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.  

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.

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. 

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. 

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!