Coppers Gin is made by Vermont Spirits in Quechee, Vermont. It is not yet in wide distribution; I found a bottle at their distillery/retail outlet in Quechee.

Vermont Spirits is best known for their excellent Vermont Gold and Vermont White vodkas,but they now boast a full line of artisanal spirits and an aged brandy is in the casks now!

I like it a lot. Coppers is on the soft, spicy side, closer to the Karner Blue Gin end of the spectrum than to the Gale Force Gin end. I thought I sensed a sort of fior de Sicilia vanilla-citrus angle, but it's more complex than that.

Coppers Gin made an excellent Martini 3:1 with the light, soft Dolin Dry Vermouth, and was not so good with Martini & Rossi. Try it also with Cinzano or Noilly Prat.

Coppers Gin is a very good sipping gin, of the sort that invites contemplation.

I'll keep the Coppers Gin in my cabinet for a summer gin.

This is really a class of braised beef, examples of which can be found in almost every non-vegetarian cuisine of the world.

The recipe below is full of generalities, because the details vary with the cuisine. For example, a Yankee pot roast is braised in a savory broth, an Italian Brasato in Barolo is braised in wine, and an Belgian Carbonnade is braised in beer.  A German Sauerbraten uses a savory broth, but adds vinegar to it. The herbs and spices also vary to reflect the cuisine. 

This recipe is really about technique, including one very important and counterintuitive one that is essential to the success of any pot roast, so be sure to read the Notes!

We love fresh haddock, simply baked with no crumbs or other distractions from its own exquisite flavor. Very fresh haddock is obviously essential to this dish!

I might have a bit of tartar sauce, and I like a Martini with Naked Haddock better than any wine.

Now that brings up something to think about. We are programmed by our culture to think about pairing wines and foods, and to think what's the right wine for a certain food. But sometimes the besst libation isn't a wine at all! So try a floral gin with haddock. You may find some old preconceptions crumbling.

This New England favorite is a classic accompaniment to Baked Beans. It's easy to make, and the uncooked mixture stores well for a few days, so you can easily make multiple meals from one recipe.

I searched through many recipes to find one that would have satisfied my mother-in-law, who was old Yankee on both sides back to the 17th century. This recipe is simple, so it relies on ingredients and technique. I used white boiling potatoes (not Russets), and frozen salt cod from my local fishmarket (not the kind that comes in a box).

The Puzzle of Terminology

Our colonial forebears did the best they could to confuse their descendants about the role of corn in their foodways. In the first place, to the English settlers, corn was the word for any grain, including barley, wheat, oats, and rye. They did not know about maize, commonly known to us as corn. When reading old texts about food and farming, it's easier to think of "corn" as grain.

When the Pilgrims arrived in 1620, they soon learned that their "corn" did not fare well under New England growing conditions. They were lucky to be introduced to maize, which had long been cultivated by the Native Americans.

The colonists referred to the Native Americans as Indians, so they naturally referred to this strange Native American grain as Indian corn, or simply Indian. The colonial dessert called Indian pudding is called that not because it was made by Native Americans, but because it is made with Indian, their word for corn. A popular bread of the time made with both rye and corn was known as ryaninjun.

Types of Corn

Fiddleheads are the still-curled young shoots of certain ferns. They are harvested for a brief time in early spring, so, like Shad Roe they are known in New England as a sign that spring has arrived. Fiddleheads are especially associated with the cuisine of Maine.

We celebrated a bounty of excellent new fiddleheads in April 2013 with our Fiddleheads Feast.

To prepare fiddleheads, just snip off the tips of the stems, rinse in cold water, and steam them for a few minutes. Stop the cooking by plunging them into ice-water. They should be al dente, still with some snap to them. 

Serve hot or cold, as a side dish or in a salad. 

I was reading an old occult-action thriller of the Weird Tales variety, The Brood of the Witch-Queen (1918) by Sax Rohmer. During a scene at a masked ball in Cairo, our protagonist says to his ailing companion:

"I prescribe a 'tango'" said Sime. "A 'tango' is --?" "A 'tango'," explained Sime, "is a new kind of cocktail sacred to this buffet. Try it. It will either kill you or cure you."

Naturally I had to mix up a Tango cocktail before continuing! 

This is a less sweet, equally complex version of Satan's Whiskers. The ingredients are almost the same, with more gin and less of the sweet stuff, and no bitters. 

I made this one with Silo gin from Vermont, reasoning that the apple taste of that fruit-forward gin would play well with the OJ and the triple sec. It was very good, but now I want to try it with one of those spicier gins from Maine, or the Nashoba Perfect 10 to see how they play with the sweet and dry vermouth combination. 

The Mint Julep is a southern delight and a tradition for the Kentucky Derby.  At the race they use Old Times, but that's not really good bourbon and since the race is so commercialized now I figured my friends deserve better.

I boiled up the simple syrup the night before with mint from my garden.

