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July 28, 2025

Cambridge Spy

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1 Homepage Slider Local Life Food Friday

Food Friday: We Say Tomatoes

July 25, 2025 by Jean Sanders
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While I know I tend to whine about the summer heat and humidity, I am keenly aware that it is the peak of the growing season for some of our favorite foods. Soon we will be able to hunt and gather our locally grown tomatoes and corn. And then it will be time for all the wretched pumpkin-spice-flavored everything. Right now I am preparing to indulge it a glut of tomato goodness.

Last weekend we made a delightfully spicy tomato pasta dish with local cherry tomatoes. Come fall I am hoping it will taste as good, and feel as warming as the scorching days of July. Later, in December, all we have to choose from will be hot house tomatoes, or those trucked in from California for a king’s ransom, and a guilt-inducing carbon footprint. Maybe this recipe will improve those sad, grocery store-bought tomatoes. Mr. Sanders said that he preferred it to Martha’s One-Dish Pasta, which is in our regular summer rotation for Monday night pasta dinners. This is good dish to add to that rotation, albeit one with a more autumnal vibe. Plus you get to use four cloves of garlic. Yumsters!

Pasta with Simple Cherry Tomato Sauce

Our friends at Food52 find a million ways to make a very simple tomato sandwich. Here, in the Spy Test Kitchens, we use Pepperidge Farm white bread, Hellmann’s Mayonnaise, a pinch of black pepper, a shake of Maldon salt and a couple of big, fat locally sourced slicing tomatoes, with a generous handful of potato chips as an elegant side dish. Follow your heart: Tomato Sandwich

The Spy Test Kitchen’s Caprese Salad – a suggestion

2 large ripe tomatoes — and this week you can go nuts with all the colorful heirloom tomatoes that abound
2 small balls fresh mozzarella — or you can just revel in as much cheese as you can lay your hands on
Sea salt and black pepper— we like Maldon, great fistsful of it
Olive oil — splash it on with abandon
Balsamic vinegar — not my fave, but Mr. Sanders loves lashings of it
A pile of basil — whatever you have on the windowsill, or from the container garden — it’s the sweet pungent smell of summer

Slice the tomatoes and mozzarella into thick slices. Arrange picturesquely on a platter or large plate, alternating tomato slices and mozzarella. Add salt and pepper, drizzle with beauteous chartreuse green olive oil, and delicate Pollock-esque drips of balsamic vinegar, scatter torn basil across the surface. Add fresh crusty bread and cool glasses of Vinho Verde, some candles, and Pink Martini on the Sonos. It’s not the Amalfi coast, but for a stinking hot summer’s night here in the States, it’s as close as we can get.

Once again our home-grown tomatoes are proving to be a disappointment. Could it be neglect? I haven’t gone out to weed much this summer. Between the mosquitoes in the back yard and all the heat, I could rationalize endlessly, and I can also state firmly and with great conviction that we are not anticipating much of a harvest. So far, our yield has been four tiny, anemic, grainy, bitsy, Tom’s Big Boys. The squirrels have been paying more attention to the raised bed garden this summer than I have. I admit defeat now, and I wish them the very best. I and hope that they will enjoy their own squirrelly-boy tomato feasts. I’m heading downtown to the farmers’ market this weekend to stock up on heirloom tomatoes and peaches. Luckily we can celebrate buying local: Buy Local Challenge Maybe I will get another basil plant for the kitchen windowsill, too. There will be lotsa tomato meals in our immediate future. August yawns ahead.

Stay cool! Hydrate! Read books! Buy local!

“Danger is to adventure what garlic is to spaghetti sauce. Without it, you just end up with stewed tomatoes.”
—Tom Robbins


Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil and ink.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1 Homepage Slider, Food Friday

Food Friday: Zucchini Time 2025!

July 18, 2025 by Jean Sanders
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It has been the hottest summer on record – but we are saying that every year now, aren’t we? As we try to walk our 10,000 steps every day, lingering under the shady trees as much as possible, Luke the wonder dog and I long to be home, in the coolth. Luke can at least lie on the floor, on top of the air conditioning vent. He also doesn’t have to worry about what to do with the sudden abundance of zucchini.

