York Beach in southern Maine is more honky-tonk than exclusive coastal resort, so chef Lydia Shire’s exciting new eatery, Blue Sky, is turning heads — not just for its sleek, sexy design but also for the inspired plates coming out of the kitchen. A well-known kitchen maverick, Lydia has been wowing diners since the 1980s […]
Annie Copps
It’s been said that “everything’s better with a little bit of butter.” And a little bit of great butter was all Boston chef and restaurateur Barbara Lynch really needed and couldn’t quite find commercially. Enter Diane St. Clair — who operates a 30-acre organic farm in Orwell, Vermont — and Hopi, one of her small […]
Spring is becoming more real to me. I know, I know, I’ve been fighting it tooth and nail, but despite my unease with the process of New England spring, it’s more concrete now, and therefore I shall acknowledge its presence. In a week or so, I’ll embrace it and be full of all the joy […]
Read about the five chefs in The Maine Course in May/June Yankee. Listen in as Annie B. Copps talks about the Portland chefs and local foods with the hosts of The Frugal Yankee . Then make this menu of mussels, asparagus salad, risotto, chicken, and rhubarb soup the way the chefs do. Each one added […]
I’m still feeling the drag of the Daylight Savings time jump, but less so as the real spring weather seems more and more possible. Linda Clukay, our dulcet-voiced receptionist and den mother here at Yankee, swears that she sees signs of daffodils and tulips in her south-facing garden. So apparently there’s hope indeed. I’ve mentioned […]
I love this time of year in New England, and I hate this time of year in New England. I love that the days are getting longer and warmer and that there are indeed signs of short-sleeve weather on the horizon. But I hate setting the clock forward. I really do. It was getting lighter […]
I spent last Friday with Guy and Mary Ann Esposito. They are just lovely people. You probably know Mary Ann Esposito from her television cooking show, Ciao Italia, the longest-running cooking program on TV—19 years, I believe. If not, she’s written more than a dozen cookbooks, so if you don’t know about her, you might want […]
Ever wish you had staff? Maybe you have staff — I don’t. I had dinner at a friend’s house last week to celebrate our mutual friend Christie Matheson, whose 53rd book, Green Chic: Saving the Earth, has just been printed. It’s not really Christie’s 53rd book, but it is her fifth or sixth, and frankly, […]
Depending on where you live in New England, you got either a big hype about “many, many inches of snow” or a load of actual snow last weekend. We got snow, but it wasn’t the hassle I was anticipating. I was really looking for an excuse to avoid the shower. I was disappointed when I […]
This is no place for the horrifying details that led to 143 million pounds of beef being recalled from the market last week. Just the words “143 million pounds of beef” ought to be enough. How did this happen? Not just to the cows, but how did our food supply run so amok? I think […]
After much taste testing, we finally found our favorite maple syrups. Find out which ones we thought were the five best maple syrups in the region. In March 2008, our panel sampled 19 bottles of maple syrup from all over New England. The names of the producers were hidden. We tend to think of Vermont when […]
Breakfast & Brunch
French Toast
What could be simpler? A few eggs, some old bread, and maple syrup — voila! Yes, French toast. This morning stalwart most likely got its name from the French dish pain perdu — “lost bread” — a poetic way to say “stale bread.” And slightly stale bread is one of the keys to good French […]