To me, one of the most exciting things about getting out on the bike is that it’s brand new every time. I’ve done the ride I did yesterday that runs from the post office here in Westborough, into Marlborough past the Marlborough airport, through Stow on Route 62 right into the center of town onto 117, through Maynard to 27, onto Peakham Rd in Sudbury (gem of a road!), past the Wayside Inn (one of my favorite sites anywhere), past Callahan State Park back in Marlborough, and then pretty much doubling back from there.

Gorgeous ride! And on a late November bonus warm and clear weather day like we had yesterday, it was darn near magical. I saw houses and lawns - even cemeteries - lit warmly in low-angle, orange sunlight. The shot above of my shadow on the bike was taken before 2 in the afternoon. After that, the shadows only grew longer and more dramatic. I ran into a great man, Fitchburg Schools Superintendent Andre Ravenelle, out on his driveway in Sudbury. We used the height of technology, a face to face exchange, to agree we’d get together soon.

Then, at the Wayside, I saw a horse and carriage pull out of the barn across the street from the inn itself. I never knew that barn was active.

Turned out that the horse and carriage were going to provide a surprise ride for a couple that was getting engaged and then was going to used to for a wedding at the Martha-Mary chapel next to the Wayside early in the evening.

From there to home, I kept my feet to the pedals while my ever-growing shadow chased me from behind and the sun dropped fast in front of me. All great motivation. All lots of fun!

Today: Ashland, Holliston, Hopkinton & thick fog. Gotta’ get out - YAH!

All right, so Thanksgiving’s come and gone, but, hopefully, you’ve got a bunch of leftovers just waiting to be tackled. Great! Here’s a really quick & easy way to use leftover turkey (or any meat) to make a warm turkey tortilla sandwich that goes great for lunch or dinner. You can even make this tortilla sandwich during a long commercial break while watching football on TV. You bet! All you need is what’s shown and listed below. Yah, sure, I threw in a some salad with mine and poured some dressing over the tortilla. Gotta’ have as much flavor as possible. And, if you like what you see but don’t have a tortilla on hand, no problem. You can use two pieces of bread instead.

For complete, easy to follow, step-by-step picture book directions, click this link or either picture on this page.

Needed (per tortilla)

Leftover Turkey
Favorite Seasoning (I’m using Bayou Cajun seasoning, but any seasoning will work)
Mayonnaise or Sandwich Spread
Mustard
Sun Dried Tomatoes (can be substituted with red roasted peppers, sliced olives or any vegetable topping)
Favorite Cheese (I’m using a combination of brie and cheddar cheese)
Tortilla
Table Knife
Fork
Cutting Board
Microwave Oven Safe Plate

All right, here we are: Thanksgiving eve! Can’t you just anticipate the smell of roast turkey with all the sweet and savory fixings in the air? I sure can, especially after zipping in on the bike just at dusk after being pelted with stealth, frosty, pin-prickly beads of sleet. Whoa, what a great feeling coming out of a steamy shower just now red skinned and warm! And that anticipatory scent? Oh, it’s so there and alive I can almost hear my taste buds groan for it.

So, tomorrow will come, and there’s no need to get stressed - and certainly no need to fire up the oven scary early in the morning. Just click the turkey picture above for complete, easy to follow step-by-step picture book directions for a roast turkey that’s sure to come out tender and juicy as quickly and easily as possible. Why? Because the method you’ll see all in pictures calls for roasting the turkey without stuffing inside it (otherwise you have to overcook the turkey to cook the stuffing to a safe temperature), using high heat (450 degrees) at 10 minutes per pound, and cooking the turkey breast side down for all but the last 30 minutes of roasting.

Sound good? Great! And if you want help with the whole meal, including quick & easy turkey gravy, bread stuffing, mashed potatoes and fresh cranberry sauce there’s a brand new, first of a kind video/picture book you can get by clicking the book cover picture below for a direct link to the ebook vending site of your choice. Happy Thanksgiving!