Like Homer Price’s doughnuts, ripening zucchini is everywhere. Luckily, there are just about as many recipes for zucchini as there are the ubiquitous and magically regenerating vegetables themselves.
It’s that time of year. Again. Neighbors furtively slipping their excess zucchini harvest onto your front porch, before dashing back home. These are the times that try cooks’ souls: what to do with all the excess zucchini baggage.

Luckily it’s been a great tomato season, and they provide excellent camouflage for zucchini:
Zucchini Tomato Gratin

What are we to do with all the zucchini? It doesn’t look very nice on the windowsill – summer tomatoes in varying stages of turning from green to red are much more attractive. An elegant galette is a good way to start your purge. The crust is easy and forgiving, and it is soothing to lay out all the zucchini rings in ever widening circles. You will look very competent and trustworthy. And then you can start to spring these other surprises on the unsuspecting. If you have a garden, you have been harvesting tomatoes with a greedy heart, thinking about the jars of spaghetti sauce you will enjoy this winter. But what about that ever-rising green mountain of zucchini? You need to put on your thinking cap, and find some creative culinary solutions.
Zucchini Ricotta Galette

Zucchini boat recipes are popular. I like the idea of filling hollowed out vessels of zucchini with a variety of fixings, vegetarian or not, and using up all the lingering leftovers. Zucchini Boats

Luckily, zucchini is oh, so versatile. You can find it in soups, salad, chips, galettes, casseroles, hidden in breads and cookies. You can roast it, slice it, twirl it. This is a link to a virtual compendium of Zucchini Recipes

Do not be sneaky with zucchini. You don’t want to be the formerly favorite aunt who brings zucchini ginger cupcakes to the birthday party. Kids have a different perspective on summer. They never forget so-called “gourmet” baking experiments, or deliberate kid deceptions. Zucchini Ginger Muffins Yummy icing is always welcomed.

Nobody is fooled by zucchini bread. Least of all the small children into whom you are trying to stuff healthy vegetables. They are wise to your ways. Discuss the benefits of adding vegetables to your daily diet before feeding them this delicious Lemon Zucchini Bread. We are very excited about this Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

“The trouble is, you cannot grow just one zucchini. Minutes after you plant a single seed, hundreds of zucchini will barge out of the ground and sprawl around the garden, menacing the other vegetables. At night, you will be able to hear the ground quake as more and more zucchinis erupt.”*
-Dave Barry

*This is my favorite zucchini quotation of all time, and I haul it out almost every year.

Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil and ink.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1 Homepage Slider, Food Friday, Spy Journal

Food Friday: Summer Snack Dinners

July 11, 2025 by Jean Sanders
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When I think about summer I have visions of glossy postcard views; snapshots of sunny beaches, with lapping azure waves and yellow corn meal sand. I am thinking of shady front porch swings, and trips to the library. I remember summer camps and singing on bus rides, swimming, games of tennis and tether ball. Weaving misshapen lanyards. I cannot be tied to this adult reality of relentless heat, melting parking lots, indefatigable mosquitoes, and torrents of rain. I feel like the ladies in “To Kill a Mockingbird” – I have been reduced to becoming a talcum powder tea cake of a person, who must provide an evening meal. Since I cannot ignore the many realities of modern life, I will think about ways to have our cake, without actually baking one. Summer nutritional needs can be met and conquered — without turning on the oven.

Back in the day, before the ubiquity of air conditioning, we lived in a creaky, inconvenient, Victorian house. There was a stained glass sash window in the upstairs hallway, where every year, with much ceremony and bitter complaining, my father would muscle into the window frame an awkward and heavy box window fan, hoping that the breezes that it generated would be cooling. We slept with our bedroom doors flung open, dreaming of refreshing zephyrs, sweatily writhing under the weight of the cotton sheets. And this was before global warming. We lay in the dark, listening for faraway thunder, silently counting the Mississippis between flashes of heat lightning, willing a cooling storm to break over our sweltering heads. Ah, youth.

There is no summer camp in my immediate future. No swimming hole, no yellow sandy beach. There is the long slog of summer stretching out before us, and we have to make the best of it. I have been reading innumerable articles about the ridiculous excesses of the folks who summer in the Hamptons — thank heavens we don’t have to keep up with those arrivistes, with their private chefs, yacht crews, or their pricey provision shops and impossibly fashionable restaurants. We are thrilled with local produce, prestige-free grocery stores and the occasional field trip to a Trader Joe’s. One of these days I might even get to eat one of our home-grown tomatoes.

