CHEWING THE FAT

           The weather on America’s East Coast has been nothing short of bizaare this whole winter.   When I boarded the plane to come home from St. Barth, the temperature there was 81 degrees.  When I arrived in Newark the temperature was 75 degrees.  We…

VILLA ACE, HOME SWEET HOME! C’EST LA VUE! SAME WONDERFUL MINI COOPER AGAIN THIS YEAR! MARCHE ‘U’ NOW FULL OF FRESH VEGETABLES We’re back!  We’ve just concluded our 18th visit to one of our favorite places on earth, St. Barthelemy. That little 8 ½ square mile…

         When you can vividly remember a lunch you had ten years ago, I would have to say that’s the power of great cooking.  I distinctly remember a visit to Washington Park on lower Fifth Avenue.  The restaurant marked the triumphant return to New York…

         My dear friend Yvonne introduced me to Gene Hovis.  Not that I ever met him in person.  Yvonne, who knows everyone, and I do mean everyone, introduced me to Gene via his wonderful Cookbook cum memoir, ‘Uptown Down Home’ which was published in 1987. …

         One of the great joys of cooking has to be the amazing things you learn when you use an ingredient that is new to you.  In this case, our dear friend Richard arrived from Hong Kong recently and presented us with a sealed plastic…

Bobby Deen’s Light Baked Spaghetti versus…. Pasta Puttanesca from Ellie Krieger          Unless you live under some media-free rock, you have likely heard of the kerfuffle surrounding the announcement that Paula Deen, the Food Network’s Diva of Southern Cuisine, has contracted Type II diabetes.  The…

Jennifer May’s Photo of the Dish My rendition of the dish           There was a time when everyone who visited the south of France came back and immediately went straight to their oven to prepare something called “Seven Hour Gigot of Lamb”.  It was one…

Number one Oreo Fan Stephanie and Mason          We couldn’t let this momentous occasion pass without throwing a party.  This week, the Oreo cookie, invented in New York’s Chelsea, is having its 100th birthday.  With over 491 billion Oreos having been consumed…

         We were having a group to dinner over the President’s Day weekend.  I saw it as a great opportunity to cook something substantial.  I hit upon making a paella for a couple of reasons. I’d read an article in Saveur written by David Rosengarten. …

Can you guess which machine made this soup? The weather this winter has yet to cooperate. It has been so consistently mild that the warming pleasures of a bowl of homemade soup have almost seemed out of place.  Not that I don’t appreciate not having…

Melissa Clark I love Melissa Clark and not only because she has the 5th most popular post on Chewing the Fat…see            https://chewingthefat.us.com/2011/05/melissa-clarks-mothers-recipe-for-thyme.html).  She consistently creates truly accessible recipes for readers of her  New York Times weekly column “In the Kitchen with…

         I love a good Osso Buco.  It’s a wonderful weeknight dinner party dish because you can make it one night and serve it the next and it will only improve with its overnight rest.  But I had never heard of a lamb version of…

  New Zealand where there are 9.2 sheep for every human          I’d be hard pressed to remember the last I cooked something this impressive and yet so easy.  I must admit to having approached preparing rack of lamb with a degree of trepidation.  This…

Last summer, our great friend Michael came over to our house with a cookbook given to him by one of his favorite customers at the Bridgehampton Florist, which he co-owns with his husband, Jim. (Yes, that Bridgehampton Florist…viewers of the Barefoot Contessa take note).  “Plenty”(Ebury…