, when some of you are watching the Patriots battle it out for the national football championship, you’ll be joining millions of other Americans in what has truly become a national holiday, complete with its own menu nearly as traditional as Thanksgiving. You can tell the Super Bowl …
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Tomato Stew comforting, cheap
When Jill Holt wrote me from Hampden about her beans swaggon memories, as several of you did, she also spoke of tomato stew. That swaggon really touched a nerve, and I have a modest collection of additional new recipes. Many thanks to all who sent one along. But first, imagine …
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Don’t skimp on horseradish in carrot-turnip slaw
Here we go again, back into the cellar for dinner. And what do I find down there but carrots intent on sprouting. Last summer I grew two sorts: Mokum, a relatively short-seasoned carrot, and Bolero, more suitable for keeping. I had so many Mokum, though, that I ended up putting …
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