Charcuterie boards seem to have come and gone as a cultural phenom. Thank you. I really did not like the idea of eating salami that someone else had folded into Origami. But I do like the idea of finger food at sunset. Give me a bowl of carrot sticks, and I will happily crunch away. Or a bowl of cool, peppery radishes. We can get out the enire kitchen collection of tiny Pyrex bowls, and fill them with celery, red pepper slices, pea pods, green beans, hummus, Boursin cheese, ivory cubes of Swiss cheese, pepperoni slices, rotisserie chicken, rolls of deli roast beef, turkey or ham. I might have to turn on the oven to crisp up a loaf of bread. But only for a minute, before I can slather it with cool butter, or a schmeer of Burrata.

One of the best delivery systems for a moveable summer feast that I have seen is a muffin pan. Each cup in the pan can hold another food course – broccoli goes next to some pretzels, which are next to the blueberries, which sidle up to the Kalamata olives, which are beside the cherry tomatoes, which are adjacent to the guacamole. Cubes of watermelon nestle next to the spears of asparagus, and the curves of cantaloupe jostle with the peaches. Maybe you’ll get ambitious early one morning, and you will grill a few boneless chicken breasts, or a quick skirt steak, that you can slice up to have later. You can have some deelish Bernaise sauce in a muffin cup, for cold steak dipping. Or if that is too much to expect for a weeknight — nuts. Add nuts. Add wine. Add crackers, pita bread, Doritos, you name it. Take a night or two off and enjoy yourself. The news is dire, so create a luxe dining event, without needing the Jitney out to Quogue. Go sit in front of the fan, and feel the breezes, and wait for the thunderstorm. As George R. R. Martin is wont to tell us: “Winter is coming.”

Snack board

Martha’s ideas involve actual baking – use caution if you are oven averse:

Muffin pan snacks Much more grown-up than standing in front of the fridge and grazing your way through the veggie bin.

“Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.”
― Harper Lee

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1 Homepage Slider

Food Friday: Vacation Dogs

July 4, 2025 by Jean Sanders
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Mr. Sanders, Luke the wonder dog and I are off for a little holiday respite in the mountains of North Carolina for the Fourth of July holidays this week. We are planning to grill some hot dogs in honor of our national holiday. Enjoy a column from a couple of years ago, when we had moseyed up to New England for a change of scene!

Sometimes I forget that we live in a country that is so vast and diverse that a New England hot dog is wildly different from a Chicago-style hot dog, and neither of them is like a hot dog from Texas, or from California. And this is one of the great American qualities – we are true blue and we love our regional delicacies.
In Boston, a Fenway Frank is boiled first, and then lightly grilled. (It is served in a split-top roll, which is also used for the best sort of lobster rolls: Split-top Roll) The Puritans among us prefer garnishing a Fenway Frank with just a thick wiggly trail of spicy mustard. But since this is America, feel free to pile on your own favorites.

As you travel west to Chicago, you will observe that the Chicago-style hot dog is a completely different creation. Chicago-style hot dogs are cooked in butter in a pan, and then served in warm, poppy-seed rolls, with lots of veggies on top. Chicago-style dogs are “dragged through the garden”: topped with sweet pickle relish, chopped onions, pickled peppers, tomato slices and sprinkled with celery salt. Have you been watching The Bear? You’ll know then how popular these franks are.

Then you’ll mosey down to Texas, to encounter the Hot Texas Wiener , a frank cooked in hot vegetable oil. If you place an order for a “One”, you’ll get a blisteringly hot frank topped with spicy brown mustard, chopped onions, and chili sauce. Yumsters.

As you continue west, and stop in Los Angeles for a some street food, you will encounter an L.A. Danger Dog. This frank is wrapped in bacon! I cannot imagine the state that Gwyneth and Meghan call home would do anything so decadent and audacious as a grilled, bacon-wrapped hot dog. More controversial to a hot dog purist are the toppings: catsup, mustard, mayonnaise, sautéed onions, with peppers, and a poblano chile pepper. Catsup? Mayo? But to be polite, you must eat like a local, and it will be deelish.

Common sense teaches us to not use catsup on our franks after the age of 18. You might as well make bologna sandwiches with Wonder bread, and douse them in catsup.

