Rachael Ray

in Just- spring    when the world is mud-luscious e.e. cummings. It’s May and spring has finally come.  Spring means different things to different people.  For me, it’s being able to walk outside again and see the return of my favorite shore birds, the egrets and osprey.  It’s seeing the brilliant yellow of the forsythia bushes and the dandelions and daffodils.  And the soft pastels of the flowering apple and cherry blossoms.  It’s the beginning of baseball season.  And at last there are fresh greens in the market again.  Dandelion greens… When we were kids, we looked forward to the dandelions.  They were so useful for making mud pies.  How could I know that mud pies weren’t edible?  They sounded edible. I made them for [...]...

Okay, it’s April 1st and we have snow instead of flowers.  What’s up, Punxsutawney Phil and Staten Island Chuck?  You said winter was going to end in six weeks on Groundhog Day.  I just looked up Phil’s accuracy rate and it’s only 39% since 1887, so I should’ve known.  Well, it’s still cold. So what’s good to eat when it’s cold outside?  Grilled cheese.  I have memories of hot tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich when we came home from ice skating or sledding when I was a kid.  I grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and in those days, there was always tons of snow in the winter.  Kind of like this winter everywhere. Many’s the night I’ve dreamed of cheese [...]...

Today the sun is out.  It’s March and it’s still cold but you can start to believe that the spring is coming.  And my thoughts turn away from eternal snow to the sweet dreams of having a cookout and grilling burgers, of course. Burgers just seems to make people feel better. I always think of that great line from Norman Lear’s brilliant and hilarious series, Fernwood Tonight.  In the show,  Susan Cloud, the owner of the Butterfly Deli and a convert to vegetarianism, had one credo: I don’t like to eat anything that under different circumstances might eat me. Except hamburgers, Because the human body requires burgers. - Susan Cloud, Fernwood Tonight. When I was a film student in the Art School at [...]...

Put on the Ollies! - Pete Carlesimo I could say that these cold winter nights are the reason I love to have a warm, delicious bowl of pasta at midnight. But then I’d be lying. I love having  pasta at midnight at any time of the year, although there’s something particularly satisfying about a bowl of your favorite pasta when there’s a chill in the air, and it’s been too long since dinner. Or maybe it’s 11:30, and, God forbid, you haven’t even eaten yet! Late night dinners in the Carlesimo family always meant one thing:  It was time to Put on the Ollies! Better known to the rest of the world as Linguini with Garlic and Oil, or Linguini con [...]...

At this time of year, when the sun is most hidden,the holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the rays of hope and light. – Rafael Goldstein Hanukkah begins very early this year – the first of December. Growing up in a big Irish-Italian family in Scranton, Pennsylvania, I wasn’t fortunate enough to enjoy the delights of Hanukkah as a child. But when my husband and I moved to Westport, CT with our twin girls, we learned all about the Festival of Lights. We were invited to the homes of the girls’ friends for the lighting of the menorah, and our daughters were often given the honor of lighting the candles with the shamus or servant candle. Afterwards, we would thrill to the [...]...

“Autumn Leaves The falling leaves drift by the window The autumn leaves of red and gold.” -Nat King Cole October means so many things to me. It’s the beginning of fall, my favorite season.  I like to shake off the languid slow pace bred by the hot summer days and welcome the cool, crisp air and sharper colors that the autumn brings. If you live near a big city like New York or Chicago or Paris, in October you thrill to the new sights and sounds and smells in the streets: the chestnuts roasting in the street carts; the vendors scooping up their sweet peanuts; and the crunch of autumn leaves beneath your feet. There’s an excitement and energy in the air. And of [...]...

“Without labor nothing prospers.”  Sophocles As Labor Day passes and the end of summer approaches, with the last big grilling feasts of the year, I can’t help but think about my favorite part of a mixed grill - the sauce you put on top! Every country seems to have its own take on this critical accompaniment and they’re all delicious. My dear friend Nestor Almendros, the great Cuban cameraman, used to tell me that the only reason I wanted to go to a Cuban restaurant was to eat the Argentinean chimichurri sauce which I managed to finish bowls of with the appetizers. And the Italians have their delicious green sauce or Salsa Verde which goes with [...]...

Happy Birthday, Rachael! Every year I have to make one of Rachael’s favorite treats, Katharine Hepburn’s Brownies, for her birthday. They are impossibly chocolatey, fudgey, nutty, chewy, and tasty. Ellyn, an old friend and real foodie gave my this recipe when I got married almost thirty years ago. The story goes that it is actually Katharine Hepburn’s family recipe that was printed in a newspaper in Connecticut at some time in the thirties and has been passed on though bridal showers ever since! The only thing I can say is that people do LOVE them. Even I, who don’t have a sweet tooth at all, munch a couple of these.  I always have to make [...]...

I see great things in baseball.  It’s our game - the American game.  It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism.  Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set…and be a blessing to us. ~ Walt Whitman. I have always loved baseball. I first loved to listen to baseball. It’s one of my few memories of my maternal grandfather. He played pinochle, drank Ballantine beer and smoked cigars, while the Brooklyn Dodgers played on the radio in the background. If you approached him, he put down his cigar; fished a pile of butterscotch balls out of his pocket for you, patted you on the head, and went back [...]...