Tag: advice

Sunday Dog Assignment: Make Holiday Reservations Now!

Columbus Day weekend is the perfect time to make travel reservations, if you have companion animals.

Whether your furry pals are traveling with you or staying with friends for the holidays, make whatever reservations you will need as soon as possible.

Pet sitter and boarding kennel schedules can fill up fast for the holiday season. Airlines limit the number of pets in the cabin and pet-friendly lodgings might have no vacancies, if you wait too long.

Poppy usually travels with us and is packed and ready to go at a moments notice when we find a vacancy at one of our favorite vacation spots that welcome our whole family of three.

Friends & Family Deserve Notice Too

Even informal agreements with family, friends, and other pet lovers for care while you travel should be arranged well in advance to ensure a visitor will fit with their holiday plans. If you’re counting on Mom or Dad to take Fluffy while you are away, check now to see if that feline visitor is welcome this year.

We often meet dogs in the parks who are “grandpups” visiting their “grandparents.” If you have a family member or friend who shares your pet care values and is willing to take your place while you travel, you’re fortunate.

We've covered this topic many times before, both here and in other publications. Here are a couple of BostonZest posts with tips and more advice on boarding or traveling with your dog.

Is Your Sunday Dog Traveling for the Holidays? Reserve Now! Plus 8 more Tips

This "Sunday Dog" Loves to Travel

Get to know all of our Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.

Thanks to everyone who Hops over to Amazon from here to do their shopping. We appreciate your support.

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2013 Penny & Ed Cherubino and traveling dog from istockphoto.

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October 9, 2016
No Mayo Potato Salads

If your idea of potato salad is limited to the typical mayonnaise based recipes, it’s time to think again and experiment with farm fresh potatoes, new mix-ins, and alternate dressings.

This potato and egg salad with a vinaigrette is made creamy by the mixing of the eggs and dressing. A few scallions add flavor and color.

The great American writer Laurie Colwin devoted a chapter to potato salad in her book “Home Cooking.” She began with her belief that there is no such thing as a bad potato salad, “So long as the potatoes are not undercooked …” From there, she described the many versions she has tried and loved over the years.

She had a favorite for this time of year. “If you can find them, the tiny potatoes of early autumn are delicious. They are the size of quail eggs and are wonderful steamed and eaten with a French olive oil, salt, pepper and a drop of lemon juice.”

Colwin also gave good advice on selecting potatoes for salads. She found that waxy potatoes like our popular red skinned varieties don’t absorb as much dressing and are best when you want a salad, “delicately coated.” And that mealier potatoes, like a russet, soak up dressing for a creamier result.

You'll find the recipe for this Summer Corn and Potato Salad in one of our posts from 2008. I still make it and we still love it.

Vinaigrette Potato Salads

Thinking vinaigrette rather than mayonnaise is very traditional. In Fannie Merritt Farmer's “The Original Boston Cooking School Cook Book 1896,” there are five potato salad recipes, all sans mayonnaise.

One version is great for apple season – Potato and Celery Salad. She wrote, “To two cups boiled potatoes cut in one-half inch cubes add one-half cup finely cut celery and a medium-sized apple, pared, cut in eighths, then eighths cut in thin slices. Marinate with French Dressing. Arrange in a mound and garnish with celery tip and sections of bright red apple.” Her version of “French Dressing” was what we call vinaigrette: a mix of olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Family Recipe

The potato and egg salad you see at the top was my father-in-law's recipe. Ed and I enjoy this as a quick meal some evenings. I use two pounds of red potatoes as the base. Rather than peel the potatoes, I scrub them, remove any eyes or bad spots, slice into wedges, and cook them in a steamer until tender. While still warm, I mix in a large stalk of diced celery, two thinly-sliced scallions, four sliced hard boiled eggs, two tablespoons of cider vinegar, and about half a cup of olive oil. You can serve this warm or cold.

Other additions to a salad like this might be capers, grated carrots, parsley, dill, or a bit of dry mustard. As with so many salads, I use what I have on hand when I begin to make it and change it up often enough to keep it fresh among the routine meals.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino (Adapted for the web from one of her Fresh & Local newspaper columns)
Photos: ©2008- 2015 Penny Cherubino

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September 23, 2015
No Mayo Potato Salads

If your idea of potato salad is limited to the typical mayonnaise based recipes, it’s time to think again and experiment with farm fresh potatoes, new mix-ins, and alternate dressings.

This potato and egg salad with a vinaigrette is made creamy by the mixing of the eggs and dressing. A few scallions add flavor and color.

The great American writer Laurie Colwin devoted a chapter to potato salad in her book “Home Cooking.” She began with her belief that there is no such thing as a bad potato salad, “So long as the potatoes are not undercooked …” From there, she described the many versions she has tried and loved over the years.

She had a favorite for this time of year. “If you can find them, the tiny potatoes of early autumn are delicious. They are the size of quail eggs and are wonderful steamed and eaten with a French olive oil, salt, pepper and a drop of lemon juice.”

