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Sausage and Apple Pies with Cheddar Crusts for tomorrow’s pre-parade St. Patrick’s Day Brunch! (at home)

Saying Goodbye…

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Dear Diary: What a long strange trip it’s been, and as I skip out of the Track Shack after too many years of chronicling the foibles, follies, fun times and amazing Tales from this sometimes-Naked City, I feel the need to pause for a trip down memory lane. I easily have enough memories to fill […]

Rhoda, Mary + Veal Prince Orloff

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I’ve been stricken by a bad case of TV nostalgia lately. But just when I thought I had kicked it, actress Valerie Harper, who I adored worshipped as Rhoda Morgenstern in the 1970s’ sitcom, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” announced this week she has terminal brain cancer and has three months to live. Now, I don’t […]

Confessions of a Kitchen Gadget Hoarder

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Don’t even think of throwing anything away until I see it,” I barked at my husband as we spent yet another day of our long-awaited, much-deserved vacation packing up our circa 1990 blue Formica-topped kitchen that will, by the grace of God, be gutted next week. “But you’re throwing away all my stuff,” he whined. […]

Need Some Julia Inspiration in Your Kitchen?

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As a Julia Child groupie, my kitchen as always had a small pic of the “French Chef” hanging around for a little inspiration and guidance. In fact, when I went to compete in the second season of “Master Chef” last January, I brought a couple of Julia instructional DVDs to gin me up in the […]

Banana Joe Dines at Sardi’s

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I’m all about the food, as you know. So imagine my surprise to learn today that there is a culinary tradition for the Westminster Kennel Club’s Best in Show winner to eat his first lunch served on a silver platter at Sardi’s! And so this afternoon, a little Affenpinscher named Banana Joe, like many a […]

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The Dowager Countess of Grantham had more than a few memorable lines on last night’s episode of “Downton Abbey.” However, none was better for me than “It seems a pity to miss such a good pudding.” First of all, it’s never acceptable to skip out on dessert. And that Charlotte Russe — a popular Parisian confection […]

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This is Laura’s Cafe, a restaurant in Westport Point, MA, that was washed away by Hurricane Carol in 1954. It landed, I’m told, somewhere on Drift Road. One of my “second career” fantasies is to bring back this fine establishment. Well, actually, my cousin, Buzzy, told me it wasn’t that, um, fine considering it was […]