Chocolate-cherry whole wheat scones. I could eat these every day. One of these days, I will share with you what I really do eat every morning. But these are my special treat. In my freezer, there is a bag of frozen raw scones, so I can always have melty, tender, warm scones right out of the oven. A cappuccino on the side. Now that’s breakfast. Also try the Blueberry-Meyer Lemon scones!

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It is rumored that the “apple” in the Garden of Eden was, in fact, a quince. If so, I don’t know how Eve walked about eating it. They are as hard as a rock until you cook them. And who would think something so ugly could taste so decadent?

By no means did I grow up sheltered as far as food was concerned. My parents traveled extensively, and my mother always came home with some exotic new food. Despite this, I never so much as heard of a quince until fairly recently. It would never have occurred to me to cook with one. 

When I bought New Flavors for Desserts in Williams-Sonoma a few months ago, I was immediately drawn to the recipe “poached quince with mascarpone, caramel, and gingersnaps.” Raquel Pelzel described it as apple-and-pear-like, which sounded so appealing. The reality is better than that simple description. They are like an apple and a pear combined, but with an amazing floral fragrance, and just the slightest hint of vanilla.

It took me several weeks to find quinces, since although they were in season, there is not much demand for them in Miami.

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I realize, before I even start, that I am probably not alone in my sentiments. But Bittman bugs me. It’s not his ideas. Yes, Food Matters. But does he really say anything that Michael Pollan and Marion Nestle haven’t said before?

It’s not even that the idea of a Minimalist bothers me. Some of his recipes are very good. I’m even thinking about making the chocolate souffle he featured this week. It sounds easy and delicious. And let’s face it, who hasn’t made the no-knead bread? Although personally, I prefer Rose Levy Beranbaum’s take on it.

No, what bothers me about Bittman is that he thinks he knows how to cook everything. Who has the chutzpah to call their cookbook “How to Cook Everything?” And then do it again in the vegetarian version? In the interest of research, I read “How to Cook Everything.” There are lots of easy recipes. But nothing that rocked my world. Certainly not “Everything.”

Really, though, I think the problem is that Bittman makes me feel like the last girl left on the playground. He does not write to me. I am not his target audience. I’m not going to buy a $10 knife at the restaurant supply store. I don’t need a cookbook to tell me how to put together a side dish for dinner. I don’t need no-knead bread. I’ve been baking bread for 25 years the old-fashioned way, and I’m good at it. 

No, Bittman writes to who I was a long time ago, when I was teaching myself to cook from Bon Appetit and the Good Housekeeping cookbook. When I was making flat, holey bread that tasted like a brick. When the only salt in my cupboard was Morton’s. When I actually thought thyme came out of a glass jar.

By no means am I implying that I’m a professional chef, or that I have nothing to learn about cooking. I have no professional training. My friends who do have professional training will tell you I have minimal knife skills and almost no finesse in the kitchen (I am exceptionally lucky in baking, though). But I’m comfortable with cooking. I do it almost every day. I read cookbooks like others read novels. There’s hardly any gadget that doesn’t find its way into my kitchen. Minimalist I am not, nor is it my goal.

25 years ago, I would have loved Mark Bittman. He speaks to wannabe cooks everywhere. He will tell you how to move from “can’t cook at all” to “dinner party, anyone?”

Too bad I’m not that girl anymore. Guess I’ll take my copper pots and go home. Dinner party, anyone? I’ll bring dessert!

For Christmas, I bought my father a Piastra. He loves to grill, and I thought he might enjoy trying something new. He loved it.

A piastra is a granite slab, 14 x 10 inches, that goes on the grill. Mario Batali introduced it to American cooking. You heat it to high temperature, spritz a little oil on, and sear to your heart’s content. It’s a little like cooking on hot cast iron, but on the grill. 

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This recipe came about through a little serendipity.

I had been craving short ribs. Okay, the truth is I’d been craving short ribs for months, but who really wants to eat short ribs when it’s 80 degrees out?! So, I was in Whole Foods, yet again craving short ribs, and I saw that they had grass fed short ribs. These are not easy to come by. I snatched them! I took all the short ribs they had in the store.

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