In a stunning departure from the norm, and in particular, from last year’s Oscar shame of having seen a sad total of 2 nominated movies before the awards, Jon and I took my visiting parents to see the Animated Shorts at the IFC on Saturday night.

My Father, who wanted to see the documentary shorts and was outvoted, pretty much immediately went to sleep as soon as the cartoons started.

But for the rest of us, all the flying books, whimsical child fishermen, and messed up penguins we could want, and the great reassurance of knowing that by the time we decided we didn’t much care for a film, it was already half over.

This means my Oscars betting ballot is in better shape than last year, and I am cautiously optimistic about winning the office sweepstake and being extremely smug. But if that doesn’t go to plan, I’ll settle for champagne and canapés and second hand glamour. Living that great Oscars lie – winning doesn’t really matter. I’m just thrilled to be a part of it.

Classic Champagne Cocktail (per glass)

If you’re throwing an Oscar bash, this probably the cocktail you want to consider – the classic combination of bitters, sugar and bubbles.

1 sugar cube

• Drop the bitters onto the sugar
• Place the sugar cube in the bottom of a champagne flute and top up with bubbles
• Add a twist of lemon

If You Can Make That You Can Make This

• Add 1 tbsp of cognac to the glass before topping up with champagne

It was a perfectly ordinary Saturday – coffee, grocery shopping, manicure – until the hawk showed up. Soaring down from the sky to perch in a tree opposite Morton Williams.

People stopped to stare at the enormous bird as it preened a little and bobbed its head as though dancing to an internal soundtrack of Walk like an Egyptian.

Incidentally, I have a friend who makes a conscious effort every morning to set a soundtrack to his day. The actual music can vary, though mostly it’s the theme song from The Magnificent Seven. “I am the star of the movie of my life,” he says. “You are a supporting player or maybe a featured extra – it’s hard to tell at this stage. Ask me again when we’re 60.” In spite of this, we are friends.

Meanwhile, back at wildlife central, quite a crowd had gathered. “Are you looking at a celebrity?”

“No it’s a bird. Up there.”

“OK. Cool.”

We marveled, capturing the bird on camera phones, as it did, well, basically, nothing. Out of nowhere, two women appeared with the kind of telephoto lenses most usually associated with catching naked celebrities sunbathing on private islands from distant motor boats. They clicked away as feathers ruffled in the wind.

“I’m bored” said a kid after a few minutes of this.

“Have you any idea how rare it is to see a red tailed hawk in the middle of Manhattan?” admonished his Mom.

“Rarer than a dinosaur?” asked the kid.

And then a taxi back fired, the hawk opened his magnificent wings and soared back into the sky, wheeling up past Subway, up over Washington Square Park, and away.

Pancakes Bananas Foster (serves 2)

In my mind this recipe fall somewhere between pancake day and Mardi Gras – traditional bananas foster meets French crêpes – a kind of banana rum crêpe Suzette if you will. They are especially good served with vanilla ice cream

• Melt the butter and sugar together in a frying pan until bubbling
• Slice the bananas into 2 cm coins and add to the caramel mixture. Cook for 2 minutes, spooning over the sauce as you go
• Lay 2 pancakes folded into quarters on each plate and spoon the bananas over the top
• Off the heat pour in the rum and use a long handled match to set it on fire. Once it stops flaming, pour the sauce over the bananas and pancakes

If You Can Make That You Can Make This

• Soak a handful of raisins in the rum and add to the mixture
• Add a tbsp of banana liquor to the caramel
• Dust the bananas with ½ tsp of all spice and a ¼ tsp of nutmeg
• Try making crêpe Suzette
• Or plain pancakes
• Buttermilk pancakes (with peach compote)
• Or pumpkin spice scented pancakes with an apple maple compote

As Mardi Gras approaches, thoughts turn to beads, then to breasts, and then to jambalya. Yes, sometimes I wonder about my thought processes too.

A few of my friends fondly recall a trip to New Orleans for the festival back when they were in college.

“I had so many strings of beads round my neck I got a rash.”

“God bless string bikinis.”

It is the middle of winter here in NYC. A mild winter so far to be sure, but not exactly string bikini weather. Nevertheless, the guy who runs the bodega on my block has been excited about the possibilities of Mardi Gras for weeks now. As well as selling flowers, milk, chocolate, lottery tickets and cigarettes, he stocks strings of shiny beads in every possible color combination, next to a sign that reads “Please note, we are a shop. If you take off your shirt we will not give you free beads. But we will be happy.”

