Orleans County Cuisine

Jen’s Famous Crab Cakes

My next door neighbor, Jen Quintern, is the most amazing chef. She’s the type that never cuts corners, cleans as she goes, and produces something that makes your mouth water for more every single time. Watching her create in the kitchen, she reminds me of the scene in The Godfather when the mafia guys are…

Sausage Butter Bean Stew – A Pantry-Freezer Gourmet Saver

Sometimes you need a pantry-freezer fall back that is full of deliciousness completely unexpected by the hungry family. If you have no time to reach the store, but want masterpiece magic, this easy, sausage and butter bean stew will satisfy every hunger. Buying the key staple ingredients for this stew means you’ll have a gourmet…

Traveler’s Chicken Noodle Soup

We went on the most… mediocre vacation of a lifetime. No really, the house was mediocre, the weather was terrible, and the highlight was half the Oakley family came down with the flu. But that’s the current count, maybe we’ll all be blessed. What does a girl do when the wind chill is -25 and…

Five Cheese Vegetable Soup

What do you do when you’ve been entertaining heavily over the summer months and the veggie and cheese trays are starting to age out in the fridge? You make this awesome five cheese vegetable soup! Is it sacrilegious to combine cave aged gruyere and brie to Ragu’s double cheddar soup? Who cares? It tastes amazing!…

Retreat Delights

Last year, I made the mistake of bringing grilled chicken to a faculty retreat. I have since learned that most of the people in my department avoid meat. (So embarrassing!) Sometimes we are most creative when we are given limits, especially in cooking or writing poetry! The farm markets have all been opening their doors,…

Winter stores beef stew with sweet potatoes and apples

I have continued the CSA with B&C Christ Farms through the winter. The apples are no longer crisp and perky, so I’ve been baking a lot of pies and making a lot of apple sauce. I get a lot of apples and I don’t want a single one to go to waste. Belonging to the…

A Sandwich for Charlie

For the 43 years that I’ve known my dad, a lot has changed. We started on Gillette Road, where indoor plumbing for our neighbors was not a given. He has been a car salesman, a politician, a philanthropist…but all through those years, he has loved Nance’s Sharp and Creamy Mustard. Today he tries to avoid…

Cuomo’s Chicken, Sweet Potato Crockpot Special

So, Cuomo hasn’t actually eaten any of my crockpot meals. But because of my “non-essential” status, the Governor gave me this snowy, blustery day off. Last week, the wind took my power and my water. We were flushing our toilet with pool water…the pool that was nearly destroyed. Thanks to a generous home owners insurance…

Cutco – The Right Tools for the Job

When I was 18 and just finishing high school, I was looking for a job and saw a flyer on a telephone pole. “$23/per appointment, Sales positions.” In 1992, I found this prospect very enticing. I headed to an address in Brighton and listened to the spiel from the officer manager. If I bought a…

B&C Christ Farms Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage

Joining the CSA this summer brought up so many memories. Growing up in Barre, NY, on my grandparents leased farm land, learning more about the farmers in Orleans County this summer was a nostalgic and soulful journey. Cindy Christ would be there when I picked up my share full of stories about the bounty and…

Slow Cooker Stuffed Pepper Soup

One of the Christmas gifts I received this year was a Dutch oven in the shape of a large, green, sweet pepper. I decided to play with a stuffed pepper soup recipe in order to show case this beautiful dish. This soup has a little more heat than most stuffed pepper soups, but I do…

Holiday Leftover Frittata

There are some holidays where everything comes together miraculously. The food and cheer are plentiful, love abounds, and there are no high emotions or hurt feelings. For both the Nesbitt and Oakley families, Christmas 2016 was a holiday for the books. Appetizers with my family led to eating Christmas dinner at the Oakley-Stilwell home. The…