The Vermont Foodbank is the recipient of a $500,000 federal grant to “upgrade its Barre, Vt., facility with new equipment and infrastructure,” according to a press release from the United States Department of Agriculture, the agency that awarded the money.

I owe the discovery of this easy, delicious and incredibly versatile way to prepare lentils to my Seven Days colleague, Margaret Grayson.

Margaret has fallen in love with lentils, she told me.  "They just sop up whatever flavor you want, like healthy little sponges." On a recent backpacking trip, she packed pink lentils and spices as a lightweight dinner.

This particular recipe calls for the tiny, dark green lentils that cook quickly and hold their shape.  They are sometimes called French lentils or indigo lentils. (I buy them from the bulk section at City Market.) Beluga lentils, which are almost black, will also work well.

While the pot simmers, you whisk together a  dressing of good vinegar and olive oil with a touch of honey, paprika and salt to pour over the hot, drained lentils. They drink up the dressing eagerly, as most of us would. The nutty lentils pair beautifully with the  mellow acidity and hint of sweet and spice.

It may not sound like much, but that's like saying that a favorite pair of fits-just-right jeans is nothing special. You can dress them up; you can dress them down. They are, in fact, indispensable.

The recipe takes less than 30 minutes from start to finish; most of that is hands-off while the lentils cook. Over the last month, I have already made them three times. It is the kind of chameleon recipe that can shape-shift to go with whatever you have on hand.

You can eat the lentils straight, but it is more fun and rewarding to create all manner of one-bowl meals built on their sturdy foundation. Aside from providing a nutritious base, lentils are also naturally gluten-free and vegan. (Use maple syrup instead of honey if needed.)

These lentils have already played a humble but critical supporting role for the vegetables and herbs currently cascading in abundance from my garden and farm share.

I first tossed them with grilled baby red onions and halved cherry tomatoes. I then embellished the lentils with grilled zucchini, feta and loads of fresh oregano. Finally, I charred up several bunches of fat scallions, chopped them coarsely and then didn't have time to thinly slice the fennel bulbs I'd been planning to add before my guests arrived. It was still delicious.

The only slight drawback is that their drab army green pallor is not particularly pretty, so if serving for guests, I do recommend adding something bright for color.

Margaret and I both owe thanks to recipe developer and food writer Anna Stockwell of Epicurious. Here is the link to her recipe from March 2020. Below, find some more ideas I'm dreaming about for future batches.

Marinated Lentil Salad Inspiration

• Fresh or roasted corn kernels + ribboned basil + shaved Pecorino
  
• Small pasta shapes + diced bell peppers + bocconcini mozzarella balls + flat leaf parsley
  
• Cubed roasted eggplant tossed in a little chili powder and cumin + chopped olives + dollops of plain whole milk yogurt + cilantro
  
• Chunks of steamed sweet potato + pickled red onion (credit to Margaret for this one; I think arugula would be great with this combo)
  
• Grilled halloumi + pickled mild peppers + golden raisins
  
• Lemon-garlic grilled shrimp, scallops or chicken + diced orange segments + toasted pistachios
  

Got cooking questions? Feel free to email [email protected].

A pair of New Yorkers will soon open an Indian restaurant at 207 Colchester Avenue in Burlington, where India House served up tandoori chicken and pakoras from the early 1980s until closing in October 2019.

Co-owners Priyank Shah and Sikander Badhan said they hope their Elaichi Indian Restaurant & Bar will be open for takeout, delivery and reduced-capacity indoor seating by the end of August, although they believe the liquor license will take a little longer.

Picking blueberries is high on my summer bucket list. That list also includes cooling myself off in as many Vermont rivers as I can.

A recent visit to Covered Bridge Blueberry Farm in Underhill checked off both so perfectly that I just might have to head back there before the end of blueberry season later this month.

This lovely, almost 3-acre berry patch is under its first year of ownership by friends of friends. They are transitioning to organic, so the berries are unsprayed but the farm is not yet certified.

