Househomekits

My August video just had to be about blueberries because we recently took part in Coastal Mountain Land Trust 's annual free blueberry pick at Beech Hill Preserve. And it was magical! Plus it was a good excuse to sneak in one of my favourite Amelia Curran songs, "Scattered and Small" (whose title I thought was quite fitting for a video featuring wild blueberries). The little blue jewels are indeed, quite scattered and small, but such a delight to seek out, pluck, and pop in one's mouth (or bucket, if you're a faithful picker). It's so fun to see people of all ages come out to pick on Beech Hill, and when you look up, you see the ocean in the distance and dozens of colourful silhouettes scattered all around, hunched over their blueberry containers, deep in concentration. Because i t takes a long time to hand-pick wild blueberries, it's a meditation of sorts.  I hesitated whether to make a cake with our precious cargo, but we also just bought a big box of o...

This simple salad has been one of my great summer pleasures this year. I make it all the time.  One day I had little in the fridge other than cucumbers, yoghurt, and dill, so I threw them all together and something wonderfully fresh and tasty emerged.  I'm since told that this salad is actually a traditional dish in Turkey, and also in Iran. It's also very similar to Greek tzaziki. You know you're onto something good when you're eating something shared across so many cultures. Basically, it boils down to this: yoghurt and cucumber are the bomb together, so just add a bit of your favourite fresh herbs and you've got yourself a cooling summer salad! I like my version to have LOTS of crushed garlic and LOTS of dill. And in my opinion, the yoghurt has to be full-fat whole milk yoghurt, as creamy as you can get it or make it. My yoghurt of choice is the  unbelievably thick Greek Yoghurt  made by our friends at  The Milkhouse   here in Maine.  To read more a...