“There’s never too much June,” my mother would declare this time of year. No kidding. After a long, cold spring (on May 28, Climate Central tweeted there had been more daily record lows by that date than in all of 2012), kitchen and market gardeners are racing to catch up to the calendar. And, at last, […]

I may live in New York City, but I don’t much care for crowds, which is why you will never find me at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, the Belmont Stakes, or any concert any time in Central Park. That’s what television is for. But I […]

One of the great things about having a blog is that sooner or later you can work in a topic that has been gnawing at you for years but has never found a home. Southern ratatooey is an excellent example of what I mean. I have wanted to write about it ever since the masterful Laura Shapiro asked […]

You never know what you will find in a food stylist’s refrigerator. Take that of Rick Ellis, above. I had to ponder the contents for a minute before I figured it out. “You’re weighting a summer pudding!” I exclaimed. “Shh!” Rick replied. “It’s for Simon’s birthday.” Simon Blake, a film and mixed-media director, and his […]

Giving a house party is an art form. It’s not just forethought and organizational skills that can make a visit memorable, but something rarer, the ability to take people as you find them. Our friends Linda and Patricia, who spend weekends on the North Fork of Long Island, possess this quality in spades. “The bed in the […]

I am extremely fond of beets. What first drew me to them were their handsome, saturated pigments—their drama quotient is off the charts—but then their earthy, equally saturated sweetness took hold, and I was a goner. Luckily, my husband, Sam, is of the same mind, and so we walk around with magenta-stained fingers all summer […]

“Never was a drink more optimistically christened,” my father would say, squinting at his glass. “I don’t know,” my mother would reply, settling into a wicker chair and fanning herself with a copy of Life or the evening paper. “It makes me feel cooler just to look at it.” Pick a summer, any summer, back in […]

The venerable American dish called scalloped (baked) tomatoes is closely identified with the South. But why? Surely it’s a no-brainer idea in any part of the country that experiences a barrage of juicy, ripe tomatoes in high summer. I reached out to culinary historian and former Gourmet contributing editor Anne Mendelson. The origin of “scalloped” […]

Plenty of folks think yellow summer squash is boring, but I love it. I tell people this, and more often than not, they nod knowledgeably. “Well, you’re southern,” they say. “Squash casserole! Do you make yours with cornflakes or potato chips on top?” I stopped trying to figure out whether I’d just been insulted long […]

Flip-flops. Shorts. T-shirts. Bathing suits (three, but they fold up to practically nothing). Sunscreen (lots). Bringing Up the Bodies (the sequel to Wolf Hall, yum-yum) plus the usual pile of mysteries. Well, okay. Traveling light-ish. But everything fits in my new favorite tote, just under 30 bucks and made from “95 percent post-consumer material” by […]