After driving over the Browns River on, yes, a covered bridge, we found easy picking with a striking view of Mount Mansfield. (And after we'd picked, we found cool refreshment in the river under the bridge.)

The bushes were weighed down with four different varieties of berries, and I picked more than I could reasonably deal with given my schedule.

I did freeze some in a single layer on rimmed baking sheets before bagging them up. (This prevents them from turning into a single, solid frozen mass.) But space in both my freezer and fridge are at a premium this time of year, so I had to figure out something else stat.  Enter one of the simplest baked summer berry recipes in my arsenal.

The original recipe comes from a friend who I watched pull it together in about 10 minutes about a decade ago at her family's summer place. I've since tweaked it a tiny bit and renamed it; they called it sheet pie, but, while delicious, it's not even a remote cousin to pie, in my view.

The recipe remains quick to make and a sure hit topped with vanilla ice cream. Over the years, I've also made it with sliced peaches arranged overlapping like fish scales (that takes longer than 10 minutes). I'm sure it would work with other berries, such as raspberries and blackberries, as well.

Deep in Vermont winter, I will try to remember where I stashed those frozen blueberries to make it again and evoke sunny berry-picking, river-dipping days.

Blueberry Shortbread Bars

Makes about 35 roughly 2-inch-square bars

Ingredients
For the crust:

• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, preferably unsalted, cut into pieces
• 3 cups flour
• generous pinch fine salt (omit if using salted butter)
  

For the filling:

• 2 ½ pints blueberries
  
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  
• ½ cup granulated sugar
  
• 2 tablespoons flour
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  

To serve:

• Confectioners' sugar
  
• Vanilla ice cream
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. Make the crust: In the bowl of a food processor, combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt, if using. Pulse at least a dozen times until the mixture forms rough crumbles and a pinch holds together between your fingers. (Alternately, use a pastry fork or your hands to mix to the same consistency.)
   
3. Tip the dough into a large rimmed cookie sheet (either 16 by 12 or 15 by 10 inches). With your hands, press the dough out evenly to cover the bottom of the pan.
   
4. Make the filling: In a large bowl, toss together the blueberries, vanilla, sugar, flour and cinnamon.
   
5. Spread the berry mixture evenly across the crust.
   
6. Bake for about 35 minutes until the berries are collapsed and jammy. (If you can see any crust, it should be light golden-brown.)
   
7. Cool the bars in the pan and dust them with confectioners' sugar right before serving with vanilla ice cream.
   

Source: adapted from the Singer family

Got cooking questions? Feel free to email [email protected].

Maybe the next time Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez eats at Penny Cluse Café, she’ll be president. The Congresswoman from New York City got my vote when she reminded the world that men verbally assaulting women is “just another day.”

Maybe by then, the day that never seems to end — in this case, the pandemic — will be over. And we'll be eating at the Penny Cluse counter again, with its endless refills and stool-by-stool camaraderie.

Meanwhile, for $12, I got to eat Penny Cluse’s riff on my childhood birthday meal: smoked salmon, chèvre, sliced tomato, red onion, capers and buttered, grilled baguette.  I drank a spicy bloody Mary ($8) from a plastic cup  with my to-go salmon platter — 'cause I’m no longer nine and because these days could use a little oomph.

My birthday lunch — smoked salmon, bagels, cream cheese, dill pickles, potato salad — was sourced from a Jewish deli. For a lot of my life, I thought Nova, aka smoked salmon, originated from a place like Barney Greengrass the Sturgeon King on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

One day a few years ago, I caught a glimpse of  Maura O’Sullivan, Penny Cluse chef, slicing a salmon filet with a very sharp knife. It got me thinking about the fish and what happens to it at the Burlington café.

I found out Friday, when I was scanning the online menu at Penny Cluse for a meal that costs $12 or less. Spotting the salmon plate, I remembered that glistening filet and rejoiced that a piece of smoked fish could be mine with the click of a computer.

“Happy birthday!” I told myself, placing an online order — though my birthday is actually a few months away. Twenty minutes later, after a drive downtown to fetch my food from the pickup window, I was sitting at our table in private celebration.

