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Double Mushroom and Cheese Strata
Breads & Baked Goods Cheese Eggs Any Style Mushrooms Wild Foods

Twice-the-Flavor Savory Double Mushroom and Cheese Strata

What’s a “strata?” Think savory bread pudding, only better. It’s an easy make-ahead meal that can be prepared the night before and baked just before you’re ready to serve it. While Double Mushroom & Cheese Strata is the perfect centerpiece for a lazy weekend brunch, it’s substantial and satisfying enough for a weeknight dinner too. Featuring savory cheeses, eggs and both fresh and dried mushrooms, this is rib-sticking comfort food at its finest – and a guaranteed hit with the …

Fresh Chanterelle Mushrooms
All Recipes Appetizers Breads & Baked Goods Cheese Mushrooms Sauces & Condiments

Chanterelle Confit

Confit: Anyone who has the vaguest interest in food and cooking has probably heard this word used (and misused) more than a few times. Many people, even experienced cooks, may be a little hazy about the meaning of the term.  Is it a dish or a cooking method?  Is it French or, heaven forbid, “fancy?”  Does it make you feel uncomfortable and ignorant when your food snob friends use it casually in conversation? Let’s see if we can clear up …

Cherry Pasilla Chile Preserves
Breads & Baked Goods Cheese Desserts Sauces & Condiments

Sweet Cherry & Pasilla Chile Preserves

Cherries are in season, and while it’s tempting to simply gobble them fresh by the handful, there are plenty of other interesting – and rewarding – ways to enjoy them. When sweet cherry varieties like Ulster, Cavalier, Hedelfingen and Regina ripen fully on the tree, they burst with deep, intense dark cherry flavor, making them excellent choices for use in recipes, both traditional and novel. The long history of cooking with sweet cherries is evident in the wide variety of …

Shishito Pepper Tempura
Appetizers Asian Cheese Eggs Any Style Sauces & Condiments Vegetables

Four Things to Do with Super-cool Shishito Peppers

They’ve been popping up on appetizer menus of trendy restaurants for a while, but tiny, tasty shishito peppers have fully entered the mainstream and are now seen frequently at farmer’s markets and grocery stores around the country. Shishito peppers are a favorite snack food in Japan, where this thin-skinned mild breed of pepper was developed. While similar to the Spanish Padrone, the shishito has a distinctive flavor and appearance all its own. The slender, finger-sized peppers are bright green in …

Truffled Brie with fresh summer truffles
Appetizers Cheese Wild Foods

Truffled Brie

There is nothing more elegant than a snowy-white wedge of creamy, savory Brie, the famed soft cheese named for the French region where it originated – unless it’s brie layered with paper-thin shavings of fresh truffles. Brie’s remarkable journey from milk to plate begins with a unique process, including an inoculation with a special cheese mold, a critical step in producing brie’s distinctive flavor and signature white “bloomy” rind. The rind (yes, it IS meant to be eaten) has a mild, faintly mushroom-like …

Ramp, Goat Cheese & Pine Nut Phyllo Rolls
Appetizers Breads & Baked Goods Cheese Wild Foods

Ramp, Goat Cheese & Pine Nut Phyllo Rolls

Ramp, Goat Cheese & Pine Nut Phyllo Rolls are inspired by the Greek classic, spanakopita, a layered “pie” which is typically made with spinach and feta cheese wrapped or layered in thin, crisp phyllo pastry. It’s not uncommon for regional variations to contain other wild greens or herbs in addition to or in place of the usual spinach. It’s the sort of hearty, rustic dish that lends itself to experimentation with whatever fresh, local ingredients are readily at hand. Our version uses fresh …

Ramp Risotto with Blue Cheese II
Appetizers Cheese Rice Dishes Wild Foods

Ramp Risotto with Blue Cheese

Making risotto is a contemplative process. It’s not difficult; it just takes a certain amount of planning and time. Assemble your ingredients, heat the stock – then just stand at the stove and stir. The basic ingredients for risotto are simple. Rice and hot stock are essential; wine, butter and cheese are usually included too.  Other ingredients – seafood, vegetables, spices and so on – will vary according to the recipe. Of all these, the most critically important element is the rice. The …

Porcini-Onion Soup with Jarlsberg Croutons
Cheese Mushrooms Soups & Stews Wild Foods

Porcini-Onion Soup with Jarlsberg Croutons

One look will tell you that this soup is first cousin to the world famous classic, French onion soup. But look more closely (and take a whiff of the heady aroma), and some differences quickly become apparent. Most noticeable is the addition of dried porcini mushrooms, which contribute a profound depth of rich flavor to this soup. Fresh porcini mushrooms (Boletus edulis) have a wonderful savory flavor that becomes even more intense when dried. Little wonder that dried porcini are …

Cheese Mushrooms Pasta Sauces & Condiments Wild Foods

Malfatti with Wild Mushroom & Truffle Sauce

What’s in a name? In this case, an interesting (and amusing) story lies behind the name of this close cousin to the more familiar gnocchi.  The Italian word malfatti literally means “badly made.” Whimsical names abound in Italian cookery, especially when it comes to pasta.  For example, strozzapreti means “priest choker,” fazzoletti means “little handkerchiefs,” orechiette means “little ears,” and last but not least, farfalle meaning “butterflies.” In this country, malfatti have come to refer to something akin to a …

Appetizers Cheese Mushrooms

Wild Mushroom Nachos

Is there any party food more perfect than nachos? First, nachos are meant to be shared with others.  Second, their spicy heat demands a cool, fire-quenching beverage – preferably beer! There are no hard & fast rules regarding ingredients when making nachos.  The only constants are tortilla chips, salsa and cheese – the rest is up to you. In the spirit of fun & experimentation, we used one of our favorite ingredients in all the world, dried morel mushrooms (but …