The older I get, the more I love the Fourth of July. (This might be because, as a kid, I cared about only the promised pyrotechnics: fireworks, sparklers, kissing my seventh-grade crush on the Ferris wheel at the county fair.) When the calendar flips from June to July, it activates some sort of happy Pavlovian…
Good morning. When there are snapper bluefish running in the bays nearby, I like to catch a couple and break them down into chunks and fillets — the chunks for a freestyle ceviche with mango, jalapeño, red onion and tons of lime, and the fillets for slathering with mayonnaise and mustard and roasting into excellence,…
Good morning. Julie Powell famously learned to cook by making her way through all of Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” an endeavor she chronicled in a blog that became a book and then a movie. I tried a similar march with Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby’s “Let the Flames Begin” when I…
Good morning. The nest that was empty is empty no more, as children return from college, as in-laws descend, and suddenly we’re up a few animals and down a few beds. The grocery bills are back to the mesosphere and yet we’re out of milk again, the second time in a week. I’m at it…
You can make a niçoise salad year-round, and I do: I always have canned tuna in the pantry and olives and anchovies in the fridge, and the grocer closest to me stocks cherry tomatoes and green beans even in the depths of January. It’s not eating with the seasons, but it is eating with my…
Good morning. How I’m hoping it will go today: light wind from the southwest, sun high in a cloudless sky, low tide around 2 p.m., a striped bass slipping along the creek where I’m staked out and inhaling the crab fly I’ve put right in front of her with an effortless cast. How it will…
After the quiet winter months, spring heralds the return of longer days and gathering over leisurely meals. The best dishes for those get-togethers are the ones that feel celebratory enough to serve to guests, but are simple enough to ensure you’re not spending all day in the kitchen. These three cheery mains — a salad…
Good morning. I’m embracing nostalgia today, luxuriating in memories of a Brooklyn I never experienced, even though I’m borough-raised. Imagine egg creams at the soda fountain, a long trip on the rattan seats of an old-timey subway car, then the mechanical horse races at Coney Island and a visit to Ebinger’s afterward, for blackout cake….
