A Simple Apple Tart

I offered to bring the dessert for a dinner party last Saturday. This was foolishly bold, given my notable non-expertise in the confectionery arts. But I knew that our hosts, Lars and Karen, were forgiving friends and moreover would feed us so well and bountifully that we wouldn’t have desire or capacity for an elaborate [...]

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Hake in Green Sauce

I think I know why there are no skinny Santa Clauses. The extra pounds that the holidays always put on me have been slower than usual to come off, this year. As a result, I’ve been looking around for relatively light recipes – but ones that would still be interesting to make. I found just [...]

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Pappardelle with Sausage and Cream

I’m not mad about cream sauces for pasta. Too often I find them either insipid or cloying; sometimes, in restaurants, even faked up with floury white sauce. But one of the first recipes Tom and I ever developed for our first cookbook, La Tavola Italiana, is a pasta sauce with cream that we still love [...]

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Lobster Thermidor; Blini for Caviar

Today starts my third year of weekly reports on my cooking adventures. In 2010, per a New Year’s resolution, I wrote only about making new-to-me recipes from my cookbook collection. Last year I broadened out to old favorites as well. For 2012 I’ll keep that openness. This post, about my just-past New Year’s dinner, covers [...]

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