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By TINKY WEISBLAT

When I was a child, I loved embracing spring at this time of year by eating a hot cross bun. I still do.Hot cross buns are sweet, yeasty rolls traditionally served toward the end of Lent, specifically on Good Friday. The cross of icing that tops them...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

March is Massachusetts Maple Month. Farmers in our area are working around the clock to turn the sap that flows from maple trees into the sweet elixir that New Englanders prize year round.It’s not just full-time farmers who make maple syrup. My friend...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I think of my mother and her grandmother whenever I get ready for St. Patrick’s Day. I forage in the basement for my light-up shamrock (which a neighbor whom I shall not name says makes the house look like a low-rent tavern). I affix it to a window,...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

The little church I attend in Charlemont is in transition, getting ready to look for a new minister. Right now, we are enjoying sermons from the Rev. Randy Purinton of Amherst.Randy is a delight. He is wise and funny, and he often manages to work a...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

When I was in graduate school, I taught a class called “American Women’s Fictions.” My students made their way through stories popular with American women.We started with “Charlotte Temple,” a 1791 novel about an English schoolgirl who is seduced and...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Peter Stilla of Deerfield has had multiple careers. For much of his life, he was a journalist. This work included stints doing editorial work at the Greenfield Recorder and its sister paper, the Daily Hampshire Gazette.In 2000, he decided to attend...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I appreciate that people who work regular jobs need three-day holiday weekends. For this reason, in 1968, George Washington’s birthday was moved from Feb. 22 to the third Monday in the month.Sadly, in my opinion, this means that the official...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

At this time of year, when the weather is still cool, baking is a pleasure … almost a necessity. Baked goods warm us up when we eat them. The word “calorie,” after all, represents a measure of heat. Moreover, the mere act of turning on the oven makes...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Kathleen Nicoletti of Athol notes in her author biography that she loves reading to the children in her life. That joy is evident in her three new children’s books.At 70 pages, “Ruby the Ruthless” is the longest of the three. It also has the most...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Harvey’s Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge on Avenue A in Turners Falls is a passion project for Evelyn Wulfkuhle of Greenfield.Wulfkuhle has been in the local restaurant business for more than two decades. She started at Green Fields Market in...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Talking about food with Kyra Kristof of Forest Kitchen was a fascinating experience.Kristof is part artist, part social scientist, part cook, and all passion. She used terms I had never heard applied to food before.Kristof lives with her partner and...

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...