Tag: favorite

Today We Celebrate December and 100 Years of Nino Franco with a Bottle of Nino Franco Rustico

We are starting December 2019 with a longtime favorite sparkling wine, Nino Franco Rustico. We have been enjoying, recommending, and writing about this wine for more than a decade. Now wine experts around the world are catching on to a great thing. (More about that below.)

The last time we raised a glass to the wonderful people at Nino Franco, it was with the bottle Silvia Franco was signing in the photo below. Back then we joined them long distance as they celebrated the 30th vintage of their Primo Franco. As they raised their glasses in Valdobbiadene, we opened this bottle and toasted them here in Boston.

After a few years as Internet friends, we were happy to meet Silvia in person on a trip to Boston. It was good to learn that she is as nice, smart, and sharing in person as she is with her social media friends.

Today we'll raise a glass to Silvia Franco and her family as they celebrate 100 years of Nino Franco vintages. Please take a relaxing moment with Silvia and her family as they tell you about the wines and the place they love, protect, and celebrate in the video below.

Not only will we congratulate this family on 100 years of winemaking, but also for their Rustico winning the number one spot on Wine Enthusiast's best-of-the-best list "THE ENTHUSIAST 100 WINES OF 2019" with a rating of 94 out of 100. That is along with many more honors for their other wines.

We purchased our bottle at Gordon's for ~$25.00. (A special thank you to our friend Vinnie who supplied the ride to Waltham to renew our supply of this favorite wine.)

Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes, and produced by different methods adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month! Join us in our Sparkling Resolution.

Related Posts:

Our Sparkling Resolution is covered in this post : Join Us as We Toast…

A Few of Our Favorite Gifts for Wine Lovers

Here are all the wines we've covered. Since this post is a category, it will appear at the top. Just scroll down for more.

What's on your Food Lover's Shopping List?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2019 Penny & Ed Cherubino with a few additions from the Nino Franco site.

December 1, 2019
Do You Have a Great Farmers Market Plan & Kit? Tools We Use & Love!

Today's "Friday Link" post will take you to some of our favorite farmers market toolkit items.

Bring Cash

Ones, fives, tens, and quarters. The farmers will love you, and you'll shop faster! Each year, more stands take credit cards, but they tend to be the ones with higher priced items like meat and specialty foods. And, cash is fast, a bonus for you and your fellow shoppers.

My farmers market cash comes with me in a special accordion credit card wallet. Ones are on one side, fives on the other, with tens and twenties in the card slots. For ease in recognizing denominations, tens are folded in fourths and twenties in thirds. Change is in its separate compartment and my "Market Share" cards are in the outside window.

Bring Bags and Containers

Also bring what you'll need to tote your fresh food home. For example, I bring plastic containers for berries and cherry tomatoes. It ensures they arrive home in perfect condition.

We love the Sterilite Ultra-Seal Food Storage Containers for transporting food home in our backpacks. They are strong, the seal is tight, they don't leak, and they are lightweight. We prefer glass for long term storage or for any hot food, but these plastic ones are perfect for protecting fragile items.

Remember, a local farmer doesn't grow and pick fruit and vegetables to make them perfect for shipping, they grow and pick them to make them perfectly delicious. You also save the farm the expense of the bags and baskets and help the environment.

Keep it Cold

Bring an ice pack or a small cooler. It can hold all your shopping or just perishables like meat, fish, cheese, and eggs. We have a few favorite items for this task. The Arctic Zone Ultra High-Performance Expandable Double Capacity Lunch Pack is perfect for a fish or meat purchase.

We recently discovered and adore these ice sheets. You can wrap this around a product or lay it on top of a bag of items that need refrigeration.

Carry with Ease

We walk to markets and have always used backpacks to lug things home. This season, we decided we needed lighter versions for visits to farmers markets, since we now buy a wider selection of products there than in years past.

For marketing, we are using two of these lightweight Outlander backpacks. Penny likes hers so much that you'll often see her wearing it this summer. Many times, she has the second one tucked inside so, if the day brings on serendipitous shopping, Ed can share the load.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a birthday or wedding gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013-2016 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Related articles

Market Report: Summer Farmers Markets Opening Dates 2015

Coming Home with Full Bags from the Copley Farmers Market

August 19, 2016
Do You Have a Great Farmers Market Plan & Kit? Tools We Use & Love!

