Ready to ring yourself out yet? Feel like you’re growing moss?

Let’s face it: it’s been a damp, dark week. And we have one more day to get through til we see that gorgeous orb, the sun. Somerville-based Cooking The Seasons has posted what may be the best form of food therapy — and heat — you could hope for while we wait out the wet stuff: tea.

Here’s a recipe for homemade Chai, “one of those things that smells amazing and tastes even better than it smells.” The line-up of spices is tantalizing, and the method of cooking so, so easy.

Thanks, Cooking The Seasons, and hold tight, everyone. Before you know it, the sun’ll be back.

Three tall, young male chefs dressed in starched whites, their faces in deep concentration, meticulously arrange these ingredients in small bowls. The entire dish is then nestled in an oversized white bowl filled with sprigs of freshly-harvested rosemary, thyme and shaved dry ice. Just before the lobster is served, boiling water is poured over the herbs in the outer bowl, creating a bubbling aromatherapy bath for the seafood. The swirling vapor produces an herbal cloud intended to heighten the enjoyment of the dish.

This bit of over-the-top gastronomy is not to be found in Paris, Barcelona or any other culinary capital. No, we are in Dover, New Hampshire, where the best food you normally can hope for is a decent bowl of chowder, mediocre Chinese food and a slice of so-so pizza. That is, until Evan Hennessey and his team opened Stages at One Washington in an old mill building on the banks of the Cocheco River. Continue reading →

LOCAL BITES

A Mother’s Day Tea
Starting with a selection of recipes from Barre, MA, that date from the turn of the last century, the ONCE kitchen kids are going to recreate a classic afternoon tea. This means cakes, cookies, sherbet, tisanes and finger sandwiches — of course! — all served on Mother’s Day, May 13, 4-6pm at Naga in Cambridge. Tickets are $45/person for treats, beverages and a hand letter-pressed card on which to create your personal culinary heirloom to share with a loved one far away.

A Quiet Brunch, Kids in Tow
Aura Restaurant at the Seaport Hotel, which specializes in elegant dining for moms and dads with structured activities for the waynes, has it in spades this Mother’s Day if brunch (11-3pm) is what you’re after. The Kids Place 4 Fun will help kids of all ages make special Mother’s Day crafts, and Jewelry by Karel will be on site if more gifts are needed. Tickets are $55/adult; kids under 12 eat for free. To reserve call 617.385.4300, or go to OpenTable.com. Read the details and menu here.

Food Hugs
The tagline of Eat Boutique is “Food That Hugs You Back.” For Mother’s Day, they’ve got a box of handmade goodies that your mom savor in her own sweet time, hand-written card, included. Here’s a hug, Mom! Continue reading →

On this day in…

1885
Good Housekeeping begins publication.

(© 2011 Michael V. Hynes)

The Backstory
We in New England can proudly claim Good Housekeeping, that icon of a women’s interests magazine, as our own. The magazine was founded May 2, 1885, by Clark W. Bryan in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

In 1910, the headquarters of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute (GHRI) formally opened. This included the Model Kitchen, the Domestic Science Laboratory and the Testing Station for Household Devices, where those products vying for the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval (with its 2-year limited warranty) met their glory or their doom. Continue reading →

From our neighbors at Here & Now, today we hear that American beer drinkers are turning more and more to craft beers.

Been to your local liquor store lately? Have you seen the assortment of beer available? According to the Brewers Association, Americans’ consumption of beer actually  dropped a little more than a percent last year. But you wouldn’t know that looking at all the choices.

Turns out that while Americans may be drinking less beer, in general, they are drinking more beer from small, independent brewers. There are now more than 2,000 in the country, and they employ more than 100,000 people. Retail sales were up 15%. This week beer makers from across the country are gathering in San Diego for the annual Craft Brewers Conference, and to get ready for American Craft Beer Week later this month.

Julia Herz, craft beer program director at the Brewers Association and a certified cicerone, tells Here & Now host Robin Young:

There are now more than 140 beer styles and 13,000 plus beer labels in the marketplace. I think you’ve got a localization in our culture going on, people getting back to being more informed about what they consume and enjoy. Look on the restaurant level, the same thing is happening with beer. And supporting your local brewery is becoming very important to many beer lovers.

Listen to the report with guest Julia Herz, craft beer program director at the Brewers Association.

Related reading at PRK:
Pairing Beer and Food in Honor of St. Patrick
Q&A With Julia Herz of The Brewers Association

If there was a single message that attendees walked away with on Sunday at the New England Seafood Teach-In, it was this: eat responsibly.

A familiar call. We know, we know — we should all eat responsibly. But what does this actually mean in the context of fish?

When it comes to sustainable seafood, the waters are muddied by myriad factors, not the least of which is the chain of decisions you make (or don’t) when you elect to eat fish. Here’s a sampling: ‘where will I buy it…which fish will I choose…how does that taste…was it farmed or wild caught…was the way it was caught hurt the sea floor, the future of the fishery, other marine wildlife…how much of all this matters to me?’ And don’t forget your wallet.

Sunday’s Teach-In taught us, in essence, that eating fish responsibly means setting priorities and deciding whom to trust. But the two are wedded. And here’s the kicker, repeated more than once by different participants at the Teach-In: any fish you see in the case is a priori “sustainable” because the government regulates it, heavily, to be such.

Taken in combination, all this is enough to make you throw up your hands in despair were it not for seafood’s being so darn tasty, so darn healthy and so utterly important a protein for a majority of the world’s population. Continue reading →

These are insanely gorgeous days. I’ve been spending long hours planting vegetables and pulling weeds, getting my back ready for the summer garden season. When I come in at night, my bones ache with the sweet pain of spring.

But the rewards have already begun. There’s parsley and chives that wintered over in the garden, parsnips from a friend’s farm that sweetened up under the frozen soil all winter, and soft shell crabs from the sea. Warm days, blue skies and cold nights. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Sautéed Soft Shell Crabs with Chives, Parsley and Brown Lemon Butter

Ingredients
1/2 cup flour
Salt and pepper
4 soft shell crabs, have the fish store clean them for you
1 tablespoon butter
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 lemon or Meyer lemon, washed, dried and cut into paper thin slices Continue reading →