It was bound to happen sooner or later: The temperature dipped down into the single digits and made itself at home. Last Saturday’s trip to the Union Square Greenmarket began, then, with swathing myself in Heattech—Uniqlo’s fabulously comfortable thermal line of turtlenecks, T-shirts, leggings, and socks. Forgive the shameless plug, but the stuff really works, and […]

The year, 2006. The city, Jerusalem.  I was there to help to help a friend celebrate an important birthday; there were six of us in all, and after days filled with sightseeing, we would order a large, satisfying spread of mezes (from beets puréed with za’atar and yogurt to spiced kofta studded with pine nuts), grilled meats, […]

Winter. The older I get, the more I appreciate its spare beauty. That is one reason I can’t wait to get out of Dodge for the holidays. We slip out of Manhattan at the earliest opportunity and head for southwestern Virginia, to our corner of the Blue Ridge. The first few days are hell. When it comes […]

The pushcart vendors in New York City are amazing. I’m not talking trendy food trucks here, but the unsung produce sellers who stake a claim near subway entrances and corner drugstores. This time of year, they jockey for position with the sellers of resiny Christmas pines, firs, and spruce. Where else can you pick up […]

Around this time last year at a holiday lunch, our friend Elaine Greenstein, an art teacher and author-illustrator of children’s books, gave us a beautifully wrapped but decidedly knobbly present. Intriguing. The parcel was both heavy and cold. When held up to an ear and shaken cautiously, it sloshed. I freed the object from tissue and ribbon, then lifted it […]

Sound conservation methods and unusually warm (yeesh) weather resulted in a record lobster harvest off the coast of Maine this year. The deals at seafood markets and lobster pounds were impossible to resist, and consequently Sam and I ate our fair share of the sweet, succulent meat on carcass-strewn newspaper-lined tables from New York to New […]

The secret to great turkey soup is a deeply flavored broth, and the secret to that is to jump on it soon after Thanksgiving, while the carcass is still meaty and moist. That’s why I feel obligated to publish this now instead of a bit later in the week. Naturally, I’m hoping that you followed […]

You probably don’t have time to read this because Thanksgiving is only two days away. If you aren’t cooking, odds are you have to travel, and you need the time to fret about potential traffic snarls and perhaps wonder if a copy of Sam Sifton’s Thanksgiving: How to Cook It Well would make a good hostess gift. The […]

It’s the day after Hurricane Sandy walloped New York, and Sam and I are among the fortunate—we are sitting high and dry, with the lights on. I’ve just sheathed the Maglites and the hand-crank weather radio (complete with cell-phone charger) in zip-top bags and stowed them back in the emergency box. Sam watched me without comment; after […]

The pear is one of the world’s great dessert fruits. Native to the South Caucasus, North Persia, or the Middle East, it’s been cultivated for more than 4,000 years. Homer called it “the fruit of the gods,” and Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici (best known as patron of Galileo Galilei, his childhood tutor), was said to have […]