The kitchen: home to nourishment, culinary experimentation and—many times—peals of laughter. Everyone just seems to gravitate to the kitchen. Even if you’re not the cook, people like watching a talented chef create gastronomic masterpieces and then enjoying the fruits of their labor. If it’s not our own kitchen, it well may be a friend’s or local chef’s that calls to us, to not only nourish ourselves, but to inspire our creative side and share comfort food to warm ourselves body and soul. As the temperature drops, many of our activities move indoors and the kitchen becomes even more of a focal point for family and friends. In fact, I sit here on this Polar Vortex day writing in my mother’s kitchen. It evokes memories of the recipes she has shared with me, the meals dutifully made for her family, and all the creations she concocted for convivial dinner parties. My mother instilled in me a love of cooking and experimenting in the kitchen.
As you might have guessed by now, this issue focuses on all things “in the kitchen.” From fondue to cooking on a Glenwood Stove to Farm & Coast Market in Dartmouth where the owners use everything (and I mean everything) to create a truly sustainable kitchen, we cover a wide array of topics. We learn about new cooking techniques, the beloved go-to cookbooks of our readers, contributors, and editors, and secret ingredients like sunflower oil (it makes the best French fries ever!). The recipes we’ve included will have you warmed up in no time, as well as teach new ways to hone and expand your cooking skills.
It’s a new year, and now is the time to try new things. So make yourself a Hot Toddy, settle in at the kitchen table, and dig in. You’ll soon find your culinary aspirations fired up, and you’ll be scurrying around the room looking for all the ingredients to remove the chill from your bones. Even better, grab your family members, gather around the stove/oven and take a new recipe or technique for a test-drive. Or take a field trip to Farm & Coast Market or Moby Dick’s Brewery. Winter is as fun as you make it. Hopefully, we’ve given you enough fodder to make the season an epicurean delight. While there’s no place like home, the heart of the home is in the kitchen.
Terry Vandewater, Assistant Editor
Eat thoughtfully
Laurie Hepworth & Michael Hart
