Aerial View of Shelter Island Shelter Island, for those of you who don’t know, is a 5 minute ferryboat-only ride away from The Hamptons, or more properly Sag Harbor, or more specifically North Haven. On the other end of the island, there’s an 8 minute…

David Santos and Melissa Clark   While I’ve been familiar with heirloom tomatoes for several years now, this year was my introduction to heirloom carrots in, of all places, Trader Joe’s.  It was there that I first saw a 2 lb. bag labeled Rainbow Carrots.  …

I know Andrew is good, I mean really good. But his baking skills really hit an all-time personal best with the making of this sinfully rich, fudgy, bittersweet cake.  As Melissa Clark, who co-wrote “The Perfect Finish” (W.W. Norton and Co. (2010) the cookbook it…

  I’ve wanted to cook in a tagine for ages and I mentioned this to my friends Bill and Peter.  Now they are both the soul of generosity and recently when we were at their house for dinner, Bill presented me with 3 Tagines that…

Bon Appetit’s Photo of its “Best Ever Ribs Recipe”. Would that the recipe was as good as their photo.          One of my very favorite things to eat are ribs. Pork ribs and to get even more specific, St. Louis cut Pork Ribs which I…

         The Cocktail Party is a perennial fixture of summer in the Hamptons. Let’s face it, it’s a great way to get all your social commitments covered in one big bash.  It generally lasts a finite number of hours, usually three at…

        The lovely and extremely talented Elizabeth Karmel The 4th of July is upon us and there’s never a better time to fire up the grill and celebrate the joy of being an American.  And there’s almost nothing more American than beef.  And…

Eric Rippert Recently, Andrew and I went to hear Eric Rippert, Fish Chef Extraordinaire  and proprietor of the perennially four-starred Le Bernardin restaurant in New York.  Chef Rippert appeared at a food forum at the YMHA hosted by Adam Gopnick of The New Yorker magazine.  …

 There’s a twitter feed called “Drunk Ina Garten” written by someone as a parody.  And every time I post an Ina Garten piece, the guy who tweets it picks up on it in about five minutes flat, re-tweets it and I get tons of hits…

Paola’s Restaurant  1295 Madison Avenue at 92nd St. NYC Tel: (212) 794-1890 Reservations and Information: www.paolasrestaurant.com Paola’s Pici con Asparagi          Not too long ago, I was early for a lecture in Carnegie Hill, a family-friendly East Side Manhattan neighborhood known to tourists by…

Uncle Andrew…there from the very beginning. Last weekend, we celebrated Father’s Day with all the necessary cards, salutations on Facebook, telephone calls filled with praise for Dear Old Dad.   I know how much it meant to me and how much I admire the Dad in…

A Fusion between Indian-inflected Spices and Great Canadian Beef           This was one of the first posts I published back in 2010 when I started to blog.  Because my readership was nowhere near what it is now, I should not have…

         Rhubarb season, like asparagus season, is eagerly awaited at our house.  Andrew cannot wait to get his hands on the slender red and green stalks and get into the kitchen to bake. The first rhubarb of the season is always preferable to what comes…

         To say that I’m a fan of our local Long Island asparagus is the definition of an understatement.  I really cannot get enough of the stuff.  It’s a fixture in our refrigerator for as long as it lasts.  The asparagus I am particularly attached…