What’s in a name?  Plenty! Drunken Pork Stew Proves it. I have to admit, it was its picture in Fine Cooking–and not its name– that made me want to cook this extraordinarily easy-to-make stew.  Tony Rosenfeld, who wrote “Savory Pork Stews”, says it’s “a quick…

This is a great time to get your kids in the kitchen making these terrific treats. I had to go back to 2010 to find this phenomenal recipe.  I got the most reader comments we’d ever had before.  It is off the charts in another…

If you’re looking for a great cooking magazine, you really should look into Fine Cooking. It’s a wonderful learning tool. It would make a great gift for the Graduate or anyone starting out on their own. Its recipe directions are not shorthand. They’re written to…

I am making a concerted effort to put some great vegetarian recipes together for all kinds of reasons—health, being eco-friendly and just giving us all more options for terrific meals.  And there’s another great reason to cook this right now.  It’s Lent!  Aside from its…

           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…

Garlic Scapes make their appearance once a year. There are cooks who wait all year to work with Garlic Scapes, the flower bud of the garlic plant.  The bud is removed about this time every year to encourage the underground bulb to thicken up.  They…

The Comfort Family’s Farm on Lumber Lane in Bridgehampton. A great place to get your pumpkin if you are lucky enough to live on the East End.              Beyond Roast Turkey and Stuffing, there’s nothing that says Thanksgiving more than pumpkin.…

          My friend Betty once told me a riotous story of being invited to a Thanksgiving dinner and being asked to “bring something”.  When she arrived on the big day, there were 12, count ’em, sweet potato casseroles.  Lesson learned: If…

It’s Thanksgiving and if ever there was a time to cook, this is it.  I love this holiday. Like many people who weren’t born in this country, I see this day as a true celebration of America.  And in its inclusion of everyone– regardless of…

        Who doesn’t need a weeknight supper they can get on the table in under 30 minutes?  This dish from Fine Cooking is a keeper.  It really was on the table in no time.  It’s got a lot of flavor and crunch.  It gives you…

“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…

          I am always on the lookout not just for recipes but for cooking techniques to share.  I thought we had shrimp completely under control with Ina Garten’s Roasted Shrimp recipe.  The oven roasted results beat any boiled shrimp we’d ever tasted.  We’ll never…

        Even with the demise of “Gourmet”, our mailbox isn’t exactly empty of food magazines. I still subscribe to at least 6 of them.  And since I started a course called “Food Writer’s Boot Camp”, our house is practically a library for food…