Rumfest’s Ding Dong Cake in a blaze of glory          Every year, our friend Jayne’s Birthday Celebration is declared Rumfest.  That’s a combination of her maiden name and the fact that Jayne’s Birthday is never confined to a single day. It seems to carry on…

           What is a “pluot”?, you may well ask. It’s the Labradoodle of fruits.  Actually it’s more like a Cockapoo or even a Maltipoo in size. The Pluot is a plum and apricot hybrid bred first in California in the 1800s.   Initially it…

Marcus Porcius Cato 234-149 BC If New York has a cake, it is most certainly our richly indulgent and sumptuously creamy cheesecake.  There is a lot of culinary history to support this claim.  And then there’s Junior’s, a Brooklyn Temple to Cheesecake which made history…

           This past weekend, Andrew finally made it out to the Beach for the weekend.  The Real Estate selling season in New York has made it just about impossible for him to take time here since President’s Day.  To Andrew, a…

       I needn’t tell you the Sweets Factory at our house has been in overdrive ever since we arrived here for the holidays.  There have been dozens of cookies, a Red Velvet Cake, even a Norwegian “Fyrstekake” a Cardomon Almond confection, beautifully decorated…

For such a relatively small corner of the world, the East End of Long Island is long on extremely talented chefs.  Proximity to New York has led many a city chef to, if not abandon the city, set up a second home out in the…

       John Barricelli’s cookbooks are among the most reliable you can keep in your kitchen.  Time after time, the pastry chef’s recipes turn out pies and pastries, cakes and cookies that are the essence of great baking.  We’ve now featured 5 of Chef Barricelli’s recipes…

Peppermint Patty Flourless Chocolate Cake decked out for Easter        One of my oldest and dearest friends, Michael, was the first person I ever met with Celiac Disease, the root cause of which is gluten.  He suffered terribly through college, fearing the worst and not…

The book “Throwdown” has over 100 recipes– but only 33 of them are Bobby’s  Bobby Flay’s “Throwdown” has been around for 9 seasons on Food Network TV.  In case you missed any of the over 100 episodes, they’re rerun on the Cooking Channel often enough…

         With this post, we remember Andrew’s father, Gil, whose 85th birthday would have been today had he not been taken from us in March of this year.  He was a very fine fellow, a great Father and Grandfather. A former Track and Field star in…

Yoart Grec avec Mures          Two winters ago, Andrew and I fell in love with a Blackberry Yogurt we bought in St. Barth.  The yogurt or, more correctly Yaourt Grec avecs Mures, even made it onto our “15 Things You Must Eat in St. Barth”…

Our Taster couldn’t get enough of Andrew’s take on these Whoopie Pies           Some of the nicest people on earth are food people.  I realize this every time I do a personal appearance for Monte’s Ham at The Artisan’s Market at Williams-Sonoma. When I do…

         The local strawberries on Long Island could not be more beautiful this year—even if they’ve arrived earlier than usual due to our incredibly mild winter.  There has to be some upside to Global Warming for more than just the population of Canada!  These berries were…

It’s been too long since we shared a terrific baking recipe with you. For that I apologize. But after our Christmas baking binge, our house baker has been taking a long rest.  In truth, all our baking is done out at the Beach.  And for…