Ready, set, let the drooling begin because the Zeppole di San Giuseppe are ready to float off the trays at your favorite Italian bakery. And, to us, if they aren't light and airy, they don't meet the test. After all, they are named for the famous airships!
The very best are filled to order like this one from Modern Pastry in Boston's North End.
But, while we remind you about these each year, we want to know where your favorites are sold.
What is your source for Zeppole and what style do you love? Add your thoughts in the comments below, Tweet it to @BostonZest or send us an email and we'll add your suggestion to this post as an update.
January brings about a few more farmers' markets around the area and the Brookline Winter Farmers' Market has added a second market day on Monday, 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. with its own set of vendors.
Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.
January brings about a few more farmers' markets around the area and the Brookline Winter Farmers' Market has added a second market day on Monday, 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. with its own set of vendors.
Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.
January brings about a few more farmers' markets around the area and the Brookline Winter Farmers' Market has added a second market day on Monday, 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. with its own set of vendors.
Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.
Lobster photo by Man Pikin. Link in details below.
While you may think of lobster as summer fare, around our house it's a Christmas Eve tradition. Think about it, the reason Maine Lobster is so good is those freezing cold waters that make swimming from Maine’s ocean beaches a shocking experience. This time of year, water temperatures drop throughout our area and lobsters have better flavor.
Do you have a traditional Christmas Eve meal? Please share it with us and our readers in the comments or via Twitter.
Feast of the Seven Fishes
For many Italian families, the Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes, or La Vigilia di Natale, is a tradition. And, because preparing this meal at home can be daunting for the cook, it’s a good time to invite guests who will bring a dish or help in the kitchen – especially if your family’s version actually calls for 9, 11, or 13 fishes.
(Update 12.20.12 @ 5:12 pm) Just found this coversation over on Chowhound's Boston Board about other places doing the Feast with some reviews on past feasts. Feast of the Seven Fishes on Chowhound
Get the Salt Cod Early
One element of most traditional Christmas Eve feasts is salt cod or baccalà. This is the one product you need to buy right away. Soaking it, to rehydrate and remove the salt, can be a long process and is best begun at least a couple of days before you plan to use it.
We’ve purchased excellent salt cod from Salumeria Italiana in the North End. Baccalà is one of those products you want to buy from a trusted specialty shop or fishmonger. There's a very wide range of salt cod quality and if this is for a special occasion, why not buy from someone who's made sure you will have the best.
For the non-cooks, there are area restaurants serving their versions of the feast this year. Grotto in Beacon Hill has had rave reviews of their special feast menu in past years. Sister restaurant Marliave is also joining in the feasting with their own version.
Other places for fish feasting are Dante in Cambridge, Davio’s in the Theatre District, and Legal Harborside out in the Seaport area. The North End’s Neptune Oyster is doing it tonight (12.20.12) for those who have to be elsewhere on Christmas Eve. For all these places, reservations are recommended.
Upddate 12.20.12 one of our favorite places, Coppa has added a feast and they are doing prixe fixe or a la carte.
Make Up Your Own
You might decide to have your own taylor made seafood feast during the holidays. You can buy and cook your favorite fish or dine out choosing the menu items that appeal to you. Another option is meeting up with friends at a great seafood restaurant like Island Creek Oyster Bar and sharing a bunch of items that appeal to the group. That could help nudge you out of your seafood comfort zone.
The nice thing about menus for this holiday is that they are less prescribed, letting you start your own traditions. Let us know what you decide to create for your own Chistmas eve menu.
Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!
Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.
Lobster photo by Man Pikin. Link in details below.
While you may think of lobster as summer fare, around our house it's a Christmas Eve tradition. Think about it, the reason Maine Lobster is so good is those freezing cold waters that make swimming from Maine’s ocean beaches a shocking experience. This time of year, water temperatures drop throughout our area and lobsters have better flavor.
Do you have a traditional Christmas Eve meal? Please share it with us and our readers in the comments or via Twitter.
Feast of the Seven Fishes
For many Italian families, the Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes, or La Vigilia di Natale, is a tradition. And, because preparing this meal at home can be daunting for the cook, it’s a good time to invite guests who will bring a dish or help in the kitchen – especially if your family’s version actually calls for 9, 11, or 13 fishes.
