classics

Classics: Grandmother Muskie’s Polish Meatloaf

by Malcolm Bedell May 21, 2013

Let’s get something sorted out right off the bat: Grandmother Muskie, she of “Polish Meatloaf” fame, isn’t my grandmother. She’s Jane G. Muskie (Mrs. Edmund S.)’s grandmother, presumably, who submitted her family meatloaf recipe to the Portland, Maine Junior league for inclusion in their cookbook, “RSVP: An Invitation to Maine Cooking,” way back in 1982. [...]

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Classics: Peanut Butter Buckeyes

by Malcolm Bedell April 12, 2013

My childhood fascination with truancy wasn’t particularly unusual, I don’t think, though I may have come to it a little sooner than most. I was in just the sixth grade, living in the US Virgin Islands, when I discovered the pure thrill and joy of skipping school. Each day, I would take a ferry from [...]

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Classics: Fudge Brownies

by Jillian Bedell October 31, 2012

It’s our very first grown-up Halloween. Our first Halloween with a giant bowl of Kit-Kats and Butterfingers and the porch lights on for trick-or-treaters. Our first year answering the doorbell, admiring all the Batmans, princesses and and witches, then snapping off the lights at eight o’clock, after the last horde of kids were clearly creepy [...]

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Classics: Stuffed Mushrooms

by Jillian Bedell July 27, 2012

These stuffed mushrooms are a perfect party canape. Classic, bordering on kitschy, but not all-the-way kitsch. The inclusion of Ritz crackers was, in my opinion, a bold choice. Ritz crackers remind me of my grandmother’s friend, Arlene. Did you ever have to accompany your grandma to a friend’s house? Like, if you were staying with [...]

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Classics: Smoky Ham and Split Pea Soup

by Jillian Bedell May 1, 2012

I, for one, am not complaining about the rain. It’s a fine excuse to wear green Wellingtons, watch Netflix documentaries, and drink a splash of brandy in the bathtub. Rain is also a very good reason to make a great batch of soup. I’d been thinking of my grandfather, a plumber who read the Old Testament in the kitchen at midnight and brought me to the [...]

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Classics: Sloppy Joe

by Malcolm Bedell April 27, 2012

Is there a more quintessentially American food than the Sloppy Joe? Okay, so the sandwich, a slurry of beef, onion, and sweet tomato sauce, isn’t exactly the darling of the gourmet food world. Maybe it’s because of that whole “Manwich” association from the 1980s, the canned Sloppy Joe sauce that removed most of the “cooking” [...]

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Classics: Deviled Ham

by Malcolm Bedell April 9, 2012

Before we even get started, I realize that I’ve already lost some of you. Some, or maybe even most of you, read the title of this post, and moved right along to your next stop on the Internet, for sweeter websites filled with 100% more Thin Mint-and-Nutella-filled cupcakes and at least 50% less ground up [...]

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Classics: Irish Corned Beef and Cabbage

by Malcolm Bedell March 16, 2012

Once you have settled on the idea that the days of drinking pale green tinted beer until you lose vision in your right eye and wake up with a bloody nose are probably behind you, the biggest remaining component of a St. Patrick’s Day celebration is the food. This year, we tackled a traditional corned [...]

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Classics: Spicy Haddock Fish Cakes

by Malcolm Bedell March 8, 2012

The temperature rose to nearly 60 degrees here today, which is quite unusual for early March in Maine. Then again, it’s been an unusually mild Winter all the way around, with just a few snowfalls timed perfectly to coordinate with the holidays. It certainly wasn’t the Winter of my youth, where the ground froze at [...]

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Classics: Maine Lobster Dip

by Malcolm Bedell February 21, 2012

There’s something about this dish that has a delightfully 1950s vibe to it; something that makes me want to put on a ruffled apron with a pair of high heels, pop a benzedrine, and wait patiently for my husband to get home to discipline the children. What is that something? It’s cream cheese. Specifically, cream [...]

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