Blueberry Buttermilk Rolled Scones

Scones have come a long way from their origin as humble oatcakes baked at the hearth on an iron griddle. A clue to their long ancestry is the buttermilk and baking soda still used as their leavening – dating from the days before modern baking powder. Oatmeal scones are still the most traditional version of [...]

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American Dinner for Italian Friends

Some wine-professional friends from Italy were in town this week, so we invited them to dinner at our house. As a break from their usual steady diet here of Italian-style restaurants (with all the good and ill that that implies), they asked for an American meal. I rarely cook American for dinner parties, but the [...]

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Sweetbreads Taillevent

Tom had a birthday recently. Between a festive dinner in a restaurant or one at home, he chose home (where properly aged wines don’t cost a fortune). He asked for sweetbreads en croûte. I knew this would put me on my mettle. Tom still dreams about one of the best meals of his life, at [...]

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Hamburger Rolls for Superbowl

Very few things can take Tom and me away from our dining room table at dinnertime. Superbowl is one of them. Especially with the Giants playing! So the big question for last Sunday became “What can we eat on plates on our laps on the couch in front of the television?” And the answer became: [...]

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Beginner’s Tripe

In 1968, M.F.K. Fisher said “The trouble with tripe is that in my present dwelling place, a small town in Northern California, I could count on one hand the people who would eat it with me.” Regrettably, I, whose present dwelling place is a huge city in the Northeast, can say the same in 2012. [...]

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