Anadama Bread
This old-fashioned recipe is an easy way to make a delicious loaf of yeast bread. I usually use whole-wheat flour and blackstrap molasses, but you can use whatever wheat flour and molasses you have on hand (if you successfully substitute other types of flour for the wheat, please let me know!). It does not require a lot of kneading, and will make your kitchen smell amazing when it bakes.
Easy Cinnamon Rolls
These cinnamon rolls are a holiday breakfast staple in my home. Don’t let the number of steps in this recipe keep you from trying it – this is actually quite easy to make. Although I usually use traditional, animal-based ingredients when I make them for my family, I have also successfully made these cinnamon rolls using only vegan ingredients – and my family never knew the difference (shhhh!).
This is one of those “don’t knock it until you’ve tried it” recipes. When I make batches of these, they do not last very long at all. I usually cook them in the oven (much faster than dehydrating!), and if I want them extra-crispy, will cook them directly on a cookie rack that is placed on a baking tray. That strategy allows both sides of the eggplant to cook, giving it a fantastic texture.
Skillet Cornbread
This old-fashioned recipe for skillet cornbread is simple, easy, and produces a delicious cornbread that has a perfectly buttery crust on the bottom.
Ingredients:
Fat-Free Banana Bread (Vegan)
I follow a whole food, plant-based (WFPB) diet, and rarely bake treats for myself, because most baked goods have lots of ingredients that I simply won’t eat. This recipe for banana bread not only meets my dietary requirements, but also produces a dense, moist banana bread that is surprisingly delicious, considering the lack of oil, eggs, or most other ingredients normally found in banana bread recipes.
Happy Thanksgiving! I’m taking today and the next few days off for the holiday. In case you are looking for some last-minute recipes or food inspiration, here are a few treasures from the Almanack archive:
Kim and Pam Ladd, who wrote the popular “Happy Hour in the High Peaks: An Adirondack Bar Guide,” are two ladies who know cocktails. They put together some favorite Thanksgiving Cocktail Recipes.
Paul Hetzler has a piece on Native Foods on the Thanksgiving Table. Larry Gooley has one on an old-time ritual, Nutting Season.
If you’re not into eating crickets, maybe apples are your thing. There’s a recipe for a traditional Thanksgiving Apple Pie or Farmhouse Apple Crisp.
Ever wonder How Cranberries Get Their Color? Paul Hetzler’s piece All About Cranberries is a perfect primer on the native berry. Also try Annette Nielsen’s Adirondack Cranberry Compote.
The first Thanksgiving meal shared between the pilgrim colonists and Wampanoag Native Americans in 1621 included American eels!
Before you add eels to your menu this year, be sure to check NYS Freshwater Fishing Regulations.
When we asked Fisheries staff to share a recipe for a freshwater fish dish they traditionally prepare on Thanksgiving, we were hard pressed to find one, but we did receive a seafood recipe (below).
If you have a traditional freshwater fish dish you enjoy with your family on Thanksgiving and would like to share it with us, email [email protected].
This comfort food recipe, courtesy of Cornell University Cooperative Extension’s Wild Harvest Table, is a fantastic way to showcase ground venison. Ground venison is a fantastic source of inexpensive, locally-sourced lean protein that is a staple in many North Country homes. If you do not have ground venison, you can easily substitute ground beef or turkey for equally delicious results!
Ingredients:
MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR MEALS: From Adirondack Harvest, an article about a chef who combats food waste. Curtiss Hemm uses his skills to teach others how to get the most bang for their buck cooking with locally grown (and often more expensive) ingredients:
“Curtiss Hemm thinks about food in ways that others don’t. Along with being a chef, he is a food instructor, food economist and food anthropologist. The Rumplestiltsken of chicken, he can spin a single bird into $188 worth of saleable restaurant product, massaging the parts many of us would throw away into pates, consommés and brodos.”
Although a locally raised chicken make seem like a splurge, price-wise, with that chicken, a head of cabbage and a few other odds and ends, a family can enjoy three or more wholesome, delicious meals that cost less than dinner at McDonald’s. And the odds and ends can be used to make a wholesome broth for future meals.
Farmhouse Apple Crisp
This has to be one of my favorite comfort food recipes of all times. When I was growing up, my mom would make apple crisp in a giant pan. As soon as the crisp came out of the oven, my sisters and I would descend on the hot pan like ravenous vultures, happily devouring every last crumb. Although this version won’t make the giant pan-sized apple crisp that my mom made, it will allow you to enjoy the exact same delicious apple crisp that my sisters and I did, and still do to this day. Enjoy!
I love yummy recipes that I can throw together very quickly on busy work nights. This one certainly meets that criteria! This simple vegan chili is easy to make, and comes together in only a few minutes, but is bursting with flavor, making it one of my favorites, especially during the colder months of the year.
Feel free to switch out different beans (I sometimes like to only use black beans or to use Jacob’s cattle beans), or to use fire roasted diced tomatoes.
This recipe is especially good paired with buttermilk biscuits or corn bread. Enjoy!
New York is the nation’s second-largest apple producing state. With more than 10 million trees, our roughly 600 commercial apple growers produce, on average, 29.5 million bushels of apples annually. And they grow more varieties than producers in any other state. Among them: McIntosh (the national apple of Canada), Empire, Cortland, Rome, Gala, and many others.
Our apple industry provides about 10,000 direct agricultural jobs (e.g. growing, packing), as well as roughly 7,500 indirect jobs (e.g. marketing, distribution). In 1976, New York’s policymakers designated the apple as the official state fruit. In 1987, they approved the apple muffin as a state symbol.
Hunger in AmericaAccording to Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, 37,227,000 Americans, of which 11,174,000 are children, are currently grappling with hunger. In other words, more than 11% of Americans are, at this moment, food insecure (lacking reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food). Among them are 13.1% of the people living in St. Lawrence County; 12.9% of those living in Franklin County; 11.9% of those in Clinton County; 10.3% of those in Essex County; and 10.1% of those in Hamilton County.
Three high-antioxidant, high-economic value “superfruits:” juneberry, honeyberry, and aronia berry are the focus of research funded by the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP). These fruit crops represent significant income potential from fresh market and value-added sales in New York State. They are northern climate-tolerant and have proven to be consumer-friendly in other areas of the U.S. and globally. NNYADP-funded on-farm trials of the three fruits are evaluating how well they adapt to and thrive under New York growing conditions.
With the cooler temperatures, my mind (and stomach!) automatically turn to soup. Although I dearly love fresh tomatoes and fennel in salads, they are absolutely incredible when roasted along with leeks, and then pureed into a delicious, low-fat, and nutrient-rich soup. In fact, this soup is so good that I ate the entire first test batch in one sitting (yes. By myself. It really is that good!). The tomatoes are rich in the antioxidant lycopene, vitamin C, folate, and potassium. Leeks are a fantastic source of fiber, vitamins A, C, and K, iron, and manganese. Fennel also provides fiber, vitamin C, potassium, and manganese. Each of these components assist in facilitating overall healthy body functioning, including repair of cellular damage and supporting a healthy immune system, making this soup an excellent choice for an immune-boosting dish. Roasting the vegetables allows the sugars in them to caramelize, creating a lovely darker color and fabulous flavor that shines in this simple soup. Although you can lightly drizzle olive oil on your vegetables prior to roasting them, you do not need to. They will still caramelize beautifully!
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