Recipes

Oh, if only you could’ve smelled my kitchen while this was cooking…

I can’t believe I’ve had this original cookbook for so many years and have never made this chicken. It’s preposterously easy. All you need is chicken (duh!), honey, soy sauce, and loads of minced garlic and fresh ginger root. Instead of using quartered chickens, I used thighs and drumsticks, which are popular with this crowd. And because I’ve left my brain back in the Hamptons during my short week here in Westport (I’m desperately hoping to bring said cerebellum home with me on Labor Day), I didn’t read the whole recipe through to find out that it’s supposed to marinate overnight. Now there’s…

Category: Recipes

Back in “the day” (whatever that means!) when I was a hose-‘n-pumps corporate chick in Downtown Providence, RI, I used to take out the most awesome sandwiches from this little place called Barclay’s Gourmet on Weybosset Street. They were among the earliest adopters of Boar’s Head provisions and they used fresh breads, great cheeses and good quality veggies on their creative sandwiches. One of my faves was the “BLTA” — you know what the B, L and T stand for, but the A was the genius addition of avocado.

These California BLTs bring back memories of the early 90s: standing behind the same giant, buff attorney every day in line at Barclay’s, tall white cans of hair spray,…

Category: Recipes

Okay, so it was spaghetti with shrimp scampi…but I have to tell you it was exceptional spaghetti and it made the dish especially mouthwatering.

This is one of our weekday standbys. I keep cleaned, top-quality IQF Texas Toros in the freezer, so the dish takes less than half an hour from start to finish, and it’s a cinch to pull together on late Little League nights or when I’m not in the mood to make anything complicated. I usually have the rest of the ingredients on hand in the fridge and pantry ““ pasta, garlic, butter, lemons, olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper ““ so it’s often a last-minute dish for us….

Category: Recipes

Aw, c’mon now, you didn’t honestly think we were going to let the whole summer go by without making the quintessential Barefoot recipe, did you?

These are dessert nirvana ““ fluffy, buttery, vanilla-y cupcakes topped with luxurious cream cheese frosting and an ethereal sprinkling of coconut. A tiered cake stand of them is nothing less than a dazzling showstopper. Even a pie guy like Dave admits these are as scrumptious as they are breathtaking.

A perennial family favorite, I’ve made these cupcakes many times over the years, and they always come out a little differently, depending on the freshness of the baking powder and the particular oven. This time the stars were aligned and the gods were…

Category: Recipes

It’s a cool, rainy day here on the East End and to me there’s nothing cozier than sitting down at our long farmhouse dining table and enjoying a splendid mid-afternoon family lunch. Inspired by the French influence of the tarts, I picked up some of those glamorous glass bottles of sparkling French lemonade and even made a special Hotel Costes playlist to add to the ambience. I don’t want to make you jealous or anything, but this was, quite simply, the finest lunch of the summer!

It was also the most time-consuming Barefoot recipe I’ve made all summer. Nothing remotely complicated, but a bunch of steps. But let me be quick to add: it was more than worth…

Category: Recipes

A few of these and I’ll be drunk dialing Ina at two in the morning to tell her how much I adore her!

Seriously, these are divine, and they make me think of my Nana Caila for two reasons. First, although she wasn’t a frequent cocktailer, Nana would enjoy an Apricot Sour every now and again, and my sister and I used to love sipping her sweet drink-o. And the second reason involves the maraschino cherry. When I was a little girl, Nana hosted almost all the holiday dinners at her big house in Pawtucket, and her standard first course was a halved, sectioned grapefruit on a fancy cut-crystal plate garnished with a cherry in the middle. I…

Category: Recipes

I now have two experts in making stock-based creamy veggie soups! Matt learned just how easy it is to put a bunch of chopped veggies in a pot with chicken stock, puré it, and voilÃ!

Matt hearts zucchini. He learned to love it, of all places, at the local hibachi joint, where they slice it up and sautè it with carrots and the onions they use to make that crazy volcano. So when he saw this recipe ““ even though he didn’t know what vichyssoise was ““ he was instantly enchanted. He chunked up the zucchini, potatoes and what turned out to be the cleanest leeks in existence (I was a little bummed I didn’t get to do…

Category: Recipes

Whole-grain mustard? Mmmm! Red potatoes? Mmmm! Mustard-roasted red potatoes? Not so much…

Roasted potatoes are my side-dish go-to when I’m feeling lazy. Cut up a bunch of Yukon Golds into small chunks, toss with olive oil, minced garlic, salt-n-pepa, and pop it into a hot oven on a half-sheet pan to roast until creamy and crunchy. Sprinkle on some chopped parsley before serving, and no matter how many pounds I make, there is rarely a morsel left.

The most enthusiastic potato fan in the hizzy is Big Ben. While his buddies know full-well that french fries are not safe in his presence, they might not be aware that he’s not opposed to potatoes in most other forms as well….

Category: Recipes

There was a modicum of ambivalence about this dish. I mean, here you have these breathtaking, ripe, juicy heirloom tomatoes. You have a perfectly lovely dressing made with delectable, pungent Roquefort cheese. And somehow, it seems like lily-gilding to smother the splendid fruits with anything other than a simple sprinkling of fleur de sel and a drizzle of good olive oil (and a little fresh basil if you like). It’s the culinary equivalent of donning a darling little black dress, and then accessorizing with Giuseppe Zanotti crystal platform heels, chain-stripe hosiery, diamond chandelier earrings, elbow-length black gloves, stackable bangles, opera-length pearls, and a tiara.

On the other hand, if you’re ever going…

Category: Recipes

Talk about taking lemons and making lemonade!

But first, I have to back up and tell you a new culinary rule I made up the other night: “do not sip cocktails and then have a soup course before you serve grilled tuna.” Because while you’re slurping soup, the tuna is sitting on a platter on the kitchen counter cooking way beyond an appetizing degree of doneness. (Without the preliminary cocktails, you may possibly have a shot at remembering to slice the tuna before you eat the soup, thereby suspending further cooking and preserving the perfectly seared outside and raw interior.)

The tuna wasn’t horribly inedible or anything, but after a filling bowl of

Category: Recipes