Have you ever seen the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile on the road? I can remember driving on a Florida highway once, and suddenly, puttering alongside us, was the Weinermobile. What a cheap thrill that was! Sadly, now it is called the Frankmobile. Time marches on.

You can follow the Frankmobile on Instagram:

July is National Hot Dog Month, and the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says that some of the top hot dog consuming cities include: Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Phoenix, Atlanta, Detroit, Washington, DC, and Tampa. You’ll want to brush up on your hot dog etiquette https://www.kplctv.com/2019/07/03/hot-dog-etiquette-dos-donts-during-fourth-july-holiday/, I’m sure.

And here are the official rules for Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, in case you want to try this at home.

NPR 1A – Hot Dogs

“A hotdog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz.”
— Humphrey Bogart


Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil, and ink.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1 Homepage Slider, Food Friday, Spy Journal

Food Friday: Home Grown

June 27, 2025 by Jean Sanders
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What a stinker of a week! The heat dome has been pressing down on us all this week, with temperatures in the high 90s. Sometimes I miss our old house in Florida, which had a pool. It was nice to slip into it to cool down – although though much of the summer it was about as refreshing as a vast steaming tub of chicken soup with rice. Forget about frying an egg on the sidewalk, you could coddle an egg in our pool. This week I bet it is has been about as refreshing as a sous vide. As I do not want to perform self-immolation, I am staying inside and am continuing my dogged pursuit of preparing meals that I do not need to cook.

Mr. Sanders and I have four humble tomato plants that are thriving in this semi-tropical heat wave. They are growing in the small raised bed in our side yard, happily sharing the limited space with a generous side salad of weeds and self-sown cosmos, the remnants of last year’s wild flower experiment. The tomato plants currently are bedecked with half a dozen dangling rosy, adolescent slicing tomatoes, and several more yellow blossoms. I look forward to their harvest. I brought one tiny tomato victim inside to ripen on the kitchen windowsill, after I inadvertently knocked it to the ground while wrangling the reluctant branches of one plant into a tomato cage. Like a New Yorker cartoon, it ripened slowly, had one day of peak perfection when I should have gobbled it up, because the next day there was a sodden goopy mess of seeds and pulp on the sill. There are so many tragedies born from a garden. Take heed!

This summer lasagna does require the bare minimum of cooking time – but no baking – so you can serve its colorful deliciousness without self-immolating or assuming the mantle of cooking martyr: No-Bake Lasagne And it will also serve to blunt the myriad zuccini later this summer.

This recipe does require an oven, but barely, just barely. I suggest sitting at the far end of the table, away from the oven, and have a nice cool tumbler of cheap white wine at the ready. Tomato Pie

This tomato pie requires an oven, my apologies, but it also brings Laurie Colwin into your kitchen, and that is a wonderful thing: Laurie Colwin’s Tomato Pie

I had a good chuckle over the descriptive headline in the New York Times Wednesday: No Cook Chicken and Cucumber Salad. Ick. They were not thinking, clearly. The proper name for the recipe is Smashed Cucumber and Chicken Salad. And you will have to venture out in the heat to buy a rotisserie chicken, and your cheap white wine. So I apologize for your exposure to the heat as you dash across the melting parking lot to COSTCO or the grocery store. Stock up so you don’t have to venture out again for a few days, maybe the weather will change. I see rain in the forecast for next week – just in time for the Fourth. Naturally.
Smashed Cucumber and Chicken Salad

Here is another New York Times freebie for your cool summer dining pleasure: Pasta Salad There is nothing like a big pasta salad sitting, marinating, percolating in your fridge. It is money in the bank, and a relief for everyone: fresh herbs, spices, oodles of olive oil, pasta, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, cukes, olives, onion and basil. Add some fresh bread, cool butter, and summer tunes. There is lunch, dinner, something to bring to your Fourth of July potluck; something for everyone.

The Spy Test Kitchens and Luke the wonder dog are taking the Fourth off. I hope we are not all still hiding inside, avoiding nature and the heat, and we wish you a very happy holiday! Stay cool! Don’t waste any tomatoes! Eat Popsicles!

