Jeanne O'Brien Coffey

Professional musician Natalia “Saw Lady” Paruz has lived in Astoria since the early 1990s, captivated by the friendly community and easy access to Manhattan.
“Queens has a home feel, like a cocoon,” Paruz says, noting that many houses in her neighborhood have yards full of tomatoes and flowers.

After more than a year of being cooped up, a change of scenery—even a stroll in a park a few towns away—can do wonders for your health, both mental and physical. “Day trips are a great idea, especially if you’re spending time outside. Sunshine and fresh air are so good for the mood,” says Kumar Dharmarajan, MD, MBA, cardiologist, geriatrician, and Chief Scientific Officer at Clover Health.

Chef Jeremy Sewall wants you to cook more fish. For years, he’s made seafood more approachable at his casual, comfortable Row 34 mini-chain of restaurants, channeling an old-school New England vibe with letterboard signs and dishes that are an homage to summers growing up in Maine.

It will surprise exactly no one to learn that at Thanksgiving, Joanne Chang always brings dessert. A lot of dessert.

“I typically order one of everything to bring wherever we are going,” says Chang, the James Beard Outstanding Baker. That adds up to about seven pies, as well as armloads of breakfast treats and other goodies to last for days. And she likes to try it all.

FEELING LOST IN THE PRODUCE AISLE? COOKBOOK AUTHOR ANYA KASSOFF OFFERS A MAP TO ADDING MORE FRESH VEGETABLES YEAR-ROUND.

Growing grapes in Vermont is hard work. Winter temperatures can plunge well below zero – and that’s in Fahrenheit! Frost can threaten at both ends, during bud-break and at harvest, and pressure from pests and humidity is ever-present. Meaning that winemakers are a dedicated bunch and you will find few growing fragile classic varietals like ...

To reach Aragosta at Goose Cove, an oceanfront restaurant on Maine’s craggy coast, guests follow State Route 15 over a dramatically narrow suspension bridge, then cross the Deer Isle Causeway. Turning onto Goose Cove Road from State Route 15A, the road narrows even further, with pine trees closing in on both sides, until it turns into a bumpy graveled way. Just when you suspect you might be lost, however, the vista opens up to reveal a cove with a rocky beach and views of pine-tree packed isl...

Over a single week in March 2020, nearly every plan at Topsfield Bakeshop was wiped from the calendar. The 15-year-old store, which operates the wildly popular Whoo(pie) Wagon—a fixture at area festivals, corporate events, and colleges—saw its schedule vanish, including the bakery’s thriving wedding cake business, in an unexpected instant. This, at a time when owners Mary and Chris Bandereck were in the home stretch of building an expanded facility with extensive kitchen space on Route 1 in T...

Cocktails without the kick are gaining popularity. A few years ago, the choices for a nonalcoholic drink—even at an upscale bar—were mainly limited to sparkling water with a twist of lime or an insipid faux beer. These days, new zero-proof examples of classic spirits, from aperitifs to gins to whiskeys, seem to crop up every week. They’ve become so popular that Michelin-starred restaurants now offer nonalcoholic pairing menus.
According to a study done by Nielsen, mi...

The Saigon Cigar Club is a gorgeous cocktail. Tropical yet also warming, the mix of bourbon and banana syrup, scented with cardamom and cinnamon, then enhanced with a smoky banana leaf, defies the seasons, making it perfect to sip in high summer or in the depths of winter. So perfect, the drink became an instant classic on the menu at Nightshade Noodle Bar in Lynn.
The cocktail is also insanely complicated to make—you need to simmer Thai bananas with a bunch of spices then strain to make a sy...

Maple trees sense spring before the rest of us. In February, snow may lie deep on the ground and the nighttime temperatures may plunge below freezing, but as soon as the thermometer starts to rise above 32 degrees during the day, sugar maples awaken. They draw moisture from the softening ground and convert starch stored last season into sugar to feed new growth.
Growing up in New England, hearing the drip-drip as icicles started to thaw and noticing slush melting into mud meant a visit to a s...

Not everyone gives that much thought to kitchen appliances, but Barbara Lynch loves her fridge. The Boston restaurateur says her Samsung Showcase Side-by-Side makes cooking easy and organized. And that’s important. Despite a lifetime in the kitchen, and running seven successful Boston restaurants with a staff of more than 200, Lynch still finds cooking and entertaining at home relaxing. Built-in floor-to-ceiling shelving (with a ladder to ...

Ever since Seedlip burst onto the scene a few years back with the world’s first distilled nonalcoholic spirit, the options for crafting serious cocktails without the booze have expanded seemingly exponentially. It’s a good thing too – the choices have been too few for too long, limited to Shirley Temples, sweet fruity virgin daiquiris and perhaps, if you found a particularly creative bartender, a virgin mojito. These days, whether you prefer bourbon, gin or a bitter digestif, there are multip...

Bridge House mixes net-zero sustainability with luxurious design