I smeared chèvre on a length of baguette, placed smoked salmon on the cheese, laid sliced tomato on top of that and crowned the open-faced sandwich with red onions and capers. Times two.

The salmon, I learned from Penny Cluse owner Charles Reeves, is cured, dried and smoked in-house. Barney Greengrass has nothing to do with it.

“We have a really cool smoker,” Reeves told me.

The salmon and tomatoes — from Pomykala Farm in Grand Isle — match each other in consistency: fleshy but firm. The capers, not a thing when I was a kid, add a little zing.

AOC ate scrambled eggs and rye toast when she and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ate together at Penny Cluse last year. Next time, she should indulge in a meal fit for a kid on her birthday — and possibly a prez.

Dining on a Dime is a series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: [email protected].

It’s about two miles from the visitor center at Shelburne Farms to the inn and gardens on Lake Champlain — maybe two and a half miles, depending on the path you take and where you turn around.

But who’s marking the distance when a walk across the farm — past grazing Brown Swiss cows and the milking barn — is a double win:  a stroll at one of the most beautiful places in Vermont and a shopping trip rolled into one.

Yes, a shopping trip. You can take a walk at Shelburne Farms while a staffer at the visitor center packs your online food order for curbside pickup. If you’re an impulsive type, you can phone in your order on arrival at the parking lot, go for a walk and come back to get your food.

The farm’s seven-acre market garden produces organic vegetables that during normal summers are prepared and plated for diners at the Inn at Shelburne Farms. The inn, along with all farm buildings, is closed for the season due to the  COVID-19 pandemic.

This summer, produce and herbs are available for purchase outside the farm store: Swiss chard, beets, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, mint, thyme, cabbage, carrots, onions, leeks, lettuce, beans and more. The store also sells prepared foods from the inn’s kitchen.

We were super psyched to discover that the restaurant kitchen that typically turns out expensive dinners for in-house diners is offering excellent meals at very reasonable prices.

Our favorite is the beef lasagna, rich and classic made with beef raised on the farm, tomatoes, cheese and Bechamel sauce. A $12 lasagna feeds two. (I spend more money on ingredients when I make my own lasagna, though it fills a big pan.) Shelburne Farms also makes vegetarian lasagna for $11. Both come frozen and need to  be defrosted and warmed in the oven. We eat ours with salad and bread; dinner is both a treat and a bargain.

We’ve also had the macaroni and cheese ($8), and have heard good things about the squash blossom fettuccine ($5).

These days, when the garden harvest is bountiful and beautiful, it’s easy to look past the prepared meals.  But a late afternoon walk turns into a one-night vacation when it ends with dinner-in-a-bag.

It's been a minute, or several, since I wrote one of these columns about cooking with my brother-in-law, Conor. As a refresher, Con had been trying to learn how to cook for his expectant wife, Julia, my youngest sister, throughout lockdown.

I have been trying to help by cooking with him over video calls.  Overall, I'd say we've made some progress, as judged by Julia's grades of the resulting meals.

Since the last episode of Cooking with Conor, as we call it, the very good news is that they have welcomed their daughter into the world. She is small but mighty and everyone is doing well, if a little tired.

As any parent will tell you, adding a newborn to your life leaves little room for other activities. Recalling my own experience years ago, I remember sometimes feeling like there was no time to eat, let alone cook.

We did, however, manage to squeak in a cooking session a few weeks ago. The recipe, a chopped taco salad, had been planned pre-birth but was bumped out a couple weeks when the baby decided to arrive a week or so early.

It was inspired by one of Julia's favorite food items — tacos — and by the desire for minimal heat in the kitchen during very hot weather.

The only effort? A fair bit of chopping, some frying of ground beef and whisking of dressing.

The recipe from thekitchn.com, upon which I loosely based this taco salad, calls for frying strips of corn tortillas. That seemed completely unnecessary, what with babies and heat waves.  Crumbled tortilla chips for Conor, and Fritos in my case, did just fine.

