If we can cook it, you can cook it!

Author: Monte Mathews

A dessert that completely lives up to its name: Crack Pie

  It may look innocuous…but watch out, it’s addictive! Today, we go back to Christina Tosi, the wizard behind David Chang’s Momofuku Milk Bar, one of New York’s must stops for any dessert lover.  Christina, as you may remember, was behind the Blueberry and Cream cookies…

Braised Chicken Thighs with Caramelized Fennel

Braised Chicken Thighs with Caramelized Fennel

        For some bizarre reason, we have not one but two almost completely full bottles of Pernod in our liquor cabinet.  Pernod is that close cousin of Pastis, that liquid licorice that you drink quantities of whenever you’re in Provence and then never drink again…

By popular demand, Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

By popular demand, Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

          In the picture above, today’s cookie gets short shrift.  It’s overwhelmed in size by the massive 4 inch Blueberry and Cream and it’s well off to the side.  However, in voting for what cookie recipe our readers wanted to see next, Andrew’s masterful…

The Hampton Classic and a new Cookie Classic: Blueberry and Cream

The Hampton Classic and a new Cookie Classic: Blueberry and Cream

Nobody does it better than the Bridgehampton Florists, Michael and Jim Nobody bakes better than Andrew         The Hampton Classic Horseshow brackets the summer season here.  It’s the last big blast that signals the end of summer.  We love to go for the horses, the hats,…

A visit to LT Burger and a recipe for Creole Crab Burgers

          The summer of the Burger is fast coming to an end.  Out here on the East end of Long Island, the burger buzz has centered around a new entry onto the local dining scene, LT Burger, on Main Street in Sag Harbor.   The LT…

Grilled Swordfish with Lemon Aioli and Fennel

Grilled Swordfish with Lemon Aioli and Fennel

          Our friends Beth and Peter are with us from California for a few days and we’re anxious to share some of Long Island’s best with them. This will include the spectacular weather we’re experiencing, our glorious beaches—less crowded now that a lot of…

Lemon Lime Bars

          I know I’ve mentioned Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito before.  They’re two of my heros because they fled the Advertising business for a bakery in Red Hook, Brooklyn and haven’t looked back.  Instead, they’re the authors of one of Andrew’s go-to sources for…

Chili-Lime Crab Salad with Tomato and Avocado and where to go to Cooking School in Paris

A perfect way to beat the heat… Today’s recipe requires no cooking at all, takes under 30 minutes to get on the table and the taste?  Lime makes this the most refreshing of dishes.  You can serve this tonight which is likely to be one…

Red Snapper with Butter and Shallot Sauce

        The Silver Palate was an iconic and tiny little take-out shop that opened on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in 1979.  It was the brainchild of two women: Julie Russo and Sheila Lukins.  Two years earlier, Lukins, divorced from her husband and mother…

Twice Baked Cherry Pie

          To be honest with you, Andrew is a superb baker with one tiny exception.  His cookies are crazy good.  His cupcakes, nirvana.  His cakes are sensational and he sends everyone into the stratosphere with most everything else he bakes.  But…he’s never been really…

Egg Foo Yung with Chicken and Shiitake Mushrooms

“Fine Cooking” is at it again.  In their current “Make it Tonight” section of ‘just 30 minutes to dinner, start to finish’ recipes, more than one of them caught my eye.  So it became a game of deciding which to make first.  And after I’d…

Chicken Fried Flank Steak with Country Gravy

      Occasionally, I feel like being bad to the bone and cooking something I really should not eat.  This particular urge came after weeks of eating completely wisely and well but I succumbed to this Bon Appetit recipe because it looked  so darned good.  But…

Porchetta, slow-roasted pork shoulder with Fennel Pollen, and a visit to Robert De Niro’s Locanda Verde

Porchetta, slow-roasted pork shoulder with Fennel Pollen, and a visit to Robert De Niro’s Locanda Verde

        Whenever I get called for Jury Duty, I’m always delighted to use the midday break to try out the neighborhood restaurants.  Criminal court means visits to Chinatown and what’s left of Little Italy.  But Civil Court is bang up against Tribeca, ever a hotbed…

Chicken and Sausage Maque Choux

It never occurred to me to serve a stew in the summer.  But here’s how it happened.  I am getting ready to go out to the beach for some good long stretches this summer.  As the departure date approaches, I’ve been trying to pare down…


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