Today's "Friday Link" post will take you to some of our favorite farmers market toolkit items.

Bring Cash

Ones, fives, tens, and quarters. The farmers will love you, and you'll shop faster! Each year, more stands take credit cards, but they tend to be the ones with higher priced items like meat and specialty foods. And, cash is fast, a bonus for you and your fellow shoppers.

My farmers market cash comes with me in a special accordion credit card wallet. Ones are on one side, fives on the other, with tens and twenties in the card slots. For ease in recognizing denominations, tens are folded in fourths and twenties in thirds. Change is in its separate compartment and my "Market Share" cards are in the outside window.

Bring Bags and Containers

Also bring what you'll need to tote your fresh food home. For example, I bring plastic containers for berries and cherry tomatoes. It ensures they arrive home in perfect condition.

We love the Sterilite Ultra-Seal Food Storage Containers for transporting food home in our backpacks. They are strong, the seal is tight, they don't leak, and they are lightweight. We prefer glass for long term storage or for any hot food, but these plastic ones are perfect for protecting fragile items.

Remember, a local farmer doesn't grow and pick fruit and vegetables to make them perfect for shipping, they grow and pick them to make them perfectly delicious. You also save the farm the expense of the bags and baskets and help the environment.

Keep it Cold

Bring an ice pack or a small cooler. It can hold all your shopping or just perishables like meat, fish, cheese, and eggs. We have a few favorite items for this task. The Arctic Zone Ultra High-Performance Expandable Double Capacity Lunch Pack is perfect for a fish or meat purchase.

We recently discovered and adore these ice sheets. You can wrap this around a product or lay it on top of a bag of items that need refrigeration.

Carry with Ease

We walk to markets and have always used backpacks to lug things home. This season, we decided we needed lighter versions for visits to farmers markets, since we now buy a wider selection of products there than in years past.

For marketing, we are using two of these lightweight Outlander backpacks. Penny likes hers so much that you'll often see her wearing it this summer. Many times, she has the second one tucked inside so, if the day brings on serendipitous shopping, Ed can share the load.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a birthday or wedding gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2013-2016 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Related articles

Market Report: Summer Farmers Markets Opening Dates 2015

Coming Home with Full Bags from the Copley Farmers Market

August 19, 2016
Edible Boston Spring 2016 Issue Is Here

The arrival of a new preview issue of Edible Boston in my mailbox always makes me smile. It means a new season of food is here and a new opportunity to see which businesses support fresh and local food in our community.

It's good to see a whole fish in photographer Michael Piazza's cover shot. Fish, like meat, takes on better flavor when it's cooked on the bone. Inside you'll find a few fish tales. Having grown up in a fishing family, I adored Sarah Blackburn's article, Edible Basics: Red Fish, Blue Fish, Flat Fish, Whole Fish. It's a must read and includes a chart of when local fish are in season provided by Red's Best, one of my favorite, trusted suppliers of seafood.

Pages of step-by-step recipes for whole fish follow. (My own favorite preparation is to stuff a large fish with a traditional bread stuffing and roast it in the oven. It's a meal on a sheet pan.

Asparagus

When the season arrives, you will be ready with the asparagus primer on page 52. You'll find preparations from five chefs from around the area.

Other Topics

Bread, snack bars, cider, ice cream, pizza, and the very important topic of wasted food are also covered in this issue. Plus the always supportive team at Edible Boston shines its profile spotlight on a few local businesses.

As I alluded to in my first paragraph, this is one publication where I always read the ads. They are a source of new ideas and new resources for me. And I respect those who put their advertising dollars where they reach people like me who think that local food matters.

Support publisher Ilene Bezahler and her talented team

First, pick up a copy of Edible Boston at one of these locations. In fact, pick up two copies and share one with a food-loving friend or leave it where someone might discover it among lesser publications and become a new fan.

