Food - Marblehead Current

28 Jun

PHOTOS: Champagne Reception sparkles at 60th Festival of Arts

Leigh BlanderArt, Entertainment, Food, Recreation, Top Stories

More than 500 people came out to toast the 60th Marblehead Festival of Arts at its popular Champagne Reception at Fort Sewall Sunday evening. Wearing hand-created hats and decked out for the annual summer event, folks sipped on bubbly, sampled food from local restaurants and danced to live music. Here's a quick photo gallery by Current Editor Leigh Blander. Story below.... Wearing hand-decorated hats and dressed for the signature summer event, guests sipped bubbly, sampled food from local restaurants and danced to live music by…

23 Jun

FOOD 101: Asparagus while it lasts

Linda BassettColumns, Food, Opinion

Fresh local asparagus exists for only a moment in time. The pencil-thin spears show up in grocery bins and farmers’ market stalls every spring. I gather large bunches for myriad recipes. Stored in the vegetable crisper until time to cook, they only need a fast rinse or quick bath in cool water. I bend each spear and this intelligent veggie shows a cook precisely where to trim. It will snap in the right spot. The slender stalks cook quickly when dropped into a skillet of…

19 Jun

Photo gallery: Driftwood’s last day before changing hands

Leigh BlanderFood, Top Stories

There was a special energy at the Driftwood Restaurant Friday morning — the last day it is owned by the Galvin/Losano family. Folks lined up outside the beloved breakfast/lunch spot, waiting for a table and the chance to say goodbye and thank you to Colleen Galvin. Galvin and her family posted this message on Facebook Friday morning:"To all of our customers and friends it is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that I am retiring and selling the Driftwood. The Driftwood has a…

17 Jun

‘It’s Marblehead as we hope it always will be’: The Driftwood changes hands

Leigh BlanderBusiness, Food, Top Stories

After more than four decades in the Galvin/Losano family and more than 60 years as a Marblehead institution, local landmark the Driftwood is changing hands. The beloved breakfast and lunch spot at 63 Front St. has been sold by owner Colleen Galvin to Maria Torres, owner of Maria's Gourmet in town. For generations of Marbleheaders, the Driftwood has been more than a place to grab eggs, pancakes and coffee. It has been a gathering place where regulars know one another by name, tourists discover a…

09 Jun

FOOD 101: Berry delicious: Sweet ways to celebrate the season

Linda BassettColumns, Food, Opinion

New Englanders are “pick-your-own” enthusiasts. When autumn waves its glorious color, we drive to the nearest orchard carrying baskets to fill with sweet ripe apples. Late spring finds us wandering fields peeking under vines for red and blue treasure — blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. Some of us with little proximity to fields pick these jewels at the weekend farmers’ market. While fresh berries are perfect eaten out of hand, cooks find myriad other ways to enhance them. Piled on homemade (or storebought) biscuits and dolloped…

18 May

NEWS IN BRIEF: Senior tax assistance, sewer rates, Coffin School and more…

Leigh BlanderCommunity Resources, Food, Local News, Municipal Matters, News in brief

The Current welcomes 150–200-word submissions to News in Brief. Send yours to info@marbleheadnews.org. Info session on Senior Tax Assistance programsCome Thursday, May 21, 1-3 p.m., to learn about Marblehead’s senior tax assistance programs.Representatives from the Assessor’s Office and Council on Aging will share resources about tax assistance options and discuss Marblehead’s newly enacted Means-Tested Senior Tax Property Exemption and the state’s Senior Circuit Breaker Tax Credit programs. Jacobi Community Center, 10 Humphrey St. RSVP by calling 781-631-6225. Town dodges larger hike in sewer ratesWhile some…

06 May

FOOD 101: Grilled cheese: The comfort food we all need right now

Linda BassettColumns, Food, Linda Bassett, Opinion

Was there ever a childhood comfort food to compare to a grilled cheese sandwich? Mom made it in a skillet or a grill press. At the diner or luncheonette, a cook slapped it on a well-greased grill top. Mom’s homemade sandwich was simple: two slices of American cheese — preferably orange — tucked between two slices of spongy grocery store bread. Gobs of butter heated and swirled in the skillet served to warm and melt the cheese and brown the bread. When cut, warm gooey…

13 Apr

FOOD 101: Shakshuka — Poached eggs with global flair

Linda BassettColumns, Food, Opinion

Back in the day, college students cooked up ghastly dinners of fast-boiling rice, beans and canned mixed vegetables that I suspect were scraps from the assembly line. We dumped grated Parmesan cheese from a green cardboard jar over it. “Survival food,” we called it. Linda Bassett / COURTESY PHOTO Today, students are more intentional, globally sophisticated. Recently, a grad student introduced me to the meal that sustained her and classmates: North African shakshuka, a skillet of eggs poached in tomatoes with peppers and onions, warmly…

26 Mar

FOOD 101: Frittata — a meal any time of day

Submitted ContentColumns, Food, Opinion

By Linda Bassett In Italian vernacular, the phrase “are una frittata” translates as “to make a mess.” But on the table, that mess becomes delectable. Quite different from a mess of grits or a mess of catfish, a frittata brings beaten eggs together with whatever the cook imagines for a quick meal — breakfast, lunch or dinner. Often likened to an omelet, a plain frittata happily doesn’t require risky flipping for perfection. It puffs up to golden glory and interior creaminess with a quick trip…

25 Feb

FOOD 101: Last century’s chicken, revived

Submitted ContentColumns, Food, Opinion

By Linda Basset On winter weekends, I like to thumb through old cookbooks searching for old treasures. I might want to revive one of grandma’s recipes, renew it or tweak it for the present day. I just struck gold: Chicken Marbella. In the last two decades of the past century, home cooks made this a dinner party go-to. Kind of show-off-y, chicken is surprisingly combined with pitted prunes, green olives and capers in a roasting pan. Originally created at Manhattan’s Silver Palate food shop back…