Except for the ice, this drink is a little syrup in a tall glass of bourbon. The crushed ice melts on contact, reducing the liquor to something you can sip for an hour without getting hammered. Ice cubes leave too much room for liquor and don't melt enough to adequately water the drink while cooling it; the result is a drink that is too strong for its volume.

You might think "I like it strong" and you may indeed like it strong, but empirical evidence counts, too: I made a large pitcher of bourbon and syrup mixture and poured it over ice-filled glasses, emptying the pitcher and still facing demand for more. Try it with the crushed ice- it's worth it!

Tsoureki, or Greek Easter Bread, is difficult, expensive, and delicious in an exotic way that takes it far beyond the realm of everyday cuisine.  It is worth learning, if you have the skill, the time and patience, and access to three peculiar ingredients.

This splash of tropical sunshine was a huge hit at one of our Actifio Pot-lucks, and it was photographed for this article in Inc. Magazine's December-January 2014-15 issue!

Now Debbie's a star and her Mango Pie is a command performance every time we have another pot-luck lunch at work.

This is easy no-bake recipe is great whenever you can get fresh mango pulp.

This is a fabulous seafood antipasto: seafood on a pile of steamed vegetables with a piquant Genoese green sauce to hold it together. 

The lower image is a small one made with only shrimp with steamed potatoes and pearl onions. See the first comment for two tips on how to make this delicious invention into a less intimidating affair.

My father's mother was born Peggy McBreen on Saint Patrick's Day in Bailieboro, County Cavan, Ireland. She's no longer with us, but I remember her every St Patrick's Day with an Irish feast and a proper Irish Coffee.

Most of these dishes came from Salmon Books' Favourite Irish Recipes.

Here's what we had:

• We opened the meal with an assortment of Four Cheeses from Upstate New York that we scored on Saturday's trip to the Hudson Valley and the Catskills. These were served with strong tea and Irish Whole Wheat Soda Bread.
• This was followed by Clam Soup, featuring fresh clams dug by our friend Rob out of nearby Duxbury Harbor. It was thickened with Jersey Cow Cream and seasoned with a lot of celery. It was really a sort of chowder by New England standards. It was a surprise hit.
• Next came an Irish Baked Salmon and Colcannon.
• With the meal we enjoyed a Slumbrew Porter Square Porter from Somerville Brewing and the last of the homebrewed cider from the cellar.
• We finished with Irish Coffee and a lovely Honey Pudding.

The feast was held on Sunday, 18 March 2012.

Attendees were John and Lorna, Richmond and Annette

Beans are one of the Three Sisters, the trio of local foods that supported the Pilgrims and other early settlers. Thanks to their hardiness, easy cultivation, and excellent storability, beans soon became a core component of colonial New England cuisine. In fact, beans became so identified with New England that Boston became popularly referred to as Beantown.

Beans are a climbing plant. Today if you grow beans in your garden, you probably let them climb a beanpole. The Native Americans had a clever way to save space in (and dig less of) that stony New England soil: they also grew corn, and used the cornstalks as beanpoles.

You can find a lot of interesting information about beans in this article from the Maine Folklife Center at the University of Maine. The beans part starts in the fourth paragraph and continues to the end of the page.

Fresh green beans can be steamed right from the garden, of course, but the great value of beans is their ability to be dried, stored and transported over primitive roads with low risk of spoilage.

Colcannon is a traditional Irish vegetable side dish made with mashed potatoes and shredded cabbage, flavored with leeks boiled in milk or cream. After it is all mashed together it gets baked again and served with melted butter that sits in a well in the center.

Because it has the cream and it gets baked after it is all mashed together, it get a sort of twice-baked potato texture and flavor that goes well with Irish Baked Salmon.

Though I seldom eat potatoes, I have made this easy recipe again and again to share with friends. The biggest part of the recipe can be prepared ahead of time for later reheating. It's a nice change from the ubiquitous garlic-mashed-potatoes and others of that ilk served at so many restaurants today.

Here's a hearty bread for deli sandwiches or stew bread bowls.

It's the basic recipe for Potato-Caraway Bread, with flax meal and rye flour added. This recipe also calls for baking the potatoes for mashing, rather than boiling them. 

Because this recipe makes a loaf with such a great crust, this redux version includes some tips for using it as bread bowls.

This Russian fish pie is wonderful made with Atlantic salmon. It's a big recipe, and a festive one, so it's great to prepare a big one for a crowd or you can make four smaller ones for a more intimate dinner (as shown here). Much of it can easily be prepared ahead of time, leaving only the final assembly and baking to be done on the day of the great feast. 

This is a great crowd-pleaser recipe, because it's easy to make and it makes you look like a culinary genius! 

It's an easy matter of making the crust and then filling it with layers of rice, sauteed mushrooms, hard-cooked egg, and poached fish, all of which can be prepared ahead of time. When you take that into account, the time required to prepare this for a fancy dinner is no more than an hour if you have prepared all the components beforehand.