Rich ruby red, zesty mouth popping snaps of sweet and sour softened with a gentle, glowing hint of cinnamon spice. There’s nothing like a bowl of fresh cranberry sauce that’s both so much more satisfyingly flavorful than the canned version and, at the same time, as easy to make as boiled water - and can be made ahead of time.

Here are the ingredients and pieces of equipment you’ll need to make fresh cranberry sauce. For easy to follow step-by-step picture book recipe, just click any photo on this page.

Preparation Time: 1-3 minutes
Total Cooking Time: 5 minutes
Cooling Time (until ready to serve or refrigerate): at least 30 minutes

Ingredients

12-16 Ounces of Fresh or Frozen Cranberries
1 Cup Sugar (I like brown sugar for this recipe but any sugar will work)
1 Cup Orange Juice or Water (juice adds more flavor)
1 Cinnamon Stick
Dash of Salt (optional but adds richness to the sweet & sour flavor)

Equipment

Medium Sized Pot
Measuring Cup
Big Spoon
Bowl

A darn good friend of mine, Sarah, and I had just wrapped up an indoor air quality talk with a group of Boston architects two years ago when a mutual friend of ours, Eugene, from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) overheard us talking about food and cooking. Eugene said something like, “Well, Bruce, first you’ve gotta’ get the food, and I don’t mean from the grocery store”. Whoa!

Eugene then laid out how he grows a lot of his vegetables at home and hunts for the most of the meat eats. “And I sometimes hunt where you live,” he said. Cool! I had to see that.

So, last weekend, after a 2-year delay, we met up on the edge of town at a bridge overlooking the Sudbury River that runs up to Cedar Swamp Pond that itself is just about bullseye in the middle of Westborough. “This’ll be mostly a sight-seeing tour, but I’m bringing my gun in case.”

We put the boat in right under that same bridge and paddled upstream and into the wind. The current gave us a workout, but who cared?  The sun was warm, and the water glass clear, lushly lined on the edges with richly alive green vegetation - nothing at all that even hinted a whisper of a muddy, murky swamp.

And here’s the really cool part! About 15 minutes after we got going, while snaking through the stream that sometimes ran as narrow as the width of the canoe, Eugene said, “ducks!” just as three ducks took off and frantically beat the air away from us. In three seconds, probably less, Eugene chucked his paddle, picked up his gun, aimed and fired. “Did you see where it landed?” he asked. Are you kidding? My eyes were wide open, but I got nothing but blur. “You got one?” “Yah, it went down right over there in the grass.” We paddled to that piece of grass at least 50 yards away and snugged the canoe up close. Eugene was wearing low cut shoes but didn’t even give it second’s thought. “I can’t leave that bird there”. I didn’t even know where “there” was. But Eugene climbed out of the boat and walked an exactly straight line with water almost up to mid-shin to a place in grass where the bird had dropped.

We pushed off again and, other than a lone mallard we saw squawk and flap off the water far away from us, never saw another duck, though we sure saw some excellent, pristine scenery - right in our very suburban Westborough backyard. Thanks, Eugene, for a fully satisfying trip on every level and great lesson in “getting the food” even when there’s not much to get!

I zipped through the rotary (shown above) to Pine Grove Cemetery,…

…the Vietnam Memorial…

…and Forbes building on the bike this morning to join our Veterans Day celebration.

Wow, were the flags snapping against a blue sky background in the leaf-streaked, chlly wind! But, really, what a perfect setting for a dead-on appropriate, heartfelt and heartwarming event that had much more of an effect on me than I’d expected.

I love when that happens!

I’m more than darn fortunate never to have served in combat but sure got a lot more out of the Navy lifetimes ago than I ever imagined. I never was a high achieving student. My biggest problems: reading and self-motivation. Just before graduating college, I wrote my way into becoming a Navy Intelligence Officer to serve the country the best way I thought I could. I worked with great groups of highly energetic and motivated men and women. I learned how to apply myself, how to communicate efficiently (usually with a good dose of fun), and made it a passion to make the difficult easy to understand. What I got in return was a huge boost in confidence that has kept me going ever since - and is the biggest reason I do what I do at this site.

