Cheryl Dishes

Long before Columbus landed in the New World, the Native Americans were cultivating and eating pumpkins.  Grown together with corn and pole beans in a system known as the three […]

I have enjoyed creating recipes and cooking for a number of different folks with varied food eating styles and cultures, food sensitivities or intolerances, and food allergies.  Often it’s an […]

What’s not to love in food that has been fried?  The crispy texture, the delicate and delicious morsel waiting inside, the crunch of the bite, and the beautiful golden brown […]

“You should roast us a chicken”, my husband suggested, “Remember the days? I nodded and smiled, nostalgically recalling the first years of our marriage. We were students at the University […]

With the onset of fall weather, shorter days and cooler nights, my dining room is lined with trays of pink tomatoes, bright blue-green pears, and fuzzy orange peaches.  This “fruit-ripening” […]

As a space saving measure on our tiny plots of gardens sculpted into the granite boulders, we grow many of our crops vertically. Up rather than out. Shell peas, sugar […]

One of my early food writer heroes was Marjorie Standish, longtime columnist for the Maine Sunday Telegram. In addition to writing for the paper for 25 years, she published several […]

During the hot, dog days of summer our dining style becomes more casual and relaxed. The gardens and farmer’s markets are bursting with fresh fruits and vegetables that are a […]

Summer is a busy time for Maine families as we try to squeeze in every ray of sunshine before the long, cold winter. Our home becomes a literal bed-and-breakfast as […]

It’s Maine strawberry season! Our family can never have enough of the luscious, red-ripe strawberry that leads the parade of summer fruits. Strawberries in sugar over piping-hot biscuits with Jersey […]

The recipe for Green Goddess dressing has a storied past, originating as a sauce for eel on the plate of Louis XIII.  In 1923, the creamy rich condiment made its […]

Our household eats foods seasonally, and the winter diet of root vegetables gets quite long. So I am quite excited in the spring to spot clumps of fresh chives, purple […]

Of all the root vegetables, the humble beet, or beetroot is one of my favorites.  Beetroot (sometimes called table beet, garden beet, red or golden beet, or just beet) is the […]

In many households, the lengthening daylight hours heralds the time to do some major cleaning. This age-old ritual of “spring cleaning” is rooted in religious and cultural traditions, and linked […]

In her seminal book “The Way to Cook”, Julia Child writes that “while attitudes about food have changed, fortunately the principals of good cooking have not.  The more one knows […]

My Meyer’s lemon tree boasts 11 bright yellow lemons in various stages of ripening, and 9 shiny green ones.  And I’ve all ready harvested 5 deeply perfumed and heavily burdened […]

The recipe for an easy-to-make chocolate cake in a cast iron pan featured in a glossy magazine caught my eye.  True comfort food, a good chocolate dessert is something everyone […]

As we enter into the depth of winter, colder temperatures and fewer daylight hours trigger biological changes that stimulate hunger and increase our cravings for more energy dense food. Our […]

“In the year 2525, if man is still alive, If woman can survive” Zager and Evans As I reflect upon our family’s cooking and eating habits of the almost 2 […]