Recipes

Here are the two finest compliments a dish can get:

1. “I don’t really like _______, but I loved this!”

2. “I love ______ and this was the best version of it I’ve ever had!”

And when you get both compliments on the same dish? You know it’s truly a winner!

Yes, both the skeptics and the die-hards waxed poetic about this ambrosial tomato soup. Zack was a pro making his first chicken-stock-based vegetable soup, gathering up tomatoes and basil at the Friday Farmers Market in East Hampton, and sending his dad around town for a food mill, one of the few kitchen gadgets we had neglected to buy initially.

Again, a simple process: simmer up the veggies…

Category: Recipes

Oh, how I wish I loved eggs. I so admire folks for whom breakfast has such glamorous options ““ fancy omelets, sunnysides, poached, Benedict. But about the only way I’ll venture a taste is to scramble them into virtually unrecognizable form. My sister, one of the other tasters today, concurs.

Nothing worse than dried-out, overcooked scrambles, and Ina’s slow-cooking method is so appealing because it pretty much ensures you avoid that danger. Medium-low heat + continuous stirring = nice creamy eggs. And in reality, that’s just what happened. It’s just that they didn’t taste all that good. They were ultra-rich, and one taster deemed them inedibly salty.

Hmmm, too salty. Let’s see what might account for that….

Category: Recipes

I’m considering renaming this “Pavlovian Tabbouleh.”

I always, always, always make this grain-and-veggie salad whenever I make a summer dinner of grilled leg of lamb, tzatziki and pita. Except for this time…I made it to bring to a cookout where we enjoyed delicious burgers, dogs, chicken and swordfish. And my regular tabbouleh eaters, who are so used to tasting Mediterranean flavors when they eat the dish, were actually slightly less enthused this time.

Was it awful? Hardly! It’s one of the freshest, coolest side dishes you can imagine. You soften up the bulgur wheat in water, lemon juice and olive oil, then toss it with diced English cukes, scallions, parsley, mint and halved cherry tomatoes. That’s all…

Category: Recipes

I love lemonade, lemon sorbet, lemon chicken, lemon pound cake and I’ve been known to suck on raw lemons since I was a little girl, but I’m not a big fan of lemon bars. There’s something just too sickeningly sweet and oozy about them that doesn’t appeal to me. However, I know other peeps don’t share my turn-off, and I thought they would be a tangy contrast to a platter of rich brownies I was bringing to a get-together, so I made a batch.

To truly make them correctly, you need more than a couple of hours, since you have to:

1. chill the dough for a while after you press it into the pan,

Category: Recipes

Pasta, pesto, and peas is a perfect party pleaser. (A lot of alliteration from anxious anchors placed in powerful posts!)

I swear the toughest thing about this recipe is waiting for the pasta to cool so you can toss it with the pesto puree.

First of all…pesto? Yum! And as easy as it is to whip up (Ina includes a recipe for homemade), I chose to save some time by buying fresh store-bought, since it was going to be blended up with chopped spinach, lemon juice and mayo anyway. Toasted pine nuts add a rich crunch to the dish, and what’s easier than using frozen peas? (I’m not a big fan of frozen veggies—save for peas, chopped spinach and…

Category: Recipes

I must admit I wasn’t exactly looking forward to making this recipe, chiefly because of the time-consuming frying process…times two for my ravenous crew. And although I like onion rings just fine, thankyouverymuch, I’ve never had one that would compel me to willingly stand over the stove and tend a pan of hot oil for half an hour.

That is, until now. Meet the Cornmeal Onion Ring.

Jake had been clamoring to make this dish for a couple of weeks now, and I finally gave in to that cute, pleading face. Together we cut the onions and soaked the rings in buttermilk for an hour. And then it must’ve been my lucky day, because David reluctantly…

Category: Recipes

If you’re lucky enough to have a bounty of zucchini in your garden or from the farmer’s market, this is a quick and tasty way to enjoy a bunch of it. Fresh zucchini is satisfyingly sweet, and Ina cautions not to crowd the pan here because you really want to sautè the veggies rather than have them steam. The onions add an extra burst of sweetness, and when you toss everything with grated parm, the result is a delicious, succulent side dish.

We ate this alongside one of the best entrés we’ve had all summer…but you’ll just have to wait til tomorrow to hear about that!

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Category: Recipes

Less a recipe than a blueprint, this is a simple, colorful, do-it-yourself snack to pick at with cocktails.

It’s a bit of a misnomer ““ you’re not putting butter on the radishes, you’re putting it on the baguette toasts. The crunchy, bright radishes are resting comfortably on a bed of sea salt, a few flakes of which stick to the cute, two-bite veggies as you pop ’em in your mouth. Temper the pungency with a yummy buttered baguette slice, and you’ve got a light, satisfying, pretty accompaniment to a nice glass of chardonnay.

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Category: Recipes

A picture’s worth thousand words, dontcha think?

Yes, they are as utterly scrumptious as they look. Yes, they are as rich and moist and chocolaty as they look. Yes, they are the best brownies ever.

And there’s nothing better to do with the best brownies ever than to share them and spread the love.

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Category: Recipes

Striped bass is a family favorite, so when we went to the funky aquaculture fish market at Cranberry Hole and found fresh stripers that had been caught that morning, we bit ““ hook, line and sinker.

Normally we grill it, and I make a topping I created a few years back out of a bounty of ripe tomatoes, onions, mint, parsley and a few other fresh ingredients. But this recipe, with shrimp and mussels, all roasted with a bouillabasse-like sauce in the oven, looked delish. When we found enormous Peruvian heads-on prawns at the store, we knew this recipe was meant to be. And it was also quite befitting that we finally saw Julie & Julia…

Category: Recipes