CHEWING THE FAT

Eye of Round…not the tenderest cut but one of the least expensive         To cook a roast beef during the week has always struck me as quite an accomplishment.  Then I discovered the Eye of Round roast at Costco.  Now I grant you…

A while ago, one of my oldest and dearest friends, was writing an International Gluten-Free cookbook.  Michael’s question to me was what could he include that would be truly Canadian.   To me, the answer was very simple.  With apologies to the entire state of Vermont, anything…

        One of the most fun things about last year’s Farmer’s Markets was the presence of our local winery, Wollfer Estate, at each one of them.  First it was staffed by my friend Cassie, until she landed a spot at the local TV…

        For my final Chewing the Fat post of the year, I wanted to share a recipe I developed about 25 years ago.  It appeared in Saveur magazine and if you google it, you’ll find it on several of recipe sites.  To me, what’s odd…

We’ve had the most wonderful Christmas and now we are virtually housebound, there having been a significant snowfall on the East End of Long Island the day after Christmas.  The snow has stopped but the wind is blowing and the eight or so inches of…

        I recently introduced Andrew to the Breslin, April Bloomfield’s gastropub in the Ace Hotel (16 West 29th St. between Fifth Ave. and Broadway Tel: 212 679 1939) .   We sat at the bar and ate our lamb burgers and thrice-cooked chips and…

        I remember a friend telling me that once she gave her husband a Wok for Christmas, it was pretty much Wok-around-the-clock from that point on. As I remember, he was one of the first men I knew who’d taken over the kitchen and cooked…

Mary Woltz of Bee’s Needs in Sag Harbor NY The East End of Long Island of Long Island is full of people doing wonderful things with food.  Among them is one my favorite people, Mary Woltz.  The North Carolina native has single-handedly invented “Bee’s Needs”,…

Last weekend we had a post Thanksgiving dinner party.  Since everyone was pretty well stuffed with Turkey, we wanted something completely different — a crowd-pleaser on a cold night.  So we went for a dinner that’s ‘tutto italiano’ from main course to desert.  Now baked pasta…

        Ten years ago, I got a call from a friend named Ethel, who, at the last minute, couldn’t use her tickets to a big bash given by The Film Society of Lincoln Center.  My work partner, Cathy, and I promptly called our respective spouses…

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…

        Andrew Carmellini is a New York chef whom we’ve followed from one restaurant success to another.  First, we encountered Andrew’s take on contemporary Italian cooking at the original A Voce right off Madison Square Park at 41 Madison Avenue at 26th Street.    How well…

   Let’s be honest:  Balsamic Vinegar has taken the place of red sauce Italian in terms of being found almost too often.   It’s unfortunate too that America’s love affair with this ingredient is so completely antithetical to the way it’s used in Italy.  There, it…

        “The Joy of Cooking” was one of the first cookbooks I was ever aware of.  It, along with Boston Cooking School Cookbook (aka Fanny Farmer), the enormous Gourmet Cookbooks Volumes 1 and 2, and something called “The Encyclopedia of Canadian Cooking” (yes, Encyclopedia) formed…