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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.

By TINKY WEISBLAT

January is National Soup Month. This designation makes perfect sense to me. When the weather turns cold, as it often does at this time of year, I can sip and serve soup at any hour of the day or night.Last week I prepared one of my favorite hearty...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

On New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, we celebrate both the old and the new. We are looking — like the Roman god Janus, for whom January was named — in two directions.To me, this means that the transition to a new year often involves making new-to-me...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

Hanukkah begins Wednesday night, Christmas night. I love having the two holidays coincide, which they don’t always do since Hanukkah is determined by a lunar calendar. I celebrate both so it tickles me to wallow in celebration and to sing Christmas...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I recently read two books by former ministers in our area whom I am lucky enough to have known. Both books are full of life and color, and both show a sensitivity to nature. That’s about all they have in common, other than my hearty recommendation...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

“You don’t have to have a big, fancy family tree, just some really nice stories,” Becky Baxter Clark of Deerfield recently told me. “Those are the ones that the kids remember.”Becky herself has a lot of family stories. She recently shared some of them...

By TINKY WEISBLAT

I recently put out a call on Facebook for local folks who have beloved holiday food traditions. I received a lot of responses, some of which will appear in this paper in the weeks and years to come.Jeanne Douillard of Greenfield remembers both...