Books from two local authors who treasure the world around them – one whose sights are set on faraway galaxies and another who has star status in the world of green business practices. “For more than 25 years, I’ve been turning green ideas into greenbacks.” And so begins the amazing tale of Gary Hirshberg and Stonyfield Farm yogurt in “Stirring…
50 Sundays and 50 Churches Raised a Catholic, Suzanne Strempek Shea was taught that Protestants were doomed and that “if we kids ever so much as set foot inside one of their churches, so were we.” Who could have imagined back then that, as an adult, she would spend a whole year traveling from one non-Catholic church to another —…
The “Moose of Humor” is at it again When you laugh out loud four times within two pages, it’s a good sign that a book that’s supposed to be funny really is funny. Such is the case with Rebecca Rule’s newly released book, “Live Free and Eat Pie!” . Rule, who has been writing down funny stories she hears since…
It had been voted the safest town in New Hampshire, but then Doris Gleason was found dead in her cookbook store, killed with a kitchen knife. Townsfolk figured it was Doris’ rare cookbook that the killer wanted and they soon began to suspect another of the many bookdealers in town, Tricia Miles. The mystery, written by Lorna Barrett , is…
Two books – one writ large, the other writ small – explore the texture and meaning of the female experience. Her home is in Concord, but writer Diane Les Becquets chose Maine’s Moosehead Lake as the setting for her third novel, “Season of Ice” . It is on that massive and mysterious lake that 17-year-old Genesis’ father goes missing in…
Two very different milieux – one loud and flashy, the other naturally quiet. It’s amazing how much there is to say about sea birds – in Hugh Hennedy’s “Variations on a Natural Theme” , there are 111 pages of elegant poems about mergansers, eiders, gulls and, mostly, loons that Hennedy saw in Maine’s Seal Cove. The poems, many of them…
With Alaska on the ticket and Florida sure to be a battleground state, it’s the perfect dish for election night. Alaska Florida – that’s actually a dessert you probably know better as Baked Alaska. In 1893, in the cookbook “Epicurean,” from the famous Delmonico’s restaurant in New York City, that’s what the dessert was called. The story is told that…
With so many apple desserts in New England, where does Apple dumplings for breakfast just can’t be beat, or how about a warm and crunchy oatmeal apple crisp, or perhaps a bubbling-hot apple cobbler right out of the oven, served with cinnamon ice cream. The standard by which all else is measured is, of course, the apple pie. New England…
In spite of its name, Indian pudding was not adopted from American Indians by the settlers. The name came from the use of “Indian meal,” another name for corn meal, which, of course, was adopted from Native Americans. When you think of the top five New England desserts, Indian pudding is at the top of the list. You also have…
For the best flavor read labels and look for pure ingredients. In tough times – when food prices are through the roof, and labor and healthcare costs are at an all-time high – many restaurants and food service establishments look to cut cost. But the best operators know that “quality drives profit” and the simplest way to keep costs low…
