Boston Baked Beans

The Boston Baked Beans recipe (page 195) uses good ol' navy beans and cooks them for about 7 hours in molasses and brown sugar. When John tasted them, he commented that they tasted like barbecue. So two thumbs up from him. I was a little disappointed because although I cooked them for over 7 hours the beans never got very tender. The section called "The Ten Commandments of Bean Cookery" says," Thou shalt not add salt to simmering beans... and Thou shalt not add acid ingredients while thy beans are cooking..." Alas, next time I'll boil the beans until tender and then "stir in the remaining ingredients."

Boston Brown Bread

The Boston Brown Bread recipe (page 196) is part of the section called "The Puritan's Feast." The feast includes the Boston Brown bread and Boston Baked beans. Miriam explains this is how Boston became known as "Beantown." The bread bakes for about 2 hours in a pan of boiling water. It is dense but not heavy and sweet from the molasses but not too sweet. I enjoyed it with some of the homemade honey butter.

Butter

Guess what I did today? I made my own butter; it was so easy but it made me feel so farm girl. The Butter recipe (page 528) uses heavy whipping cream beaten until it separates into butter and whey- "the original form of buttermilk." I got the biggest kick out of making this and it's so much nicer than butter from the store! I added some honey to part of the butter to make honey butter. Miriam gives at least 15 different flavorings for butter. This is just so yummy.

Holiday Pudding & Caramel Sauce

The Holiday Pudding (page 450) and the Caramel Sauce (page 458) combined together to make the most decadent dessert I've ever made. The holiday pudding is full of raisins, apples and grated carrots which is a lot of sweet ingredients but then add on the caramel sauce as a topping and that's sweet and delicious. Hope the crew at work will help us eat it.

Hazelnut-Crusted Saffron Potato Cakes

The Hazelnut-Crusted Saffron Potato Cakes (page 120) was made with the recommended variation of pistachios instead of hazelnuts. As you can see, I had some trouble with how long to brown them. All the cakes tasted great, it was just a matter of desired crustiness.

Apple Pie

I have been saving the Apple Pie recipe (page 413) for the fall when the apples are in season. This is a classic recipe which tastes fabulous. I love having a piece of homemade pie when I have a sweet tooth.

Tahini Milk

I selected to make the Tahini Milk (page 488) on a day when I was feeling a little weak, some lack of sleep. I found this simple drink to be a wonderful restorative. It was easy to make, has a lovely taste and was a very comforting drink.

Green and White Lasagna (Lasagna Verde Bianca)

Even though the Green and White Lasagna (page 266) appears to have a lot of tomato sauce on it, there is only about 2 tablespoons which I added on top for color (not in the recipe). The recipe called for parsley and artichoke hearts to form the green. This tasted wonderful! I wish the picture did it justice. Since it's just the two of us, I quartered the recipe and filled an 8" x 8" baking dish. This would be a really nice "green" pot luck dish.

Tomatoes Stuffed with Vegetable Hash

The Tomatoes Stuffed with Vegetable Hash (page 138) is definitely company worthy. I really had fun making and eating this recipe. Miriam suggests topping the tomatoes with sour cream (I used yogurt) and guacamole. For the photograph, I just topped one so that the stuffing shows in the other tomato. I thought it was too pretty to cover completely.

Baked Bananas

The Baked Banana recipe (page 464) is a 15 minute dessert that is especially good for the vata types. Miriam has a fascinating section on bananas with information such as "botanists classify them as herbs." Most interesting to me is that even though a banana tastes sweet to us, Ayurveda identifies bananas as sour. In this recipe the bananas have unsweetened coconut sprinkled on them.