May I suggest that you let their sponsors know you saw them in the magazine and grab an extra copy and get it to someone else who cares about supporting the local food movement. Also, if you have a blog, twitter account, or facebook page, write about them, link to them, follow them, retweet their tweets, like them on facebook, and, in general, spread the word about this great asset to our community.

And, to be sure you never miss an issue, you can subscribe over on their website!

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list? Shop Amazon for all your kitchen & dining needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Covershot & Photos :photographer Michael Piazza Courtesy of Edible Boston ( If you love great photography always pick up an Edible Boston issue!)

Related articles

Who Will Grow Our Food If There Are No New Farmers?

Do You Mise En Place When You Cook?

April 15, 2016
Edible Boston Spring 2016 Issue Is Here

The arrival of a new preview issue of Edible Boston in my mailbox always makes me smile. It means a new season of food is here and a new opportunity to see which businesses support fresh and local food in our community.

It's good to see a whole fish in photographer Michael Piazza's cover shot. Fish, like meat, takes on better flavor when it's cooked on the bone. Inside you'll find a few fish tales. Having grown up in a fishing family, I adored Sarah Blackburn's article, Edible Basics: Red Fish, Blue Fish, Flat Fish, Whole Fish. It's a must read and includes a chart of when local fish are in season provided by Red's Best, one of my favorite, trusted suppliers of seafood.

Pages of step-by-step recipes for whole fish follow. (My own favorite preparation is to stuff a large fish with a traditional bread stuffing and roast it in the oven. It's a meal on a sheet pan.

Asparagus

When the season arrives, you will be ready with the asparagus primer on page 52. You'll find preparations from five chefs from around the area.

Other Topics

Bread, snack bars, cider, ice cream, pizza, and the very important topic of wasted food are also covered in this issue. Plus the always supportive team at Edible Boston shines its profile spotlight on a few local businesses.

As I alluded to in my first paragraph, this is one publication where I always read the ads. They are a source of new ideas and new resources for me. And I respect those who put their advertising dollars where they reach people like me who think that local food matters.

Support publisher Ilene Bezahler and her talented team

First, pick up a copy of Edible Boston at one of these locations. In fact, pick up two copies and share one with a food-loving friend or leave it where someone might discover it among lesser publications and become a new fan.

May I suggest that you let their sponsors know you saw them in the magazine and grab an extra copy and get it to someone else who cares about supporting the local food movement. Also, if you have a blog, twitter account, or facebook page, write about them, link to them, follow them, retweet their tweets, like them on facebook, and, in general, spread the word about this great asset to our community.

And, to be sure you never miss an issue, you can subscribe over on their website!

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list? Shop Amazon for all your kitchen & dining needs and support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Covershot & Photos :photographer Michael Piazza Courtesy of Edible Boston ( If you love great photography always pick up an Edible Boston issue!)

Related articles

Who Will Grow Our Food If There Are No New Farmers?

Do You Mise En Place When You Cook?

April 15, 2016
New Food Truck Schedule: Food Truck Tracking April 2012 Update

Our Friday link is to the new schedule and new locations for food trucks approved by the City of Boston and set to begin on April 1, 2012. On Sunday, it won't be an April fools joke if you can't find your favorite food truck in its usual place. Here are links to the city's information, including a schedule and map of approved locations.

And, don't forget the food truck sites in our neighboring cities like Cambridge and Brookline.

The folks at Roaming Hunger aggregate the tweets from Boston area food trucks so you can see who is out and about and what they're tweeting.

If you know of other maps and schedule locators, let us know and we'll add them to this collection.

And, remember, if you're going out of your way to find a certain truck, you should check their twitter feed, facebook, and web pages. These guys are always dancing, trying to make a living, so they may have a catering gig or they may have run out of food. Lots of them give out phone numbers so you can call ahead to check on their status.

What are your favorite food trucks, and where do you find them?

If you know of other maps and schedule locators, let us know and we'll add them to this collection.

How do you find great food when you travel? We highly recommend the book from our pals over at Serious Eats. Here are some references for great Road Food.

Details:
Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: © 2011 Penny Cherubino

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March 30, 2012