This recipe looks like a big dinner, but it's not as heavy as it looks, so it works for summer as well as winter. Serve this with a dry New England hard cider, or a crisp rose wine (or chilled vodka, or beer, or whatever you please!).

Castagnaccio is a traditional Tuscan unleavened bread for travelers and field-workers. It's heavy, flavorful, and nourishing without being too sweet.

Castagnaccio is made with fresh chestnut flour, olive oil, rosemary, and pignoli, and sometimes raisins. I get chestnut flour in Boston's North End at Polcari's Market or at Salumeria Italiana; I am told that it is also available at Whole Foods sometimes. 

Richmond and I made a special expedition to Worcester to get Jamaican Ingredients for John's Jamaican Birthday Dinner. We ended up visiting 16 markets representing many nations in a single busy day!

We went to:

Van Morrison includes this sweet tea bread among his reminiscences of youth in his song Sense of Wonder, and most Americans have no idea what he's talking about, or even the words he's using.

Barm Brack is an old Irish recipe typically served with tea in the afternoon. The name means "speckled bread" because it contains raisins or currants. It can be made as a yeast bread or as a soda bread. 

Barm Brack is also traditionally served at Halloween time with some standard trinkets baked into it; if you get one of the trinkets in your slice, then you know your fortune for the coming year. 

Grille 58 at 284 Monponsett Street in Halifax is a place I’d never have come to but for word of mouth. It’s set in a strip mall of the sort you’d pass without a sidewise glance if you weren't in the know. I had recommendations from Frank who works at the garage where I get my car fixed, and from Annette’s aunt Valerie, who knits sweaters for our grandchildren. The praise was so effusive Annette and I ventured into the countryside to see what the excitement was about.

Where some cafés have jukeboxes, Grille 58 provides a tableside television into which you’re invited to feed coins. I was disposed to make snide comments about the poor man’s dinner and a movie, forgetting that in the privacy of my home I've been known to sup before the flickering screen. I suppose the invention is useful for families in which the children haven’t learned restaurant manners and need an electronic drug to prevent them from running amok betwixt the tables. There were no children when I was there, and none of the TVs was on.

Ouefs en Meurette is a classic dish from Burgundy that features poached eggs in a richly-seasoned Meurette red wine sauce.

This dish has that great Burgundian combination of red wine, bacon, onions, and mushrooms, but it's not as heavy (or as time-consuming) as Beef Burgundy. 

It's a great brunch dish traditionally served over toasted rounds of crusty bread, but I like to serve it as a light supper dish in the wintertime, served over a bed of rice to get all of the delicious sauce.

Ever since my Island Foodie expedition to Jamaica, I have wanted to make a Jamaican feast. There's no time like the dead of winter to bring on that tropical dreaming, so I finally made it in January 2015. We had a lot of fun.

We had:

• Rum Punch

• Pepperpot Soup

• Bammies

• Ackee and Saltfish

• Rice and Peas

• Escoveitched Fish

• Oxtail Stew

• Black Cake

All the recipes except for the Black Cake came from The Real Taste of Jamaica by Enid Donaldson.

The ingredients were acquired by Richmond and me on our special one-day Around the World in Worcester expedition.

Bammy, a descendant of an old indigenous Arawak indian food, nearly went extinct about 20 years ago. It was saved by the government of Jamaica with help from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and a handful of enterprising and hardworking Jamaican women. This in turn saved the livelihood of many Jamaican subsistence farmers who survived on their meager surplus of cassava root.

Bammies are a simple food, and as with many simple foods, ingredients and technique make all the difference. It was something of an adventure to work out the identity of the single ingredient... but then the technique beat me.

Here's what the recipes say, and how I did it, and how it worked. The recipes are pretty much in unanimous agreement with Enid's recipe, so I can't blame the recipe.

The technique is strange, but then I am not a 16th-century Arawak in Jamaica...maybe it would be common sense to them.

In the end I found the flavor great but the texture more suited to the heel of a work boot than as an accompaniment to Escoveitched Fish.

Read on and see what you think.

The classic Jamaican rum punch recipe is recorded in this simple rhyme:

"One of sour, 
Two of sweet,
Three of strong, and
Four of weak"

It works like this:

Sour is usually lime juice, but lemon juice or a mix is OK. 

Sweet is simple syrup or sugar, or any sweet liqueur.

Strong is rum, usually amber, but white is OK.

Weak is water, seltzer, fruit juice, or soda.

It doesn't matter if you use ounces or hogsheads as long as the proportions stay the same.

Combine them all and serve in tall glasses over ice. Garnish with fruit. A 10-ounce serving (less than a can of Coke) has three ounces of rum, so it's an easy-drinking but potent potion.

Here is the formula that I made for John's Jamaican Birthday Dinner.