(Update 12.20.12 @ 5:12 pm) Just found this coversation over on Chowhound's Boston Board about other places doing the Feast with some reviews on past feasts. Feast of the Seven Fishes on Chowhound
Get the Salt Cod Early
One element of most traditional Christmas Eve feasts is salt cod or baccalà. This is the one product you need to buy right away. Soaking it, to rehydrate and remove the salt, can be a long process and is best begun at least a couple of days before you plan to use it.
We’ve purchased excellent salt cod from Salumeria Italiana in the North End. Baccalà is one of those products you want to buy from a trusted specialty shop or fishmonger. There's a very wide range of salt cod quality and if this is for a special occasion, why not buy from someone who's made sure you will have the best.
For the non-cooks, there are area restaurants serving their versions of the feast this year. Grotto in Beacon Hill has had rave reviews of their special feast menu in past years. Sister restaurant Marliave is also joining in the feasting with their own version.
Other places for fish feasting are Dante in Cambridge, Davio’s in the Theatre District, and Legal Harborside out in the Seaport area. The North End’s Neptune Oyster is doing it tonight (12.20.12) for those who have to be elsewhere on Christmas Eve. For all these places, reservations are recommended.
Upddate 12.20.12 one of our favorite places, Coppa has added a feast and they are doing prixe fixe or a la carte.
Make Up Your Own
You might decide to have your own taylor made seafood feast during the holidays. You can buy and cook your favorite fish or dine out choosing the menu items that appeal to you. Another option is meeting up with friends at a great seafood restaurant like Island Creek Oyster Bar and sharing a bunch of items that appeal to the group. That could help nudge you out of your seafood comfort zone.
The nice thing about menus for this holiday is that they are less prescribed, letting you start your own traditions. Let us know what you decide to create for your own Chistmas eve menu.
Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!
Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.
Lobster photo by Man Pikin. Link in details below.
While you may think of lobster as summer fare, around our house it's a Christmas Eve tradition. Think about it, the reason Maine Lobster is so good is those freezing cold waters that make swimming from Maine’s ocean beaches a shocking experience. This time of year, water temperatures drop throughout our area and lobsters have better flavor.
Do you have a traditional Christmas Eve meal? Please share it with us and our readers in the comments or via Twitter.
Feast of the Seven Fishes
For many Italian families, the Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes, or La Vigilia di Natale, is a tradition. And, because preparing this meal at home can be daunting for the cook, it’s a good time to invite guests who will bring a dish or help in the kitchen – especially if your family’s version actually calls for 9, 11, or 13 fishes.
(Update 12.20.12 @ 5:12 pm) Just found this coversation over on Chowhound's Boston Board about other places doing the Feast with some reviews on past feasts. Feast of the Seven Fishes on Chowhound
Get the Salt Cod Early
One element of most traditional Christmas Eve feasts is salt cod or baccalà. This is the one product you need to buy right away. Soaking it, to rehydrate and remove the salt, can be a long process and is best begun at least a couple of days before you plan to use it.
We’ve purchased excellent salt cod from Salumeria Italiana in the North End. Baccalà is one of those products you want to buy from a trusted specialty shop or fishmonger. There's a very wide range of salt cod quality and if this is for a special occasion, why not buy from someone who's made sure you will have the best.
For the non-cooks, there are area restaurants serving their versions of the feast this year. Grotto in Beacon Hill has had rave reviews of their special feast menu in past years. Sister restaurant Marliave is also joining in the feasting with their own version.
Other places for fish feasting are Dante in Cambridge, Davio’s in the Theatre District, and Legal Harborside out in the Seaport area. The North End’s Neptune Oyster is doing it tonight (12.20.12) for those who have to be elsewhere on Christmas Eve. For all these places, reservations are recommended.
Upddate 12.20.12 one of our favorite places, Coppa has added a feast and they are doing prixe fixe or a la carte.
Make Up Your Own
You might decide to have your own taylor made seafood feast during the holidays. You can buy and cook your favorite fish or dine out choosing the menu items that appeal to you. Another option is meeting up with friends at a great seafood restaurant like Island Creek Oyster Bar and sharing a bunch of items that appeal to the group. That could help nudge you out of your seafood comfort zone.
The nice thing about menus for this holiday is that they are less prescribed, letting you start your own traditions. Let us know what you decide to create for your own Chistmas eve menu.
Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!
Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.
With the summer farmers’ market season coming to a close Thanksgiving week, it’s time to spread the word on winter markets. Today's Friday Link will take you to farmers' markets around the area.
