Fiery Tomato Salad

So it finally stopped raining in Boston. While the rain's been bad for just about everyone and everything lately, my veggies have been loving it. I have more peppers and tomatoes than I know...

A Photo Tour: Boston’s Legendary Haymarket

It's way too hot out. The Lady Otter and I are wading through a crowd, weaving under awnings and past overflowing stalls. It's like a cross between a narrow Tokyo market street and the New...

Coconut Cake for Old Man Richard

The first time I made this cake, we were up visiting an old friend who rents a cottage every summer up in Gloucester, Mass. We spent the greater part of the evening out on the...

Old-School Diner Pancakes

Put the Bisquick down and walk away. You can do it. These are the kind of pancakes you used to be able to get at roadside diners—or your grandmother's house. They're great in the morning, or...

Buttery Greek Apple Tart

Fall is coming. Boston's been on the cold side. The stores are starting to fill up with back-to-school supplies. This means one thing to me: Apple-picking season is on its way. And I couldn't...

Midsummer Harvest

Despite being plagued by the dreaded Tomato Horn Worm (if you've ever grown tomatoes, you know how horrifying these beasts are), this summer has been a remarkably good one for my vegetable garden. Like a...

Old-Fashioned Pasta Salad

This is one of those recipes that's better the next day. And even better the one after. It's a good base pasta salad recipe, so you can add anything else that you want to it...

Infuse Your Booze: Making Fruit-Flavored Liquors

Fresh fruit + vodka = summer in a glass, all year round. I've been making fruit-infused liquors for about 10 years. I get it from my mother, who makes jars of lemon verbena liquor and...

Peach Ratafia

First off, what the heck is a ratafia? (The short answer is a really, really yummy drink, but that probably doesn't help much.) Merriam Webster defines a ratafia as "a liqueur made from an infusion...

Crunchy Kosher Pickles

Seeing as it's summer, here are the pickles I remember from my childhood. They're the perfect complement to any BBQ. They're really crispy, and have just the right amount of bite that they don't overwhelm...