“A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins.”
—Laurie Colwin


Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil, and ink.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1 Homepage Slider, Food Friday

Food Friday: Practicing Self-Care

June 20, 2025 by Jean Sanders
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The past week has been alarmingly hot — there have been a few days where it felt like a 3-alarm furnace already, and summer has just begun today. We’ve had Florida-grade afternoon rainstorms, too, with enormous thunderheads and chiaroscuro drama in the sky. What are August and full-bore hurricane season going to feel like? The hydrangeas love the rain, but wilt again the minute the sun comes out. It has been a trial to walk with Luke the wonder dog. The heat of the afternoons has slowed down his pace and we don’t cover the distances we usually trot during cooler months. It’s time for us to change our routine, which means less time in front of the stove, and more time peeling grapes, pitting peaches, slicing watermelon, cubing cantaloupes, and eating popsicles.

Nothing perfectly symbolizes summer like a watermelon. The best ones are cool and sweet, dripping with juices, seeds, and dreams of summer vacations. I still cling to the memories of sitting on the back porch steps, spitting watermelon seeds back at my brother. Those are high quality memories of an un-air-conditioned house, where we were outside, waiting for the fireflies start twinkling on and off near the forsythia bushes. It was summer, and we were amusing each other. Finally I could get my brother back for for being taller, older and more sophisticated. He could sink a basketball, shoot rubber bands, flip baseball cards and catch pop balls much better than I ever could. But I could aim and deliver a watermelon seed with deadly accuracy. At short range, at least. And sitting on the back steps, keeping the sticky, dripping watermelon juice outside, away from parental oversight, was the perfect spot for getting even. Tempus does indeed fugit. My brother and I are not likely to try to even up the score with watermelon seeds these days. Now we tend to be very kind to one another. Whoever came upon the devilish idea of creating seedless watermelons was never a child. I must remember to thank my brother for patiently teaching me to attach baseball cards to my bike spokes, though. Another excellent summer activity.

This is a fabulous idea for some cool self-care; a summertime watermelon treat: Frozen Watermelon https://www.instagram.com/p/DKzxkQOJS1e/ I’m not sure that you need the honey – watermelon is sweetness perfected. Here are some other gratinas

This is my kind of recipe:


Watermelon Gazpacho Salad
4 cups cubed, seeded watermelon
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 small yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1/2 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup crumbled queso fresco cheese, optional

Combine watermelon, cilantro, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, and jalapeno in a large bowl. Whisk together olive oil, vinegar, salt, and cumin; drizzle over watermelon mixture and toss gently. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour. Sprinkle with cheese before serving, if using. Makes 4.

It never occurred to me that watermelon could be grilled, let alone paired with tomatoes. What have I been thinking? It is summer, and the watermelons and tomatoes are ripe. At least I have the homegrown tomatoes and basil to contribute to the recipe, along with my basic, farm stand watermelon. It’s not fancy, just delicious. Let the summer games begin!

Matthew Raiford’s Watermelon Steak Salad with Heirloom Tomatoes and Sangria Vinaigrette

If you don’t want to grill your watermelon, here is another recipe for tomato and watermelon salad

Here is a handy dandy list list of summer fruits. Treat yourself! Do it for Luke.

Summer Fruits:
Blueberries
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blackberries
Cantaloupe
Honeydew melon
Nectarines
Peaches
Sour cherries
Watermelon
Apricots
Plums

“Taste every fruit of every tree in the garden at least once. It is an insult to creation not to experience it fully. Temperance is wickedness.”
—Stephen Fry


Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil, and ink.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1 Homepage Slider, Food Friday

Food Friday: Chicken on a Stick

June 13, 2025 by Jean Sanders
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Anthony Bourdain said: “Everyone should know how to roast a chicken. It’s a life skill that should be taught to small children at school.” Roasted chicken is just the beginning.

I love chicken. It’s not fancy. It does not need to be complex. It is steady and reliable. It is a blank canvas, ready to take on your vision. It is ready to nurture your fragile soul. It is adaptable, versatile and eager to please. We are rather fond of roasted chicken, grilled chicken, chicken Schnitzel, fried chicken, stir-fried chicken and barbecued chicken. Not to mention chicken Marsala, chicken piccata, chicken kabobs, chicken salad, chicken tacos, chicken and waffles, and chicken pot pie.

