Fall in the Hamptons

After two solid months of city weekends, it was time for a change! Nate and Neil let me join them in their Hamptons home for the weekend. Friday night we met Jonathan and Stefan for dinner at Beach House, where we shared some tasty appetizers (fried calamari, baked clams and chickend dumplings), plus two family-sized entrees -- this enormous blackened ribeye and some spicy seafood linguine.

Saturday morning, Neil made pancakes! 

We decided to host a little dinner party that evening, so we poured over their favorite cookbook, "Savoring the Hamptons."

The best part about the book is that it's organized by season. We made our grocery list and hit the farmer's stand...

 None of us had ever seen brussels sprouts on the stalk...

 We made braised short ribs. First, sautee onion and garlic, then add carrot and fennel...

 Coat the ribs with a mix of flour, paprika, salt and pepper.

 Simmer the veggies until soft...

Sear the ribs on all sides until they're brown...we had eight pounds, so this took several batches.

Add the ribs to the pot with the vegetables. Cover with reduced wine, stock, orange juice and orange zest...cover and simmer about two hours.

For a pre-dinner treat, I made gruyere gougeres. The dough came together too quickly to take photos, but you make a basic French pastry -- boil water and butter, add flour and eggs, beat it all really well. This version had mustard, gruyere and herbs.

 Molly and Buddy were excited to have a full house of guests...

 Nate made an amazing squash, leek and apple soup with herbed croutons.

 We served the short ribs with mashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts and grilled romaine.

 Stefan made two lovely -- and tasty -- desserts: apple tart and banana pudding.

The next day, we headed out for an afternoon walk in East Hampton, where we saw Alec Baldwin in Starbucks. I got a big kick out of his sweet ride.

 So fun wandering around a town with lots of history -- loved the old headstones in the cemetery!