The team over at Mass Farmers’ Markets says, “Turns out they are opening up all over the state! We are expecting more than 30 of them to crop up this winter; to find out if there is a Winter Market opening up near you visit our website [www.massfarmersmarkets.org], click on the FIND tab and type the word "WINTER' in the 'name of market' field.” They are adding new information as market details are submitted.
Here are some Boston area dates & locations:
Brookline Winter Farmers’ Market, Sundays, Noon – 5pm, (Nov 4 – Early June) at The Arcade, Coolidge Corner, 318 Harvard St., Brookline
We've included the Wayland Market in this list because this is a wonderful destination market.
When father frost has us in his icy grip, the Wayland Winter Market at Russell’s Garden Center is a trip to the tropics. Russell’s lush greenhouses are turned into a festival of food vendors. They not only sell products for you to enjoy at home, but also host a food court where you can enjoy breakfast or lunch in the greenhouse.
This market supports all aspects of local food production. In addition to having local wine and cheese producers on their regular vendor list, they hold special events for them. The annual Massachusetts Farm Wineries Day will be held on January 26. This year, the Russell’s team has added a Farm Cheese Day on March 2nd. These are opportunities to sample, purchase, and support these value-added products from area farms.
Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.
With the summer farmers’ market season coming to a close Thanksgiving week, it’s time to spread the word on winter markets. Today's Friday Link will take you to farmers' markets around the area.
The team over at Mass Farmers’ Markets says, “Turns out they are opening up all over the state! We are expecting more than 30 of them to crop up this winter; to find out if there is a Winter Market opening up near you visit our website [www.massfarmersmarkets.org], click on the FIND tab and type the word "WINTER' in the 'name of market' field.” They are adding new information as market details are submitted.
Here are some Boston area dates & locations:
Brookline Winter Farmers’ Market, Sundays, Noon – 5pm, (Nov 4 – Early June) at The Arcade, Coolidge Corner, 318 Harvard St., Brookline
We've included the Wayland Market in this list because this is a wonderful destination market.
When father frost has us in his icy grip, the Wayland Winter Market at Russell’s Garden Center is a trip to the tropics. Russell’s lush greenhouses are turned into a festival of food vendors. They not only sell products for you to enjoy at home, but also host a food court where you can enjoy breakfast or lunch in the greenhouse.
This market supports all aspects of local food production. In addition to having local wine and cheese producers on their regular vendor list, they hold special events for them. The annual Massachusetts Farm Wineries Day will be held on January 26. This year, the Russell’s team has added a Farm Cheese Day on March 2nd. These are opportunities to sample, purchase, and support these value-added products from area farms.
Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.
With the summer farmers’ market season coming to a close Thanksgiving week, it’s time to spread the word on winter markets. Today's Friday Link will take you to farmers' markets around the area.
The team over at Mass Farmers’ Markets says, “Turns out they are opening up all over the state! We are expecting more than 30 of them to crop up this winter; to find out if there is a Winter Market opening up near you visit our website [www.massfarmersmarkets.org], click on the FIND tab and type the word "WINTER' in the 'name of market' field.” They are adding new information as market details are submitted.
Here are some Boston area dates & locations:
Brookline Winter Farmers’ Market, Sundays, Noon – 5pm, (Nov 4 – Early June) at The Arcade, Coolidge Corner, 318 Harvard St., Brookline
We've included the Wayland Market in this list because this is a wonderful destination market.
When father frost has us in his icy grip, the Wayland Winter Market at Russell’s Garden Center is a trip to the tropics. Russell’s lush greenhouses are turned into a festival of food vendors. They not only sell products for you to enjoy at home, but also host a food court where you can enjoy breakfast or lunch in the greenhouse.
This market supports all aspects of local food production. In addition to having local wine and cheese producers on their regular vendor list, they hold special events for them. The annual Massachusetts Farm Wineries Day will be held on January 26. This year, the Russell’s team has added a Farm Cheese Day on March 2nd. These are opportunities to sample, purchase, and support these value-added products from area farms.
Note on Comments: We monitor comments constantly and anything that is pure spam, inappropriate, or nasty is swept away. In addition to readers' comments, we welcome hearing from the people, places, and services we cover. Often, those add great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you. We do reserve the right to edit ads and links out of comments.