Growing up my favorite birthday dinner was baked chicken and rice, which was reliably crisp, juicy and delicious. I knew the dangers of the summertime grilled chicken legs, that my father always nearly incinerated on the back yard hibachi grill, that were blackened and juicy and scalding hot, but I happily gnawed away at them anyway, gingerly, with newly seared fingertips. On family summer vacations I would eat all the Howard Johnson’s crunchy fried chicken I could get. In college I was a reliably cheap date, because I would always order the chicken.

During the summer months, which are rapidly approaching, I like to delegate as much of the cooking as I can, as you well know, to the back yard grill and Mr. Sanders. I contribute cold drinks, basting brushes and unsolicited advice. The least I can do is help with thoughtful meal suggestions and some of the prep work. Naturally chicken tends to be the first protein that springs to mind. And what can be more fun than food on a stick?

It’s the perfect time for kabobs! Kabobs have something for everybody. Vegetables! Meat! Dangerous pointy sticks! Charred summer food is just the best. You can thread chicken and veggies on a skewer, or you could try beef or pork. Or even tofu: Tofu Kabobs Chicken Kabobs It is al fresco dining at its zenith; redolent with flavor, and hints of danger.

Preparing kabobs is a grand way to empty out some of the crisper drawer, and reduce your sad collection of tired peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, and even Brussels sprouts. There might even be cruciferous vegetables aficionados among us who will insist on including clumps of broccolini. Be that way. Don’t take my word for it, but you can trust our clever friends at Food52: Veggie kabobs

You can prepare delightful all-vegetable kabobs for your vegetarians, and cook them side-by-side with the meat-laced skewers for the omnivores in your life. In one fell swoop you can simplify meal prep. Sometimes, with the young and opinionated, you will have to be careful about what kabob items are touching. There are plenty of variations, and you can please your pickiest eater: Grilled Kabobs

It is a week until the summer solstice. We are dancing between afternoon thunderstorms this week – next week we will be ready for summer celebrations. Bring on the sunscreen, the Off!, the frosty beer, and chicken on a stick. Yumsters.

“There was shish-kabob for lunch, huge, savory hunks of spitted meat sizzling like the devil over charcoal after marinating seventy-two hours in a secret mixture Milo had stolen from a crooked trader in the Levant, served with Iranian rice and asparagus tips Parmesan, followed by cherries jubilee for dessert and then steaming cups of fresh coffee with Benedictine and brandy.”
― Joseph Heller

 


Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil and ink.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1 Homepage Slider, Food Friday

Food Friday: Summer’s Here!

June 6, 2025 by Jean Sanders
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Happy June! Summer has kicked off already in our neighborhood. Last weekend Eleanor, who is ten-and-a-half and lives across the street from us, opened her famous lemonade stand. We like to support youthful endeavors, so we gamely trotted over in the morning for our annual Solo cups of Wyler’s lemonade and Eleanor’s hand-crafted beaded friendship bracelets. The summer games have begun!

What will your summer drink be? We are entering the glorious time of the year when the sun sets late, the fireflies abound, and the sun is warm, but not yet baking us into gooey sweaty messes. It’s time for sitting on the back porch, talking about summer, and admiring Eleanor’s handiwork.

Summer means vacations, trips to the beach, sand in the car, trashy romance novels, blockbuster Tom Cruise movies, and cool drinks. With snacks. I suppose we can and do enjoy those things all year round, but the summer of my imagination is always viewed through those IG-perfect rosy glasses – in crisp white linen, with lightly freckled noses, always mosquito-free, with a side of lobster rolls and crispy fries. Yumsters.

Last year orange wines were popular among the younger cocktail set. And the perpetual favorite rosé wines proliferate. Everyone who is anyone has their own rosés now. For example: Château Miraval (Brad Pitt), and Invivo x SJP (Sarah Jessica Parker) have their monikers on some very pretty bottles of rosé. Celeb Rosés

A few summers ago Mr. Sanders found a tasty, inexpensive green wine at the grocery store, a Vinho Verde. It young and fresh, and so light because it has a very low alcohol content. Heavens. I didn’t care for it much, because I am true blue and loyal to my cheap, full-bodied and buzzy Chardonnay (if you know someone at the Kendall Jackson Vineyards, please let them know that I would be an excellent shill) and I found it too light. I am very comfortable in my rut. But you should poke around the wine shelves and see for yourself.

