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Archive for 'spring'

SOFT-SHELLED CRABS

  It’s easy to be extravagant in the spring. Last week, we traveled miles to see carefully tended beds full of tumbling, fragrant old-garden roses. And this week, we traveled miles to eat soft-shelled crab. I know sweet, succulent soft-shells are available here in New York, but every June I feel compelled to pick up […]

LUXE FOR LESS: THE TOP BLADE STEAK

I’ve always worked better on deadline—thrived under the pressure, in fact—which is why I found myself racing around on May 21 as though I actually took stock in all of the end-of-the-world predictions. If only I’d planned better, I told myself, we could have had a fabulous cocktail party. Deviled eggs. Melt-in-your-mouth cheese straws. Benne […]

EATING RADISHES AND BUTTER

It’s cool and rainy and we walk miles along the East River. The water is gray today and moving fast. So are we, breathing in the salt air and happy that we live on an island. On the way home, we run into friends and invite them over for an early supper. We stop for […]

ASPARAGUS THREE WAYS

The first local asparagus stops people in their tracks. They bend over to get a closer look and marvel in the voice they usually reserve for newborns. At the Union Square Greenmarket, where I do a good bit of my shopping, asparagus usually arrives with lilacs and lilies-of-the-valley, a flower to which it is closely […]

SPRING FLING: BROCCOLI RABE AND GARLIC (A SCRATCH SUPPER)

For the past few weeks, we have not been able to get enough of broccoli rabe (pronounced rahb), an assertive green that’s actually closer kin to the turnip than to common broccoli. Descended from the wild mustard that flourishes in Sicily,  it was introduced to the United States in 1927, by the immigrant D’Arrigo Brothers […]

FOWL PLAY: SOUP HENS, SOUPED-UP HENS, AND SUPER-DUPER HENS

“I need fowl!” Susan announced, as she materialized at my side. “For chicken soup. It’s almost Passover.” She threw an icy blue stare at the unfortunate shopper who had just avoided tripping over the tote bags at our feet. It was Saturday morning at the Union Square Greenmarket. The sun hadn’t yet climbed above the buildings […]