Thanks to the Navy for giving me that life changing opportunity, and thanks very much to the Westborough veterans for putting on today’s inspiring event. Happy Veterans Day!

Here’s a short video trailer.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click the book cover picture above for a link listing the online sites where the book is available for 1/3 the cost of a Thanksgiving turkey. I’ll follow up with excerpts of recipes in the book and more.

More soon!

Crack, snap, pop! Twice in two months those ear pricking, heart zipping sounds waking us scary early in the morning in the Northeast have meant lights out for at least a day.

Power’s a great thing, but even when it’s out, you still gotta’ eat. So, why not make it an adventure ? For me it’s a great way to turn a drag into a smile.

After Irene blew through at the end of August, there was plenty of dry tree debris on the ground to make an outdoor campfire in the grill. I used small pieces of broken branches to cook coffee and toast. It was still summer. I didn’t really need - or want - anything too hot to eat.

Then this weekend, almost two months to the day, a late October storm blew through with wet, heavy snow and a lot colder temperatures both outside and inside. You bet I wanted something warm. So this time, no twigs but real coals in the grill for a hot, sustaining fire. I scraped the grill grate clean and cooked with both pots and pans…

…to make my first grilled fruit pancake for breakfast and then…

…turkey with tomato, basil, garlic, turkey and grated cheese for dinner along with a good shot of glow wine, all of which came off the grill very satisfyingly steaming hot.

Right now (or when I wrote this - no Internet for almost 2 days)? I’m in my car - heat blasting, phone charging, laptop in lap, waiting for the coals in the grill to get hot enough to cook.

My plan is to warm up some French toast I made the other day - with the fantastic luxury of full-on power in the kitchen - and have it with warm fruit in the same pan. It’s kind of like shoving it all in the microwave - only all outdoors.

Whoa, it’s suddenly getting chilly all across the country. It snowed in Colorado yesterday after days in the 70’s, even 80’s. They’re talking about snow and rain here in the Northeast tonight. Great time to fire up the oven and slide in a pie. Just think how comfortably the oven will heat up the kitchen, the fantastic smells in the air, and the soul-satisfying flavors when you bite into a slice of pie served up fresh and warm.

Sure, pie fillings are usually pretty easy to make. But what about pie crusts - aren’t those a bit of a pain? I used to think so until I made one for the first time last year to go with a pumpkin pie made with fresh pumpkin - also a first for me. While I was looking at a recipe I found online, I kept hearing that age-old line in my head that goes something like, “you can improvise when you cook but have to stick to the rules when you bake”. I like improvising too much. The recipe for the crust looked kind of bland, and I wanted a crust that was going to be more than just a convenient container for the filling. So that’s what I made. Yah, I was smiling all the way substituting whole wheat flour for white flour, adding vanilla extract and cinnamon on the fly, using coffee instead of water, and tossing in ground almond and ground flaxseed both to add flavor and give the crust some real teeth satisfying texture. Rules? Ha!

And then there was that part in the recipe about refrigerating the dough before rolling it out that, you bet, ha!, I completely blew off. You know what they say about the last laugh. I rolled out that dough evenly and easily between two pieces of waxed paper - and then spent the next half hour peeling warm goo off that same waxed paper and patching together a crust that looked nothing like the one at the top of the page, though it sure baked up fine. Here’s how it looked.

Lesson learned: refrigerate before rolling.

If you’re new to making pie crusts, here are the ingredients and pieces of equipment you’ll need along with plain English directions to make a crust that’s quick, easy, fully flavorful and goes great with fruit or pumpkin filling (more about that soon). As always, for complete, free, step-by-step picture book directions, just click any picture on this page.

