Roast chicken with lemons and sage is in the oven. Just-dug potatoes are simmering on the stovetop. We have had a run of what my mother would call “Champagne days”—cool and crisp, with high, cloudless blue skies. No Pol Roger or Gruet Brut in our fridge, alas, but wedged between a tub of gochujang and […]

“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 […]

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 […]

The James Beard Foundation’s 2012 cookbook of the year, Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, by Nathan Mvhrvold with Chris Young and Maxime Bilet, comprises six volumes and 2,438 pages. Even though its list price of $625 signifies an investment (of book-shelf real estate as well as moolah), it seems reasonable when you consider […]

I am not an ambitious seafood cook. I would rather keep it simple and fast, which is why I don’t often turn to actual recipes for inspiration. Last week, though, when I was pruning a bookshelf—a donation to the Housing Works Bookstore was in the offing—I came across Leslie Revsin’s Great Fish, Quick: Delicious Dinners […]

I never pass up an excuse to get horizontal and read a cookbook. So when I was asked to participate in a couple of panel discussions at an upcoming cookbook conference*, I accepted with alacrity. Then I ransacked our bookshelves, got comfortable … and became re-acquainted with some old favorites. It was especially hard to […]

The death of the great documentary photographer Eve Arnold on January 4 was not exactly unexpected—she was 99, after all—but it caught many people up short, including me. Eve’s outsize stamina and spirit as well as her matchless ability to “record the essence of a subject in the 125th of a second,” as she put […]

Most Saturdays, you’ll find me on the prowl for ingredients to turn into a dish with staying power, one that improves in flavor when made in advance and that will get us through part of a hectic week. In August, you might find an eggplant tian on our table (leftovers can be worked into pasta or provide […]

Heading south on Interstate 81, I follow what was once the Wilderness Road through the Shenandoah Valley. To the west is the crest line of the Allegheny Mountains and to the east, that of the Blue Ridge. It’s a nice drive, with picturesque views of pastureland and Constable skies, but the truck traffic is wearing. I’m ready […]