Light and Delicious Squash Soup

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

We’re in Tokyo this week — more to come on that– but in the meantime here’s a repost of a seasonal favorite recipe. When the cold weather comes around, I always like the idea of butternut squash soup, but I don’t really like most of the soups themselves.  Generally they’re too sweet and heavy for […]

Fall Chrysanthemums

Friday, October 8, 2010

On Sunday, David and I are off to Tokyo for a week, and David’s mother will stay with Julia in New York.  (They’re both looking forward to it –Julia asks for her nearly every morning.)  David’s mom has a real flair for seasonal decor: in her home near New Orleans, beautiful and inventive displays of […]

Cheese Course #3: Pico and Fresh Fennel

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

I love this combination.  Last weekend our friends Anthony and David brought over a box of beautiful produce that we used to cook dinner together, including a couple of large bulbs of fresh fragrant fennel.  One went into a sauce, but the other I sliced and served with our cheese course, pairing it with two […]

The Half and Half

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

We got lucky in San Francisco.  Frances, an excellent new restaurant, opened right across the street from us, and it’s thriving.  The space had seem doomed, hosting a series of financially and/or gastronomically unsuccessful ventures (the longest-lived of which was an odd Hawaiian-themed place with Spam on the menu) but Chef Melissa Perello has broken […]

Onion and Tomato Tart

Monday, October 4, 2010

I suppose some people would consider it cheating.  These delicious savory tarts are quick and easy to make because I use frozen puff pastry dough rather than making my own.  (Puff pastry isn’t difficult to make, but the process is a little more fiddly and time-consuming than making ordinary pastry crust, so I usually take […]

Winemaker’s Grape Cake

Friday, October 1, 2010

Last Monday good friends with a farm in upstate New York brought us box of beautiful late summer produce. In it was a big basket of tiny wine grapes — super ripe and filled with a flavor that’s tarter and more complex than supermarket table grapes. (I’ve noticed these grapes starting to appear in markets […]

Mid-Century Modern Shopping in Palm Springs

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The boxes arrived yesterday.  Last week my college roommate John and I spent a few days in Palm Springs –an annual tradition going back more than 10 years now.  Our agenda isn’t ambitions (lounge by the pool, cocktails, dinner, sleep, repeat), but I usually also manage to rouse myself to do a little shopping. Besides […]

Spaghetti alla Carbonara Revisited

Sunday, September 26, 2010

I think this dish gets a bum rap.  These days it seems to be regarded at best as a guilty pleasure and at worst as a case of wretched excess.  To be fair, many renditions of this Italian favorite (probably Roman, and of relatively recent origin) are just too much of a good thing –the thin […]

Packing with Shaving Kits

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Many years ago, when I was returning from a business trip to London, my luggage was loaded into the taxi, I got in, and we just sat there at the curb.  After a while, I asked the driver why we weren’t leaving for the airport.  He replied, embarrassed, “Oh, Sir, I’m so sorry.  With all […]

Mini Greek Salads

Monday, September 20, 2010

This is a repost of a seasonal favorite recipe for entertaining.  These little salads were such a hit at Julia’s first birthday party that we served them at her second. Recently we celebrated our daughter Julia’s first birthday with a small cocktail party at our New York apartment.  (Julia worked the room, blew out her […]

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