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By TINKY WEISBLAT

A few weeks ago I hosted the Sons and Daughters of Hawley’s Mud Party. This annual event celebrates spring as we experience it in New England.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Spring is bringing trees and yards and farms to life all around us. In this season of rebirth, Shantigar and Raven Used Books are bringing a visionary thinker about land and community (and a delightful human being) to our area.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

The headlines last week were dire. Egg prices had reached an all-time high, just in time for Easter.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Easter is traditionally associated with the return of rich foods to Christian diets. In the Middle Ages, Europeans followed a very strict diet during the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. They had only one meal a day and could eat no dairy, meat or eggs. Fish was allowed.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

We’re still in prime casserole weather so that’s what I’m making this week. This Tex-Mex dish is more Tex than Mex, but non-purists will enjoy its bubbly warmth.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

When looking for inspiration for this column, I often consult lists of food holidays. I’m ambivalent about these holidays. On the down side, many of them were invented to serve corporate interests. On the plus side, new holidays are always fun to celebrate.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

As Massachusetts Maple Month comes to an end, I’m departing from my usual practice of making savory maple recipes. Instead, I’m preparing something sweet that most Americans associate with maple syrup: pancakes.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I still can’t see anything but snow and ice in my Hawley yard, but new life is in the air nonetheless. My driveway has started looking and feeling muddy, a sure sign that the fifth season is upon us.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

An author event tomorrow, Sunday, March 16, in Erving will explore the process of creating historical fiction from historical fact. Novelist J.A. McIntosh will also discuss the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Although strictly speaking I have little or no Irish blood (one of my great-grandmothers was Scots Irish), I still like to dress in green and make something Irish for Saint Patrick’s Day. This week I’m concentrating on Colcannon, basically gussied-up mashed potatoes. This dish adds lovely green vegetables to the spuds.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

We are awash in anniversaries this year. A century ago, in 1925, Mussolini rose to power in Italy. The Scopes Monkey Trial drew international attention to a modest courtroom in Dayton, Tennessee. Scotsman John Logie Baird aired the first public display of a television signal. And Irving Berlin published the eternal song “Always.”

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Eric Bennett of Northampton will share his lifelong love of penguins next Saturday morning at the Greenfield Public Library.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

For Black History Month, I’m making Macaroni Pie.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I’m celebrating Presidents Day a day late … with a recipe for treats our second president enjoyed at the breakfast table: muffins.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

We tend to associate chocolate with Valentine’s Day. Americans will spend billions of dollars for that holiday this Friday, much of that money on chocolate. It seems like the perfect romantic gift.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Nathalie Dupree died last month at the age of 85. Known as one of the doyennes of Southern cooking, Nathalie was a chef, cookbook author, and television personality.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Charles Cutler of Hawley first became fascinated by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa in the early 1960s when Cutler was in Lisbon on a Fulbright Scholarship. Pessoa turned into one of his favorite writers to teach as a professor at Smith College for more than 40 years.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Early Wednesday morning (Jan. 29) we will welcome the Year of the Snake. As readers may know, the Chinese Zodiac comprises 12 signs. Each is assigned an animal, and the animals repeat in a 12-year cycle. This roughly corresponds to the time it takes Jupiter to orbit the sun.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to bring something sweet to a meeting. The meeting took place on our National Day of Mourning for the late President Jimmy Carter so I decided to make something with peanuts or peanut butter. Carter was a peanut farmer before he went into politics.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

James Bridgman of Northampton will speak about his recent book, “Forgotten Immigrants: The Bohemians of Turners Falls, Massachusetts,” on Saturday, Jan. 25, at 2 p.m. at the Great Falls Discovery Center on Avenue A in Turners Falls.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Bread is one of humanity’s earliest foods. It is certainly the oldest food that uses cultivated crops. It is meaningful to us humans in many ways. It symbolizes warmth, nourishment and home.