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By TINKY WEISBLAT

January is National Soup Month so I thought for this week I would make one of my favorite soups and share the story of its origins.Some home cooks don’t write down recipes at all. I was one of those cooks before I became a food writer. I would combine...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

The Green Palmers ChronicleBy Jon HuerAustin Macauley PublishersReaders of Jon Huer’s commentary in this newspaper may be surprised to see a slightly different side of the Greenfield writer in “The Green Palmers Chronicle.” Huer calls the novel “a...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Like many American home cooks, I own more cookbooks than I can use.Over the years, hand-me-downs from family members, birthday gifts, and impulse purchases have brought more than 100 volumes to my kitchen shelves.When I decide to try preparing a dish...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I adore old movies. As a small child, I appalled my mother by watching myriad black-and-white classics on television. She was afraid that this solitary pursuit would keep me from making friends.By the time I got my Ph.D. in American studies with a...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I’m always lurking on the internet to spot food trends. It was thus impossible for me to resist what McCormick, the purveyor of spices and much more, calls the 2024 Flavor of The Year.I had been intrigued by the 2023 Flavor of The Year, a blend of...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I opened “God’s Hidden Places.” The book’s author, the Reverend Patricia Gallagher of Greenfield, bills it as a memoir and more. It’s unconventional, and yet it generally works and moves the reader.The book is a...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

It may seem odd to provide another cookie recipe after Christmas, which is the day of days for cookies. If you’re like me, however, you’ll entertain friends and give gifts all the way until New Year’s Day and perhaps until Epiphany. I hope this recipe...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

In decades past, when my mother lived in the New York area and I consequently had a home base there, I used to attend the Fancy Food Show.Sponsored by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, this enormous trade show took up (and still...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Kate Spencer of Montague is a woman of many talents. She is a musician and has also manufactured banjos professionally. Her first love, though, and one she is currently pursuing perhaps more than ever, is art.“I grew up in Great Falls, Montana, and...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Cookie season has arrived. I don’t bake a lot of cookies in warm weather. For one thing, I’m loath to turn on the oven when it’s hot. For another, we don’t feel the need for cookies when we have sunshine and fresh produce.When the shortening of the...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Book Review: “Words to Live By,” created by John Bos, Pam Roberts, Keith Carver, and James McDonald (Cancer Connection, 130 pages, $20)John Bos first met Pam Roberts almost two decades ago when he took part in one of her “Spirit of the Written Word”...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Hanukkah begins tomorrow night, Dec. 7, at sunset. Sunset arrives earlier and earlier at this time of year as we approach the longest night of the year.To bolster our spirits in the darkness, holidays like Hanukkah and Christmas celebrate the gift of...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

In the days after an over-the-top Thanksgiving meal, I have been known to blanch at the idea (let alone the sight) of cream. I long for simple, light foods like salad. Unfortunately, there are often still leftovers in the house.Happily, I can throw...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

“I just love my life,” Lori Holmes Clark of Deerfield told me recently. “It’s like a patchwork of experience. The things that I’m doing are all connected to what I love to do.”She voiced this enthusiasm just as she was about to enter one of the...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

The first scene of “Northern Comfort” paints a bleak but memorable picture. It is mid-winter, and Willi Miller is trying to keep the circulation going in her fingers as she hangs laundry outside her home in a hilltown here in western Massachusetts....

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Early this month — on Nov. 1, to be exact — many of us woke to find snow falling outside.I know we have experienced snow much earlier in the fall in these parts in other years. Nevertheless, the weather had been so balmy at the end of October that I...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Last year at about this time, I sent out a request on Facebook asking friends to share their favorite Thanksgiving recipes. I quickly found one — and later saw a reply from my friend Marianne Schultz. This happened too late for me to use her recipe...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Most New Englanders see late October and early November as a time for winding down from summer and harvest activities. The leaves dwindle, the air takes on a distinct chill, and farm stands begin closing their doors.For cider lovers, however, this...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Halloween may be my favorite holiday. It’s certainly the holiday for which I have the most decorations. My Halloween bins are even more numerous than my Christmas bins.Some of this has to do with Halloween’s traditional spookiness, which gives the day...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Our Lady of Czestochowa Church in Turners Falls recently celebrated National Pierogi Day.The church’s Saint Hyacinth Pierogi Makers put a lot of thought into the celebration, parish council president Walt Hoszkiewicz told me in a recent interview.The...