This summer I am going to make the effort to experiment with a variety of drinks. I might not appreciate all the trade war dramas playing out in Washington, but I have seen other news which can affect us, too: Maryland and Delaware have elected to opt for the same official state cocktail – the Orange Crush. And have you heard the news flash that Popeye’s has released their summer drink for 2025 – Pickle Lemonade? Whoa. Pay attention, Eleanor: Pickle lemonade is the new Wyler’s.

The official state cocktail of Maryland is the Orange Crush, as declared by Governor Moore. It’s a combination of vodka, triple sec, orange juice, and lemon-lime soda. I imagine it has a whopper of an alcohol content. Maryland wins the Orange Crush competition – of course. Maryland invented it for heaven’s sake. In Ocean City. Maryland vs. Delaware:

I always find that orange juice is a little too sweet, but then again, I might not be a good judge because I loved Tang as a child. Remember Tang? It probably had more chemicals and artificial sweeteners than all the Halloween candy I ever consumed as a tot. For the sake of professionalism, I will have to try an Orange Crush, or two.

More in the interest of science I will also be trying the Pickle Lemonade, spiked and un-spiked. Luckily we still consider pickles to be green leafy vegetables in this household, so we always have a jar or two of Vlasics in the fridge. If Maryland has an official cocktail, maybe I need one, too.

I like a slice or two of pickle on my fried chicken sandwiches, so mixing some pickle juice into a glass of lemonade might not taste as peculiar as it sounds. And it sounds a little more exotic and appetizing than chugging a glass of Gatorade to refresh and re-hydrate. Stock up on pickles. Stock up on orange juice — summer is almost here.

“Summer’s here, I’m for that
I got my rubber sandals, got my straw hat
I got my cold beer, I’m just glad that I’m here…”
— James Taylor

Here is a free article from the New York Times: Pickle Lemonade


Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil and ink.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1 Homepage Slider, Food Friday

Food Friday: Blueberry Harvest

May 30, 2025 by Jean Sanders
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Suddenly they are everywhere — blueberries. June is about to be busting out all over, summer is almost here, and if you listen carefully you’ll hear the blueberries ripening. Little globules of vitamin-rich blue goodness! ’Tis the season to revel in local blueberries!

Local blueberries are ripe for the picking, as they say. We don’t have to worry about those tariffs, for the moment. Instead of waiting for imports from Mexico, Peru or Chile we can wander into a You-Pick-It blueberry farm, and spend some time in nature, plucking our own sweet breakfast jewels. Deelish.

Mr. Sanders starts each day in a healthy manner – unlike me – who still yearns for those good old days of cold pizza for breakfast. No, Mr. Sanders always sets a good example, and manfully tosses a handful of glistening blueberry goodness on top of his bowl of leaves and twigs every morning. Sometimes he just rinses them off in a wire strainer, and drops them into a bowl for easy munching. Or he mixes them with other berries and some yogurt. Sometimes he ladles a handful on top of a bowl of overnight oats and has a healthy, crunchy breakfast. Luke the omnivore wonder dog does not care for blueberries, strangely enough, so he won’t be staring up at you with a deep-throated yearning for the blueberries in your breakfast bowl. Not that you won’t feel his silent reproach for your dubious food choices. Now would be a good moment for you to fetch him a yummy dog treat. Dogs and Blueberries

I like my blueberries as a special component: in piping hot, just baked blueberry muffins, with melting Irish butter, and the Sunday papers. Or in blueberry pancakes, with warm blueberry bursts in each mouthful. Nigel Slater has a divine recipe for blueberry French toast:

Or, with a little planning, you can bake a breakfast cake. How perfect is cake for breakfast? A blueberry breakfast cake is the best way to start a day

Surely the ultimate blueberry moment is the first bite of blueberry pie. You might prefer your pie open-faced, lattice work, crumble, or with a second crust. It’s going to be a long summer, so try every permutation. Our friends at Food52 have done lots of research, and lots of baking. I rely on them to guide me through these treacherous blueberry pie waters: Food52 Blueberry Ideas

Father’s Day is in a couple of weeks (June 15th this year). You can start your celebration with warm, butter-dripping blueberry muffins at breakfast! Later on, how about a colorful salad? For a delightfully cool lunch salad, try pairing blueberries with cucumbers and some feta cheese. Blueberry Cucumber Salad

Later on we will be having cocktails, too, of course. John Derian is as stylish and clever as folks come, and this is his recipe for a Blueberry Smash. Deelightful!

