Claire Saffitz The bones of this great recipe are from a Bon Appetit writer named Claire Saffitz.  Ms Saffitz has an intriguing background.  She is a graduate of both Harvard and McGill Universities.  At both places she studied History but by the time she got…

         Melissa Clark is one of my all-time favorite recipe makers. I look forward to her weekly columns in the Times one of which is called “A Good Appetite”.   I sometimes think it also be called “Playing with Your Food” because Melissa…

        Last Sunday, we gave a pool party for our god-daughter.  It’s an annual event to celebrate her birthday for the four of us who are called “The Uncles”.  Andrew and I and Terry and Shawn have watched Olivia grow up and we’ve been there…

 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…

          Long Island Mushroom company is the brainchild of two Rhode Island natives who grew up in the same town, became High School Sweethearts, parted ways and re-kindled their romance thirty-two years later.  Jane Maguire and John Quigley are their names and…

Our Farmers’ Markets are brimming with more and more produce every week.  The carrots and beans, tomatoes and radishes are in and the Red Bliss potatoes are still baby-sized and beautiful.  So you can imagine my delight at opening Joanne Chang’s latest cookbook, “flour,too” (Chronicle…

“When my husband and I acquired our farmhouse in Provence…, our visits were generally limited to weekend getaways from Paris. For the train ride back to the city, a snack was essential, and pan bagnat, or “bathed bread,” the Provençal sandwich found at every bakery and…

         A few weeks ago, I told you about Pollen Ranch Spices (https://www.pollenranch.com), a remarkable company in the picturesquely named town of Lemon Cove, California.   My initial introduction to the company was their Fennel Pollen, a key ingredient in a recipe for Porchetta that I…

Kristi          My friend Kristi is something else.  She lives in Dallas where she runs her own business finding “real people” for clients in Advertising and Marketing. She’s the best in the business so she’s in perpetual motion.  She travels all over the place for her…

         As regular readers know, we’re big fans of the Canadian Chef Chuck Hughes, whose recipes we’ve shared here before and whose Le Bremner restaurant was one of the highlights of last fall’s culinary adventures in Montreal.  His food is uncomplicated, fresh as can be and…

            Crab Cakes are one of those dishes that are just about perfect just about any time of year.  They’re a snap to make and you can have them cooked and kept warming in the warming drawer until you’re ready to serve your guests.  …

          It was hard to imagine the depths of despair that a lot of people felt when, in the middle of last winter, one of our favorite restaurants abruptly closed their doors.  Not only that, but they auctioned off the contents of the place,…