Obviously, you can make this with whatever mix of vegetables you have on hand. Cucumber, radishes and shredded red cabbage would be great. Leftover shredded chicken, sliced steak or even cooked diced shrimp tossed with a little taco seasoning could sub for the ground beef.

While not the prettiest dish I've ever served, it was fresh, crunchy and just-right spicy. My new niece, via her mama, gave it a B+. I can't wait to start cooking with her in a few years.

Chopped Taco Salad

Serves about 4

Ingredients
For the dressing:

• 1 cup plain whole milk yogurt (not Greek) plus olive oil to taste, or 1 cup sour cream plus freshly squeezed lime juice to taste
  
• ½ cup tomato salsa
  
• 1 teaspoon taco seasoning or for a homemade version: combine 2 tablespoons chili powder, 1 tablespoon ground cumin, 1½ teaspoons garlic powder, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon coarse salt, ½ teaspoon ground black pepper (you'll have more than you need for this recipe but use amounts as specified and save the rest for another use)
  
• Salt to taste
  

For the salad:

• 6 medium scallions, thinly sliced, or 1 diced small red onion
  
• 1 ½ cups fresh corn kernels, or 1 (15-ounce) can corn kernels, drained
  
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
  
• 1 bell pepper, any color, cored and diced
  
• 1 pint halved cherry or grape tomatoes
  
• 1 small head romaine, chopped into thin ribbons
  

For the beef:

• 1 pound lean ground beef, or ground turkey
  
• 2 tablespoons taco seasoning, or use homemade version made from recipe above
  
• ¼ cup tomato salsa
  

 For serving:

• Crumbled tortilla chips
  
• Crumbled feta or queso fresco, or shredded cheese, such as cheddar
  
• ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
  

Directions
Make the dressing:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the yogurt, olive oil, salsa and 1 teaspoon taco seasoning. Add salt to taste.
   
2. Set dressing aside.
   

Make the salad:

1. In a large bowl, combine the scallions, corn kernels, black beans, bell pepper and tomatoes. Add about half of the dressing and toss to coat.
   
2. In a serving bowl, place the ribboned romaine and top with the corn-bean mixture.
   

Make the beef:

1. In a large skillet set over medium-high heat, brown the ground beef with the taco seasoning, breaking up any clumps.
   
2. When beef is well cooked, about 8-10 minutes, stir in salsa and cook another minute or two.
   

Finish and serve:

1. Top greens and corn-bean mixture with warm ground beef and top with crumbled tortilla chips, cheese and cilantro.
   
2. Serve remaining dressing on the side.
   

Got cooking questions? Feel free to email them to [email protected].

Lee Anderson, owner of ¡Duino! (Duende) on North Winooski Avenue in Burlington, announced on social media Tuesday that he will be closing his 10-year-old international street food restaurant by the end of July.

He will open a new restaurant business in its place in mid-August with a takeout and delivery-only menu designed by newly hired chef Justin Wright. Anderson was not ready to share the name of the new endeavor, but said the menu will be heavy on vegetables, noting that he himself is vegetarian.

[image-1]In mid-March, Chelle Hall was winding down the ski season as sous-chef at the Stowehof Inn's Fritz Bar & Restaurant. Due to COVID-19, she recalled, "We were all put on a leave of absence. I really didn't know what to expect."

Hall, 26, had previously decided to go back to earn her bachelor of science in business administration and accounting at the University of Vermont while working reduced hours at her cooking job.  Soon, though, she found herself without a  job at all.

Unexpectedly, the break led to an opportunity to create her own business featuring the Japanese food of Hall's heritage.

Updated, July 20, 5 p.m. 

Foam Brewers and Zero Gravity Craft Brewery, as well as their respective affiliated restaurants Deep City and the Great Northern, all of which shut down Thursday due to a staff member's possible exposure to the coronavirus, announced Monday on social media that COVID-19 tests have come back negative.

The breweries and restaurants were closed temporarily while awaiting the results of testing.  Foam Brewers  announced on Facebook that it will open Monday, July 20, at 5 p.m. Zero Gravity announced on Facebook that it will  be back open Tuesday, July 21, with its "regularly scheduled programming."