Colwin also gave good advice on selecting potatoes for salads. She found that waxy potatoes like our popular red skinned varieties don’t absorb as much dressing and are best when you want a salad, “delicately coated.” And that mealier potatoes, like a russet, soak up dressing for a creamier result.

You'll find the recipe for this Summer Corn and Potato Salad in one of our posts from 2008. I still make it and we still love it.

Vinaigrette Potato Salads

Thinking vinaigrette rather than mayonnaise is very traditional. In Fannie Merritt Farmer's “The Original Boston Cooking School Cook Book 1896,” there are five potato salad recipes, all sans mayonnaise.

One version is great for apple season – Potato and Celery Salad. She wrote, “To two cups boiled potatoes cut in one-half inch cubes add one-half cup finely cut celery and a medium-sized apple, pared, cut in eighths, then eighths cut in thin slices. Marinate with French Dressing. Arrange in a mound and garnish with celery tip and sections of bright red apple.” Her version of “French Dressing” was what we call vinaigrette: a mix of olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Family Recipe

The potato and egg salad you see at the top was my father-in-law's recipe. Ed and I enjoy this as a quick meal some evenings. I use two pounds of red potatoes as the base. Rather than peel the potatoes, I scrub them, remove any eyes or bad spots, slice into wedges, and cook them in a steamer until tender. While still warm, I mix in a large stalk of diced celery, two thinly-sliced scallions, four sliced hard boiled eggs, two tablespoons of cider vinegar, and about half a cup of olive oil. You can serve this warm or cold.

Other additions to a salad like this might be capers, grated carrots, parsley, dill, or a bit of dry mustard. As with so many salads, I use what I have on hand when I begin to make it and change it up often enough to keep it fresh among the routine meals.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino (Adapted for the web from one of her Fresh & Local newspaper columns)
Photos: ©2008- 2015 Penny Cherubino

Related articles

Sunday Cat Sophia Says, "Let me in Whee-ooh …"

Thanks to Friends Who Make Marmalade and Share!

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September 23, 2015
Tips and Links for Dealing with Allergy Season
Everything is coming into bloom all at once and the experts are saying that this means a rough time for those of us with allergies. Here are some of our coping mechanisms and links to help you find more advice.

Set Your Goals

As you visit the various links we provide below, you'll find that setting a few allergy battle goals may help you follow through on tips and think of a few new ways to stay ahead of the issue.
- Know the Enemy: If you suffer, then you should have a basic idea of how allergies work and how you can lessen your misery. This can mean choosing the time of day when you exercise or simply knowing which allergens impact your life and tracking when they are out and about.
- Keep Them Out: There are lots of things you can do to filter, remove, or leave outside your home the particles that make you suffer.
- Treat the Symptoms: Talk to your doctor about your best approach to treating allergies. Depending on the severity of your reaction, you may need to premedicate to stay ahead of the problem. However, those with milder cases may be able to just treat the symptom or symptoms that bother them most.
Know the Enemy

The Mayo clinic is one site we turn to for medical advice. They have published: Seasonal allergies: Nip them in the bud for those who just want a light version of allergy information. For a deeper look at the issue, we recommend the National Institutes of Health information on Allergic Rhinitis.

Keep the Allergens Out

We do a lot of simple things to avoid bringing the particles that bother us into our home. We use Ultra Allergen Reduction Filters in our heat pump. We use a vacuum with HEPA filtration to clean our home. Our outdoor shoes stay in our entry area and this time of year we may change clothes or at least wipe down ourselves and our dog when we come back from a walk in the pollen laden air.

Treat the Symptoms

We both fall on the take-as-little-medication-as-possible side of the treatment spectrum. If rinsing with a neti pot will help, we'd rather do that than take any medication that may have side effects.

Links to More Tips

Boston-based writer Jacqueline Church has a great post on this topic. With some serious allergy issues of her own, Jackie is someone we depend on for expert advice on this topic and on food allergies.

Top Ten Tips to Ease Allergy Symptoms During Pollen Season – AKA Spring

We addressed the issue of allergies, when both you and your dog suffer, in our post:

Allergy Season Tips for Dog Lovers

The American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology has great tips on their site:

Cleaning Tips for Allergy and Asthma Sufferers

From the Atlantic's City Lab comes a post that includes what a city can do to help with this problem.

The Complete Guide to Fighting Seasonal Allergies Where You Live

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!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2011-2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

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April 23, 2015
Finding a Boston Rental with a Dog

This week, a well-researched piece, No Fair for Fido: It’s ‘Challenging’ to Find an Apartment in Boston If You Own a Dog, by Lisa DeCanio over on BosInno.com, reminded us that this is a topic we haven't covered in a while.

"That is Otis! He's a silly Cockapoo. Great dog," says Lisa. He's a special dog in her life!

When you click over to Lisa's article, be sure to read the comments, because they contain both experience and wisdom.

We wrote about this topic for vacation rentals, but you might be able to adapt some of the tips in our piece to the wider rental market.

Vacation Rentals: Getting Around "No Pets"

If you rent or when you bought your home, how did you deal with the pet issue? Please share your experience, tips, and advice with the rest of our Sunday Dog readers.

