Linda Harrington

by Lynne Ober

Hudson resident, Linda Harrington is an award-winning cook who has been named as one of the Editor’s for the national food magazine Taste of Home.

“In spring of this year – oh around March or April – I was reading my current issue of Taste of Home when I noticed that they were looking for new Editors from a short list of states,” she stated, “and New Hampshire was one of them. I’ve read that magazine for nine years or so and I love it, so I decided to apply.”

Application consisted of writing an article about a meal. “I decided to use my mom’s favorite meal. I had to write the article plus submit recipes for the dishes in the meal. This meal includes my award-winning potato chive soup. I was so excited when they notified me that I had been accepted as an Editor. I’m still learning what that means.”

Taste of Home is an advertisement free magazine supported entirely by subscription dollars. They have an Editorial Staff of 1,000 from across the America and Canada. This staff works under the direction of the Taste of Home Food Editor to submit recipes and articles based on a monthly theme.

“My first assignment was to develop meals for “Feeding a Crowd,” and that’s something that I really know about,” Harrington smiled. “I’m 100 percent Italian. Both sets of my grandparents migrated to America from Italy and we had big families on both sides. Our lives revolved around food.” Harrington confessed that she has been helping her mother cook since she was a young teenager. “We always had large family meals. Sometimes my mother let me decide which dish I would prepare. It’s been a life-long love of mine.”

Today Harrington frequently feeds large groups of people at the First Baptist Church where her husband, James, is pastor. “On October 18 we are having a large lasagna dinner and I’m supposed to spend that day at the Telegraph for the Cook-Off. I’ve won two of their culinary contests this year. It’s just careful organization and lots of fun.”

Taste of Home also asks for recipes that feature certain spices. Harrington has submitted recipes in two spice categories. “Rosemary is heavily used in cooking so I had lots of recipes and then they asked for recipes using Anise. All of my old Italian recipes use this spice so I submitted a bunch. I can’t wait to see them in print.”

When she’s not in the kitchen, Harrington is working with kids. She is a Title I Reading and Math tutor at Beech Street Elementary in Manchester. “Last year I worked with first graders and this year I’m working with third graders. Right now I’m helping with the developmental ready assessment. Once that’s done, I’ll move on to working with small groups of children in need of additional tutoring help.”

This past summer she worked in the Daycare at Gold’s Gym with the kids. “I loved it. Kids are so great.”

The Harrington’s have three children of their own. “Amy had graduated from school in Vermont before we moved to Hudson, but Alicia attended two years at Alvirne and graduated. She was thrilled to be a Prom Queen at Alvirne. Ashley’s our youngest. We’ve been in Hudson nine years and she started at Library Street School. This year she’s a freshman at Alvirne.”

Music is a theme that holds the entire family together. “Ashley sings in the B-Naturals,” Harrington proudly said. “I play the flute and sing in the church choir. When we were in Vermont, I taught junior choir, but we have a great choir director here.” She paused. “But we didn’t have a bell choir. I love bells. One of the bell companies was having a promotion where you could buy a bell or part of a bell and dedicate it to the memory of someone. The church congregation was wonderful in responding to this. We have almost 3 octaves of bells now – thanks to their generosity. I can have about a dozen young bell choir members. We’ll be starting soon. I can’t wait.”

Harrington’s love of cooking has spread to both her family and church. She loves to pass on her own love of cooking to anyone who wants to learn. She shares recipes will all her dinner guests and congregation members.

“When my two oldest girls got married, I wrote out my recipes and put them into a book for them. It’s a way of extending the Italian tradition of good food.”

She’s also helped her church publish its own cookbook. “The church will turn 200 in 2005 and we’ll be publishing a new cookbook that year,” she said.

Community Questions:

HLN: If you had a magic wand and could change one thing about Hudson, what would it be?

Harrington: “To reach people and show them how to learn to live together with harmony, love, and respect. That’s not easy to do. I’d love to get to know more people in Hudson. We’ve added a youth ministry at the church so that young people have a safe place to go talk about needs and problems.

HLN: What is your favorite book and why?

Harrington: “I read mysteries in my free time. I loved Chaim Potok’s books about growing up in a Jewish community. I think the 11th graders at Alvirne read that now. I also enjoyed Archer Meyer’s books. He wrote mysteries based in Vermont and he taught CPR. I took a CPR class from him and he autographed his book for me.”