Beads, breasts, and now, jambalaya:

Jambalaya (serves 4 – 6)

This is an easy version of the Louisiana classic. My first shortcut is to use shop bought stock – though if you want to make your own, poach a chicken in hot water with an onion, carrot, bay leaf and a few peppercorns. Use the meat from this chicken and strain the water to make the stock.  My second is to use Old Bay seasoning, a spice mix that includes celery seed, mustard, pepper, bay, cloves, allspice, ginger, mace cardamom, cinnamon and paprika.

1 green pepper

• Chop the chicken into bite sized pieces. Season well with salt and pepper, then fry (ideally in a Dutch oven style pot) until golden – about 5 minutes
• Meanwhile, dice the peppers, the onion and celery, and slice the sausage into bite sized disks
• Tip the vegetables and sausage into the pot and cook for 3 – 4 minutes until the onion starts to brown and the sausage colors
• Grate in the garlic, and add the rice, turning in the oil to coat (you might need to add a splash more oil). Add a scant tsp of Old Bay seasoning, a little more salt and pepper, the stock and the tomatoes
• Simmer everything for 5 minutes
• Clamp on a tightly fitting lid – if your lid isn’t, layer foil under it. Turn off the heat and let everything sit for 30 mins, by which time, most of the liquid should have been absorbed and the rice should be close to cooked
• If you’re using shrimp, make sure they’re cleaned and de-veined, then lay them over the top of the rice with a little drop of olive oil on each one. Season well. Clamp the lid back on and put the pan on a very low heat for 5 mins until the shrimp are pink and cooked through.
• If you’re not using the shrimp, put the rice on a very low heat for 5 mins to finish the rice and keep everything hot

If You Can Make That You Can Make This

• Try this easy paella
• Or one of these risotto

Some days – and especially some days in February, post Valentines, with nothing but grayness and rain to look forward to for a few months – the happiness equilibrium is easily rocked and shaken. You had a bad day.

You wrote an important business email to someone and spelled their name wrong. You called your boss “darling” in a meeting, out of the blue and quite by mistake. You made 7 copies of a 120 page script, forgetting to press the collate button, or to number the pages.

But whenever one of these indignities of spirit occurs, I try to remember, and urge you to try to remember, the Telescope Guy.

We’re talking about a huge telescope. An enormous satellite-style disk receiving radio waves. Gigantic. Think football pitch. Remember the bit in Mission Impossible when the disk rises from a lake and Tom Cruise slides down it? Yeah. One of those.

Well these telescopes run day and night, and it’s usually the job of some lowly physics grad student to stay up in the small hours of the morning, checking the signal, adjusting the angle of the disk, and making sure everything is running smoothly.

It’s almost dawn when Telescope Guy comes back from the vending machine, coffee in hand to discover, all the signals have gone to 00.00. That’s not good, he thinks. He presses buttons, and no doubt does the scientific equivalent of the things that we would all try – unplugging and plugging things in again and hitting the monitor – then with a feeling of dread, he looks out of the window.

The entire massive satellite dish has fallen off its support and is lying, prone, entirely covering the car park.

What else is there to do but pour a stiff drink?

Gloom Raiser (per glass)

1 measure gin (30ml)

• Shake the gin, grenadine and vermouth over ice and pour into a cocktail glass
• Float the pernod on top

With Valentine’s Day just hours away, thoughts turn inevitably to chocolate. Chocolate and horrible Valentines jokes.

For instance; What did the chocolate syrup say to the ice cream?

I’m sweet on you.

These are the classic love notes that our parents, our grandparents, hell, probably their grandparents wrote in heart-shaped cards.

Literally sweet nothings.

Why did the banana go out for dinner with the plum? Because he couldn’t get a date.

This is not high drama romance. No heart-skipping sonnet packed with passion and purple prose. This is a lighter, sunnier sentiment – stepping out versus elopement.

Classic Valentines – jokes, chocolate, and a sweetheart to share it with.

Knock knock. Who’s there? Howard. Howard who? Howard you like a kiss?

Knock knock. Who’s there? Sherwood. Sherwood who? Sherwood love to be your Valentine.

And today, that’s fine with me.

Molten Chocolate Cakes (serves 4)

These warm, rich, melting chocolate cakes are a boost to romance for sure, but also a patch up for heartbreak, a solitary treat, or a dinner party classic.

