This delicious quiche highlights the little Maine shrimp, with some layers of complexity added by sauteed mushrooms and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese in a cheesy quiche-custard.  

The little Maine shrimp are hard to find, but worth the search. I got a pound of them frozen, cleaned and ready to cook at Pinkham's Seafood in Boothbay, Maine. 

Mushrooms add a great note to all manner of crustacean dishes - shrimp, crab, and of course lobster. Mushrooms also feature prominently in Russian cuisine, so in this recipe I bring in a Russian note with a pinch of dill.

For cheese I used the fine Italian Parmigiana-Reggiano for the warmth that it brings. In hot weather I might try a ricotta, but I made this on a rainy, blustery Mother's Day so the king of Italian cheeses was called into service. 

On the day of an exciting election in France, we had our friends Kurt & Debbie over for a feast from Burgundy. 

I love the cuisine of Burgundy, and not just the celebrated wine. When we toured France in 2015, we drove from Lyon in the south to Dijon in the north and back again, through Beaujolais and the Cotes de Nuit to the Cotes d'Or.

We drove past vineyards large and small, with gorgeous old manor-houses and rustic outbuildings and other structures that made no sense to us. Among the vineyards on hills poorly suited for grapes were farms producing beautiful produce.  

Burgundy is known for food of all kinds. The inhabitants of the medieval gray stone buildings of Dijon in the north are fond of cheeses, pork, mushrooms, cream, and of course mustard.

At the southern end, just past Beaujolais, is Lyon, the culinary capital of France. There is a long tradition of courtly fare, but for this feast, I focused on the well-known hearty country fare. 

We enjoyed: 

This is an interesting and tasty old cocktail with a Scotch base. Don't use a fancy single-malt Scotch here! The bartenders who mixed the Beals didn't know about single-malt Scotch whiskey in the 1920s.

This is not a strong cocktail, so it's a good one for a party where you can relax and have a few. 

I was long suspicious of Scotch-based cocktails, until I realized that I was not expected to waste my precious Lagavulin 16-year! Now I use Famous Grouse for these old-school Scotch cocktails and it has opened a whole new chapter for me.

A century ago, in the early days of motoring as a pastime, the young Michelin tire company started a booklet of restaurants to visit along one's travels in France. A restaurant of note was listed with a star, a restaurant worth a detour got two stars, and a restaurant worth a trip all on its own was awarded the rare and coveted three Michelin stars. The idea caught on, and now many decades later, those Michelin stars are big business. 

For our twentieth wedding anniversary, we took a romantic weekend in the Big Apple, including dinner at Daniel and a lunch at Jean Georges. The former once had three Michelin stars but now boasts only two. The latter has had three stars for many years. On the other hand, Daniel is the darling of TripAdvisor and Yelp! so maybe the celebrated M. Boulud doesn't need those Michelin stars!

As for us, we agreed that Daniel was an experience maybe worth a detour (but not a $500 detour!).

Cold weather is soup weather, especially soups of the rib-sticking variety. 

This is a tasty accompaniment to many fall and winter dishes. You can use canned pumpkin, but roasted pumpkin has a different and (I think) superior flavor. When sugar pumpkins are available, they are inexpensive and very delicious. I encourage you to use them if you can.

This recipe uses sampe as a thickener (see the notes). I think it brings a great flavor and texture, but if you can't get sampe, don't fret. The recipe is very forgiving, and it rewards exploration.  

The Old Colony Club of Plymouth hosts a magnificent Twelfthnight Gala on the Saturday closest to January 6th, the twelfth night of Christmas. These events pack the house and we set out the finest goodies!

We enjoyed a series of courses over the evening, with different themese to each of three rooms and passed hors d'ouevres in between the courses.

Here's what we had:

Cheeses

Cypress Grove Humboldt Fog (California), "Red Cow" Parmigiano-Reggiano (Italy), Brillat-Savarin and Brie (both France), Cabot two-year aged Cheddar (Vermont)

Charcuterie

• Mushroom Pate
• Jambon Persille
• Terrine de Canard
• Pate en Croute
• Pate de Campagne

Crudites

a beautiful green and white assembly in the Red Room, and a magnificent Le Grand Aioli in the Snug

Seafood

• Caviar Service
• Cold Poached Salmon
• Lobster Salad
• Cappon Magro 

Roasts

Pate en Croute is nothing more than a pate baked in a crust, but it looks fabulous! The first trick is to find a mold - after that, the rest is easy.