Get to know all of our Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.

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!

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Photography: Otis's photo courtesy of Lisa DeCanio

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.

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February 3, 2013
Finding a Boston Rental with a Dog

This week, a well-researched piece, No Fair for Fido: It’s ‘Challenging’ to Find an Apartment in Boston If You Own a Dog, by Lisa DeCanio over on BosInno.com, reminded us that this is a topic we haven't covered in a while.

"That is Otis! He's a silly Cockapoo. Great dog," says Lisa. He's a special dog in her life!

When you click over to Lisa's article, be sure to read the comments, because they contain both experience and wisdom.

We wrote about this topic for vacation rentals, but you might be able to adapt some of the tips in our piece to the wider rental market.

Vacation Rentals: Getting Around "No Pets"

If you rent or when you bought your home, how did you deal with the pet issue? Please share your experience, tips, and advice with the rest of our Sunday Dog readers.

Get to know all of our Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.

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!

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Photography: Otis's photo courtesy of Lisa DeCanio

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.

Related articles

Make a List of Your Dog's Words!

Sunday Dog New Year's Resolutions for 2013

Sunday Dog Kona Hits Winter Fun Refresh Button!

Sunday Dog, Lucas Has a Nose for Fashion!

Sunday Dog, Mack – an OEB that Loves to Snuggle!

February 3, 2013
Finding a Boston Rental with a Dog

This week, a well-researched piece, No Fair for Fido: It’s ‘Challenging’ to Find an Apartment in Boston If You Own a Dog, by Lisa DeCanio over on BosInno.com, reminded us that this is a topic we haven't covered in a while.

"That is Otis! He's a silly Cockapoo. Great dog," says Lisa. He's a special dog in her life!

When you click over to Lisa's article, be sure to read the comments, because they contain both experience and wisdom.

We wrote about this topic for vacation rentals, but you might be able to adapt some of the tips in our piece to the wider rental market.

Vacation Rentals: Getting Around "No Pets"

If you rent or when you bought your home, how did you deal with the pet issue? Please share your experience, tips, and advice with the rest of our Sunday Dog readers.

Get to know all of our Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.

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!

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Photography: Otis's photo courtesy of Lisa DeCanio

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.

Related articles

Make a List of Your Dog's Words!

Sunday Dog New Year's Resolutions for 2013

Sunday Dog Kona Hits Winter Fun Refresh Button!

Sunday Dog, Lucas Has a Nose for Fashion!

Sunday Dog, Mack – an OEB that Loves to Snuggle!

February 3, 2013
The Food Lover’s Guide to Wine: Book Review
With our sparkler of the month on March 1st, we mentioned that we had put The Food Lover's Guide to Wine on our book wish list. That afternoon, we received an email from the authors Karen Page & Andrew Dornenburg saying they would love to send us a review copy.

It arrived a few days later and hasn't made it to a bookshelf yet. It has spent a few nights beside the bed as Penny's relaxation reading, we've used it explore a couple of new wines, and we're planning to feature some recommended producers as our Sparkler of the Month.

Learn in various ways from a collection of great wine lovers.
- If you were hanging outside our door, you might have heard us reading quotes from the book to one another. It has the greatest collection of quotes from wine lovers and wine experts you can imagine. Boston's own Cat Silirie is often cited.
- Ed loves the pronunciation guide in the core listing of wines, grapes, and wine topics.
- The system used to emphasize the importance of wine grapes, characteristics, and producers (by using bold and all caps in lists) is brillant and intuitive to use.
- The end chapters on matching wines with foods, cuisines, and courses will have us exploring new options.
- We love the gold boxes with great asides on topics. A few are already marked with page tabs.
- Since these writers believe that the wine you like is the right wine for you, they've prepared a series of recommendations based on your own taste. If you like a flavor, for example almonds, they give you a list of wines to try. If you like a particular wine, they give you others with similar flavor profiles.
A Great Interview Grabbed Our Attention

We first hear about The Food Lover's Guide to Wine on the Heritage Radio Network show, A Taste of the Past. Penny listens to podcasts of food shows while she cooks, and this one was good enough for a shared listen during an afternoon of crab-cracking and conversation.

Host Linda Pelaccio began by covering the history of American Wine (the book contains a timeline) and then a discussion of the book that really gave us an insight to the authors' points of view and how this book would fit into our collection. Here's a link to that show.

Meet the authors and hear what some experts say about this book.

We are not only recommending this book to our readers, we'll be buying copies as gifts for wine-loving friends. It is a treasure and we expect it to look a bit worn and well-used pretty quickly. It may even suffer a few wine stains but we doubt that Karen and Andrew will mind.

Here are more books from this team:

The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs

What to Drink with What You Eat: The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea – Even Water – Based on Expert Advice from America's Best Sommeliers

Becoming a Chef

and of course

The Food Lover's Guide to Wine

Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2012 Penny & Ed Cherubino

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 a great insights for our readers. As long as it doesn’t become a pure ad, we’d love to hear from you.
April 10, 2012