2 sticks butter (1/2 lb)

• Preheat the oven to 350f
• Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler (or microwave)
• Off the heat, stir in the sugar until it is fully incorporated
• Add the vanilla, then the eggs and flour, one egg and one tbsp of flour at a time
• Butter 4 ramekins, then pour in the chocolate mixture half way. Place the chocolate square in the middle, then cover up with another layer of chocolate mixture
• Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until the top is cracked and cake-y, but the middle is still soft
• Eat out of the ramekin, or run and knife around to loosen and turn out onto a plate
• Serve with whipped cream, or, go terribly of the moment, and sprinkle with sea salt

I’m pretty much suggesting a re-appropriation of the celebration of romantic love for the purposes of celebrating really great girlfriends. I just think we’d have more fun.

Very few men really appreciate the joys of fizzy wine, chocolates that come in heart shaped boxes, and wearing pink and red things.

So though I am suggesting pink drinks for lovers, in my heart I know, I mostly drink these with my friends.

French Martini (per glass)

There’s debate over whether this really qualifies as a martini, in which case, I suppose it’s just a “French”, which somehow sounds a lot dirtier. A rose by any other name. Eitherway, it’s got it all – pinkness, raspberries, and a martini glass. What’s not to love?

• Muddle 4 of the raspberries in a shaker, then add ice and pour in the vodka, Chambord and juice.
• Shake to combine, then strain into a martini glass
• Garnish with the remaining raspberry

Kir Royal (per glass)

1 tbsp crème de cassis (or Chambord if that’s what you have in)

• Measure the crème de cassis into a flute
• Top up with bubbles

Cosmopolitan (per glass)

It’s a classic. Sure, it’s possibly a little overexposed, but since when did being a little over exposed become a problem on Valentines?

• Shake over ice, then strain into a martini glass
• Serve with a lime wedge

Orange Pomitini (per glass)

1 measure pomegranate juice (you can juice a pomegranate just like an orange, though the juice stains if spattered, so I do it in the sink and wear an apron.)

• Juice the pomegranate and pour into a shaker with the vodka and orange juice
• Add ice and shake to chill. Strain into a martini glass
• Garnish with pomegranate seeds

If You Can Make That You Can Make This

• Try some other pink cocktails:
• Exotic rose pink champagne
• Or a refreshing pomitini
• Switch out desert and have a strawberries and cream cocktail
• Or a sweet sharp seabreeze
• Or a slightly sweeter Blushing Lady

The first Valentines Day that I spent with the man I ended up married to was, not to put too fine a point on it, awkward and uncomfortable.

It was fairly early days in our relationship, and we had not said “I love you” yet. We were 19 year old cynics. And this left us with a problem: to observe Valentines would be odd, but not to observe it would somehow be even more pointedly odd.

Valentines day arrived and Jon handed over a classic red card reading “Be my Valentine”. Cleverly, no mention of the L word, yet still highly appropriate for the occasion. Good choice. I presented him with a green envelope containing a purple note card. The sentiment had taken soul searching and a thesaurus to put into words; “I appreciate you.”

Luckily, Jon burst out laughing at the expression of my lukewarm feelings and the rest is history. The fact that I could cook probably helped.

Roast duck breast with red cabbage puree

This recipe comes from a café in Paris called Brasserie des Deux Palais’. I came upon it in a wonderful book by Daniel Young, who noted that because it is situated opposite the Palais de Justice, “the café counts among its regulars some of France’s most distinguished judges, lawyers, politicians and career criminals … Due to its central and therefore neutral location between two river banks and four arrondissements, the café is a diplomatic rendezvous for estranged partners in love, business or crime.”

I have spent longer than I like to admit daydreaming about sitting at a white tablecloth-ed table, drinking lillet and watching the clientele of Brasserie des Deux Palais’ go about their lunches.

This red cabbage puree is classic French cooking – the perfect side dish for a Valentines steak dinner or alongside of piece of duck breast. A bonus, of course, is the color; the addition of crème fraiche or sour cream turns the purple cabbage vivid pink.