Visit the farmers’ market of your choice to get lots of local blueberries and other produce:

Chestertown Farmers’ Market


St. Michaels FreshFarm Market


Centreville Farmers’ Market


Easton Farmers Market


Lockbriar Farm
10051 Worton Road, Chestertown, MD 21620

Redman Farms
8689 Bakers Lane, Chestertown, MD 21620

“Taste every fruit of every tree in the garden at least once. It is an insult to creation not to experience it fully. Temperance is wickedness.”
—Stephen Fry


Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil and ink.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1 Homepage Slider, Food Friday

Food Friday: Getting Back to Grilling

May 23, 2025 by Jean Sanders
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Here we are again—on the cusp of summer, on the eve of grilling season, keeping watch for fireflies, swatting early mosquitoes, and planning the Memorial Day cookout. I’m looking forward to a gathering of old friends on the back porch, with songs from college playing in the background as we laugh and scarf bowls of chips like it was still the good old days of few consequences.

As we catch up with our merry band, hearing about new babies, new homes, young lives in big cities, I wonder, as one does, if we made the right choices along the way. Maybe we would have been happier with an urban life. And then I read magazine articles and feel smug about our life decisions. I was never destined to be a West Village Girl – looking for frozen espresso martinis while posting influencer content to TikTok. I was never going to be someone who worked in finance, and I never would have strolled into the short-lived Brooklyn Mischa restaurant this Memorial Day Weekend, and plunked down $29 for a hot dog. Nope. I think I plunked down about $29 for our entire cookout. For that kind of money, I’d rather learn to love caviar.

Instead meeting at an au courant bistro in the West Village in NYC, we will gather on the back porch, where we have a few Adirondack chairs (which are never as comfortable as they look). I love these al fresco nights, as we elude those pesky mosquitoes and enjoy fluttering candles and swaying strings of white lights. We can watch the last of the sun’s rays gilding the tops of the pecan trees, and the bellies of the robins as they squabble in the back yard. There is time to slow down and the enjoy the lengthening navy shadows. There is no television news in the background. It is a pleasantly warm and humid summer evening. Far away you might hear a hint of distant thunder growling.

We aren’t going to serve anything extravagant this weekend, just our old reliable favorites: hamburgers, hot dogs, corn-on-the-cob, potato salad, green salad, and strawberry short cake. Also, chips and classic 1950s French onion dip, with WASPy bowls of radishes, cucumber spears, celery and carrots for karmic balance. There will be beer. No Aperol spritzes or frozen espresso martinis. Welcome to summer. Welcome to ordinary America— no fancy pants West Village girls here!

This is the best sort of holiday meal, one that doesn’t require numerous trips to the grocery store for elusive exotic ingredients, or perusing cookbooks. Jacques Pepin and Alice Waters can sit sullenly on the bookshelf – these are tried and true dishes that vary little from year to year, or really from family to family. I sometimes miss the dry, charred, hockey-puck-hamburgers of my childhood, but I must say that Mr. Sanders can flip a mean burger. And I still make my mother’s potato salad. Maybe you’ll grill brats, or have a watermelon or lemon meringue pie. Maybe your family always grills chicken. Be sure to enjoy yourselves!
We will be trying one new dish as Mr. Sanders does love a challenge: grilled artichokes. In preparation, he has even cleaned the grill for the new season. Bring on summer! We’ll see you at the farmers’ market!

Food52 Grilled Artichokes

Food and Wine Grilled Artichokes

The Schmidty Wife Artichokes

We will be sticking close to home this weekend – we are painting a bathroom for a well-intentioned family project – so we will be flipping our burgers and watching the fireflies dance here. Heat up your charcoal briquets, enjoy your crab feast, fry up a batch of chicken, spike a cold watermelon, melt a batch of s’mores, enjoy the Chestertown Tea Party, wave your flags at the parades, and remember the brave souls who gave their all.

“Summertime is always the best of what might be.”
― Charles Bowden

Hints from the New York Times for effective grill cleaning.


Jean Dixon Sanders has been a painter and graphic designer for the past thirty years. A graduate of Washington College, where she majored in fine art, Jean started her work in design with the Literary House lecture program. The illustrations she contributes to the Spies are done with watercolor, colored pencil and ink.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: 1 Homepage Slider, Food Friday

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