Ingredients
(for one 10 inch diameter pie)

2 Cups Flour (I use whole wheat flour, but any flour will work)
½ Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Sugar
4 Tablespoons Butter
4 Tablespoons Canola or Vegetable Oil
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
Ground Cinnamon (optional but adds warm flavor for pumpkin or fruit filled pies)
Cold Water or Black Coffee (I like using coffee for more flavor but either will work)
Cooking Spray

Equipment

Large Mixing Bowl
Measuring Cup
Table Knife
Fork
Large Cutting Board
Wax Paper
Rolling Pin
Pie Pan

1. Measure 2 cups of flour, and pour the flour into a bowl.

2. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, 4 tablespoons butter (4 tablespoons = 1/2 stick of butter), 4 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, and a good shake (or 1 teaspoon) ground cinnamon (optional but adds great, warm flavor for pumpkin or fruit filled pies).

3. Use a fork to mash the butter into the flour, and mix the ingredients together until the butter has been broken into small, flour covered pieces.

4. Add and mix in small amounts of coffee (or water) to the bowl until the dough mix sticks together loosely and is still thickly granular.

5. Use your hands to form the dough into a ball. Put the dough ball back in the bowl and let the dough cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour to make the dough less likely to stick to the waxed paper when the dough is rolled flat.

6. When the dough has cooled, and you’re ready to bake a pie, cover a large cutting board with a sheet of waxed paper sprinkled with a light layer of flour to help keep the dough from sticking to it during rolling. Put the dough ball on the floured wax paper, flatten it a bit with the palm of your hand, and top with a light shake of flour. Cover the dough with a second sheet of waxed paper cut the same length as the first waxed paper sheet, and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough by working from the middle of the dough piece to the outside edges. Alternate between rolling the dough front to back and side to side until the dough is sightly larger in diameter than the diameter of the pie pan when the pan is held upside down over the dough. (If the diameter of your dough piece isn’t bigger than the diameter of pie pan, keep rolling the dough until it is.)

7. When the dough is rolled out to fit your pie pan, remove the top layer of waxed paper, and spray the inside of the pie pan with a light, even coat of cooking spray. Then place the pie pan upside down on the dough, put your hand under the cutting board, and maintain pressure from both hands to keep the cutting board and pie pan together as you turn the pie pan right-side up.

8. Remove the waxed paper, and use your fingers gently to press the dough evenly and snuggly onto the sides and surface of the pie pan. Use a knife to remove any excess dough from the edge of the pie pan, and fill in any holes in the dough using excess dough you cut away from the pan edge. You’re now ready either to fill and bake a pie or bake the crust by itself according to your specific recipe instructions.

All right! Fall’s full-on! Days are getting shorter - real fast. The air’s cool and crisp. Leaves are taking on brilliant colors. And on blustery days like yesterday, those gorgeous leaves are swooshed up and blown across the sky like big fat, multi-colored snowflakes. If you’re starting to feel a goose bump or two, I’m right with with you. So how ’bout we fire up the oven this evening and roast some butternut squash with hearthwarming savory flavors?

The toughest part about cooking butternut squash, if you want to have it in cubed shaped pieces the way you see above, is removing the outer skin. But no problem. We’ll use a vegetable peeler to take care of that as easily as possible. After that, it’s all downhill. The roasting method shown in the just updated, easy to follow step-by-step picture book directions you can get to directly by clicking any picture on this page is the easiest and most flavorful way I know to cook this kind of squash.

Prep Time: 5-10 minutes

Cooking Time: 25-40 minutes depending on size of squash pieces and actual oven temperature

Ingredients
(for 4-6 people)

1 Butternut Squash (about 2-3 pounds)
Olive or Vegetable Oil
Garlic Salt
Italian Seasoning
Ground Black Pepper
Balsamic Vinegar (optional)

Equipment

Vegetable Peeler
Sharp Knife
Cutting Board
Teaspoon
Big Spoon
Bowl
Baking Pan
Timer
Potholder

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