All you do is line the mold with pastry and then bake the pate. The melted fat stays inside, topped up with aspic. You can make this with the Pate de Campagne but I think the pastry treatment deserves a finer pate like the one below.

These days, truffles are paradoxically ubiquitous and exceedingly rare, and it's easy to spend good money on the wrong thing.

Truffles also lose their awesome flavor very fast if they are not used immediately or stored properly. That investment is easily lost. 

Here's what I have learned.

The first thing to know is that there are several kinds of truffles. The grand old recipes of Europe normally call for only two varieties: 

The Algonquin is named for a venerable grand hotel in Manhattan, luncheon spot for a famed circle of writers in the 1920s and 1930s. The lore is interesting, and well-documented, so I won't repeat it here, but I do encourage you to look it up!

This is a simple potion made interesting by the inclusion of unsweetened pineapple juice.

The pineapple juice does not have to be a stopper - I have an ice cube tray that makes 1" cubical ice cubes, of volume 1 ounce. So I fill some of the cubes with pineapple juice and I can have an Algonquin whenever I am in a literary mood!

This is a very old formula. 

I had long thought that the complex herbaceous audacity of green Chartreuse would be a perfect match for a gin of great character. Recent experimental evidence indicates a clear need for further research...

I really want to try this with Barr Hill Gin and with Uncle Val's Botanical Gin.  

This is a specialty of Burgundy. It has a light, sparkling flavor that dances in your mouth as the jelly melts, full of wonderful flavors!

I read about the Jambon Persille in Jane Grigson's Charcuterie long ago, and I wanted to try it ever since. Then last year while touring Burgundy on our big vacation, I got the opportunity to have it for lunch in Dijon! 

Once I knew how it was supposed to be, I could make it with confidence. Here's my recipe. 

A delicious cold dish the contrasts hearty mushroom flavors with creamy cheese. Use a mix of fresh supermarket mushrooms and dried wild mushrooms to get great depth of flavor.

I get excellent dried mushrooms in the Polish markets on Millbury Street in Worcester, near Kelly Square. The expensive King Bolete is a particularly nice addition, if you can get it. 

I made this hearty traditional German winter dinner in December 2014. Sauerbraten, the centerpiece of the dinner, is a Christmas favorite so it was a timely choice for December, but it's really good for any of the colder months.

I had recently been to Morse's Sauerkraut, where I got some good supplies and inspiration, but I had planned to make a sauerbraten for a long time so the whole plan just came together.

We had:

• Usinger's smoked liverwurst on rye bread
• Mild Butterkase cheese and stinky Handkase cheese
• Sauerbraten
• Festive Red Cabbage
• Roasted Acorn Squash
• Spaetzle
• Steamed New Potatoes
• Fresh sauerkraut
• A green salad
• An assortment of fresh fruit
• A bottle of St-Urbanshof Riesling

This one is too sweet for me as written. The Calvados is a stroke of genius, but I had to increase the lemon juice.

I'm intrigued by the ingredients, but I think the Honeymoon is not the best formula to use them.  I've been pretty happy with the cocktails in this fine book, but this one needs some experimentation. 

This drink is simple and delicious! It's a bit on the sweet side for my taste, but it's light enough that the gin comes through. This will be a good cocktail for sampling different gins.

I think it would also make a good summertime drink, either straight up or as a cooler with seltzer and plenty of ice. 

We had not been to Quebec City in 15 years, so a return trip was way overdue. We did it over Columbus Day 2016, adding Friday to make it a four-day weekend. That was enough time for a fun little expedition with plenty of sightseeing. 

The Canadian dollar was worth about $0.75, so some things looked more expensive than they were. Overall it was easy to stay on budget. Gas is expensive there, but if you fill up in Fort Kent then you won't need to buy much or any gas until you get back over the border.

