Rachael Ray

“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 [...]...

La Marseillaise Allons enfants de la patrie, Le jour de gloire est arrivé! Contre nous de la tyrannie Claude-Joseph Rouget,1795. I’ve mentioned before that I had the good fortune to spend half of my twenties living in Paris where I came to appreciate the French National Independence Day, July 14th, the commemoration of the storming of the infamous Bastille Prison and popularly called Le Quatorze Juillet. There are parades; fireworks; and my favorite part - dancing in the street with lots of food, wine, and games! Naturally I had to continue to celebrate this fun fest when I returned to the States, driving my family crazy. When I had my delightful twin daughters, I loved passing this tradition on to them. Each year, [...]...