For the Cabbage

2 tbsp butter

• Get prepared: slice the cabbage, peel and slice the onion, core, peel and slice the apple, dice the bacon
• Heat ½ tbsp of the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onions and cook until they brown – about 5  minutes. It’s important that they really do become sweet, golden and translucent because they are an important flavor in the dish
• Add the bacon and cook for a few minutes until starting to crisp, then add the cabbage and stir fry for another few minutes until starting to color
• Add the apple, the water, wine and stock. Season well and simmer for 35 mins on a low heat
• Drain the cabbage and put into a processor. Add the remaining butter. Pulse to blend. Stir in the crème fraiche

The cabbage can be made in advance and kept warm or heated up gently just before serving – add the crème fraiche at the last minute

For the Duck

• Wipe the duck with kitchen towel to dry. Take a sharp knife and slash the skin in a diagonal cross hatch – you’re trying to cut into the fat, but not to touch the meat. Season the duck well, especially salting the skin. Let the duck sit to come to room temperature
• Preheat the over to 400f and prepare – duck is going to render fat, fat = smoke. Open the window
• Warm a couple of tsp of oil in a heavy pan – ideally one that can go in the oven. Put the duck into the hot fat, skin side down. Let it cook for 5 minutes, pressing down on the meat occasionally to render out more fat
• If a lot of fat pools in the pan and starts to spit, spoon it out as you go – save it in the fridge for roast potatoes
• Turn the duck and cook for 1 minute. Flip it again, skin side down, and put it in the oven for 7 – 9 minutes depending on the size of the duck until medium rare.
• Take the duck out of the oven, wrap in foil and rest for at least 5 mins
• (heat up the cabbage)
• Slice the duck thinly on the diagonal, and serve over the bed of cabbage puree

To turn this dinner into a Valentines feast, consider making this easy pot au chocolate for dessert.

Several years ago I wrote a series of interviews about people with highly alternate world views for a fashion-y glossy magazine. A woman who had been abducted by aliens and given birth to alien babies, for example. A man who thought he was a 200 year old vampire, and who obviously, would only meet me at night.

One of these people – one of the least creepy and most downright charming – was The Love Witch.

“I think love spells are the step between belief in magic and psychological influence. Spells are you giving yourself the energy to bring good things to you.”

To my mind, a skeptical Methodist-moulded mind, this doesn’t sound too outrageously way out – if The Love Witch had written a book, wouldn’t it be basically The Secret?

Sadly, the magazine folded (quelle surprise!) before her wisdom could be published, so I’m going to pass on some of her top tips – some, oddly practical – here in case they are of interest.

• Wash the floors of your house with rose water to open it to love
• Keep a crystal in your pocket – rose quartz for love or citrine for affection
• Rub two pink candles with lavender and rose oil. Meditate while the candles burn out, focus on what you are looking for.
• Be specific. If non vegetarian is a deal breaker, say so. The universe is not a mind reader.
• Not too specific. Brad Pitt has free will. You can’t do anything about it. Don’t waste your time.

Rose Sangria Love Potion (makes a jugful – about 6 glasses)

This is a full on Valentines love potion; rose for pinkness, prosecco for sparkle, raspberries, strawberries, peaches and rose petals.  The perfect thing to drink with a group of girlfriends while discussing other peoples’ love lives.

1 bottle rose wine (well chilled)

• Slice the strawberries and apple and drop into a jug
• Pour over the cold rose wine and top up with the prosecco. Add the syrup to taste
• Garnish with fresh pink rose petals

Valentines is upon us. Now that Superbowl is over I am prepared to get out the pink candles, the wooden heart mobile, and, most importantly of all, the heart shaped cutters out of the box.

I love cookie cutters. I love the stamping and the subsequent cuteness that requires no actual dexterity. And I have a collection that runs the gamut, from architectural highlights of New York to popular characters from the nativity. My favorites though, without a doubt, are stars and hearts.

You can’t go wrong with a star or a heart. Instantly recognizable, no need to provide context with the icing (for examples to the contrary I would site octopus, Joseph, stroller, taxi, rose bush). This means that even when there is no icing, there is still a heart or a star.

Here are some suggestions for putting those cookie cutters to work:

1. Bake cookies – ice them with red or pink sugar icing, or dip them in chocolate
2. Make jello hearts: make red jello in a tray, then stamp out hearts. Fancy it up? Make pink jello too. Cut big hearts out of the red jello, and mini heart cut outs of the red hearts. Stamp out mini hearts from the pink jello and slot into the holes
3. Bake brownies and stamp into heart shapes
4. Make a perfect grill cheese sandwich, and cut it into a heart shape
5. Bake a potato waffle, top it with a fried egg, then stamp through to cut it into a heart
6. Make pancakes – by putting the cutter in the pan and pouring batter into it, or by making it and stamping out (easier)
7. Spread brown bread with cream cheese, add a squirt of lemon juice and top with lox
8. Or spread with unsalted butter, lemon juice and smoked salmon
9. Stamp out hearts from shop bought pound cake – serve with frozen raspberries and hot melted white chocolate poured on top
10. Stamp out mozzarella hearts for a caprese salad
11. Melt tsps heaps of grated Parmesan cheese at 400f on a slipmat until melted. While warm, stamp into hearts
12. Mix soft butter with garlic, parsley, salt and pepper, then spread into a tupperwear box and chill. Cut out little hearts and melt them on a delicious steak for dinner
13. Make a quesadilla and stamp out big or small hearts – mould the guacamole and sour cream with the cutter for added cuteness
14. Stamp hearts out of shop-bought puff pastry, top with slow cooked red onions and bake – slice red onion thinly, season well and cook very slowly in butter until soft and sweet. Add a splash of balsamic, season well
15. Stamp hearts out of foccacia and bake until warm. Rub with a clove of garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Serve with spaghetti carbonara or spaghetti bolognaise for maximum Lady and the Tramp action
16. Make a crouton with some sliced artisan bread, spread with goat cheese and bake until crisp. Stamp out a heart. Serve on a bed of salad with a balsamic vinaigrette
17. Make strawberry jam sandwiches and stamp them into heart shapes
18. Or make jam on toast, then stamp out heart shapes (jam the toast before cutting = less mess and stickiness)
19. Cut out scones and bake into perfect Valentines
20. Fill with soft strawberry ice cream, freeze until hard, use a hot knife to cut around the mold and loosen the ice cream onto a plate, drizzle with a little melted dark chocolate

Even among people who generally couldn’t give a damn about football. Even among my friends who obsess over things like organic quinoa and sample sale-ing. Even among my friends – alright – one friend specifically – who thought The Giants were a baseball team - the concept of Superbowl resonates.

Both because it’s Superbowl and there’s a home team to support, but also because it’s pretty much illegal Not to be eating Doritos and dip for four hours.

I recently learned some fascinating food facts about Superbowl. Apparently we’re going to be eating 4000 tons of popcorn. Think about how light popcorn is for a moment. Yeah. That’s a lot of popcorn. We’re also going to get through 14,500 tons of chips and a pretty staggering 70 million pounds of avocados, mostly turned into guacamole for dipping purposes.

This kind of ridiculous over consumption makes Superbowl the number 1 eating holiday in America. But, with the best will in the world, turns it into an objectively terrible date night.

So, for the night before may I suggest this classic strip steak?

New York Strip Steak with Bourbon butter (serves 2)

Look for a good quality steak that’s at least an inch to an inch and a half thick. It’s going to stay nice and juicy, which is what you want here. You’re also looking for fat that’s nicely marbled through the meat, not all in one thick line cutting the meat in half. I look for 6 – 8 oz portions.

For the bourbon butter

• Mix the bourbon, lemon and Worcestershire sauce, and pour over the steaks. Leave to marinade in the fridge for 1 – 3 hours
• Meanwhile, make the bourbon butter by mixing the butter until soft, then adding the bourbon and sugar. Dump the butter onto a sheet of plastic wrap, then squidge into a roll. Refrigerate until firm (about an hour)
• Take the meat out of the fridge and wipe off excess marinade. Leave the meat to come to room temperature (about half an hour to an hour)
• Preheat the oven to 400f, and heat up a cast iron griddle pan (or frying pan or BBQ grill). You need it to be screaming hot, 500f ish, and this takes about 15 mins on my gas hob
• Rub the steaks with vegetable oil, then season well (oil then salt, so as not to pull moisture out of the steak)
• Drop the meat into the pan and don’t touch it. After 5 minutes, turn the meat. Don’t touch it. After 5 minutes turn it again (if your steak is closer to an inch than an inch and a half, do 4 mins per side)
• Put a knob of butter on the steak and put the pan in the oven. After 5 mins, it should be rare. If you like steak medium, give it another 5 mins
• Let the steak rest for 5 mins covered in foil in a warm place before serving with a slice of the bourbon butter on top

If You Can Make That You Can Make This

• Use a herb butter instead of the bourbon butter, by mixing 1/4 cup butter with 2 tsp minced garlic and 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• Try your hand at a different kind of steak – like this post marinaded skirt steak sandwich
• Or this fancy T-bone built for sharing
• Or a classic fillet steak