We spent Friday driving north through the length of Maine, departing I-95 at Sherman to take lonely Rte 11 past Mount Katahdin due north to Fort Kent, and then on to Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec, on the mighty Saint Lawrence. There was no foodie excellence that day, but we love that drive up Route 11 and the scenery was excellent. We spent the night at the Auberge de la Point in Riviere du Loup, a sprawling complex not far from the ferry terminal. 

I don't know which club is honored by this cocktail. There's a Pegu Club Cocktail and a Clover Club Cocktail... maybe this is a generic cocktail for all clubs where gentlemen sit about smoking cigars and saying "Splendid! Splendid!" in well-aged baritone voices. 

In any event, this cocktail is all about quality ingredients. It's just gin and sweet vermouth. There are so many interesting American gins that this formula fits a near infinite range of drinks. 

This pre-prohibition classic from the famed Waldorf Hotel (before it became the Waldorf Astoria) was recommended to me by my old friend Joe Adams. There are a lot of words online about it, mostly trying to adapt it to "modern tastes", as if today's cocktail fans would be too challenged by the absinthe. 

There's some pretty bad absinthe out there; use a good one. Absinthe has a strong flavor, so a strong rye and strong sweet vermouth are also important. I used a cask-aged sweet vermouth, but Carpano Antica would go well.

As for the rye, I started with Old Overholt, but once I had a good formula I switched to 100-proof Whistle Pig... Now there's a cocktail worthy of the Waldorf! 

I was looking for an old-school cocktail to enjoy while rooting the Cubs toward their first World Series title since 1908 when what should I find but the Chicago Cocktail!

This one may not go back to 1908, but it definitely predates 1930, when it was first in print. Considering how Al Capone's Chicago was awash in Canadian whisky during Prohibition, this brandy-based concoction probably predates that dark period as well. 

Here's something peculiar about the Chicago: the recipe calls for an old-fashioned glass, but the whole drink is little more than 2 ounces, so use the smallest old-fashioned glass you have, or make it a double! 

The recipe that I saw was very old (around 1900). It called for cognac. I tried this with a very good Pierre Ferrand cognac and also with the Christian Brothers VSOP brandy that I use for holiday baking due to its strong vanilla overtones.

The brandy version was better; the other was a waste of good cognac. I think this is because the old recipe was created during a time when brandy might be any fruit-derived spirit, some truly bad, while cognac was a guarantee of the grape spirit. Today even the cheapest brandy is derived from grape wine unless noted otherwise, so I think the cheap modern brandy is an adequate substitute for the cautious cognac in the original recipe.

When we went to Italy in 2015, I made a pilgrimage to the home of Giuseppe Verdi, near Parma. There we found a foodie paradise.

So we had a feast of the bounty of Parma. It was exquisite, and educational too.

First you need some introduction:

Parma, Italy, is a sort of genius cuisine center even in that land of foodie heaven. The city of Parma (a little bigger than Worcester and Providence) is midway between Milan and Bologna (both much bigger than Boston), about an hour and a half from each. Within an hour's drive of the city of Parma, you can drive through the ancient and fertile provinces of Parma, Reggio-Emilia, and Modena.

Parma and Reggio-Emila are known for Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan) cheese, of course. It is also known for excellent salumi (cured meats), including salami, mortadella, capocollo, and the celebrated prosciutto di Parma. Also made there but seldom seen here is culatello, a special high-grade prosciutto that you can sometimes get at Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge. 

I learned this simple late-summer delight from my father. It responds well to different varieties of heirloom tomatoes. 

This variation on the classic, pungent, and beautiful Negroni is made with whiskey instead of gin. This one was beautiful with a rich, smooth Split Rock white whiskey. The clear whiskey lets the outrageous reds shine through, and the "hearts only" Split Rock has none of the harshness that you find in other white whiskeys. 

I also made this with Martini & Rossi Sweet Vermouth that had been aged for four weeks in a charred oak cask. I think Carpano Antica is the closest substitute. It's pricey, and it's not right for every cocktail, but every serious cocktailian should keep a bottle of Carpano Antica in the fridge. 

This classic chilled summer soup is simple to make and full of delicate summer flavors. The recipe is simple, but it allows for infinite artistic expression. 

This is one of those recipes that can be made vegetarian or not (you can use chicken stock or vegetable stock), but the vegetarian version is in no way inferior.