My favorite warm weather sight is a fruit pie framed by an open kitchen window…

For my Deep Dish Blueberry Pie recipe, go to Glam Girl Cookin.

I admit to a wee culinary crush on Michael Anthony, executive chef of Gramercy Tavern. His local, seasonal, farm-fresh eats aren’t showy, but boy do they satisfy.

I’ll tell you ladies, when I cooked with Mike at the James Beard House, it was like a first date gone terribly right…

Full Flavored Recipes w Taste and Texture: Harmonious Cooking with Michael Anthony

Spring passing into summer, Pappy and I traveled to Spain. He wanted me to taste a country; I wanted to meet handsome Spanish men. Seventeen years-old and clearly my priorities were out of line. Food always takes precedence.

(Pictured: Brookey, junior year in high school, and grandfather at Casa Botin in Madrid. I’ve attempted to enlarge the photo a half dozen times and my darn computer isn’t allowing me. I’ll keep at it.)

The scene is simple, something like this: A round of Epoisses, a sliver of Humboldt Fog, crumbles of Parmiggiano snug against a hill of crusty baguette slices. A bottle of pinot noir and a smattering of wine glasses decorate the table. There. I just described this weekend’s patio party with friends and my last supper. 

Cheese… fabulous fromage…I can’t get enough…It lifts my spirits, works overtime fancying up my Crate & Barrel plates and looks perfectly in place on Mamma’s wedding silver.

I’ve always loved the stuff but moving to New York City really did me in. You know how some women want to be let loose inside of Bergdorf’s for a night of retail madness? Well, then there’s me. My first month in the city, I discovered Murray’s Cheese on Bleeker Street. Ever since, I’ve wanted a night alone to explore their caves, maybe crawl inside the front-of-house display case, snuggle up next to a nice Tomme de Savoie, a leg of Jamon Serrano. Let Anthony Bourdain have his “death row meal” of roasted marrow bones with Fergus Henderson. My “last supper” (that just sounds more ladylike than “death row meal”) will be a cheese platter dreamed up by Rob Kaufelt, owner of the cheese Mecca.

And though they’ve yet to give me the keys to the joint—and free reign over their caves— they have made a Murray’s partner. Imagine my joy!

Ladies, if you’ve never visited Murray’s, run to the Bleeker Street or Grand Central Station stores. You live far from the Big Apple? Murray’s By Mail ships everywhere. Whew. I feel a little better knowing that when I leave New York–be it in 6 months of 6 years–I can always have my fabulous fromage…

Check out my recipe for basil, mint and petit pois pasta in Glam Girl Cookin’!

Ramps, pancetta and rigatoni for him. Why? Men love bacon fat, acrid flavors and easy-to-fork short pastas.

We girls get the clean, bright loveliness of basil, mint, petit pois, red-stemmed spinach and the tang of salty feta. It’s really just a salad with a handful of whole wheat ziti thrown in for ‘oomph.’

If Iwere Bette Midler in “What Women Want,” I’d say that men are from Mars, women are from Venus and, bite for bite, I’ve come up with two pasta salads that speak Venutian to our tastebuds…

“Cooking for the SoHo set requires no cooking at all. Forget the girls who only sip champagne and nibble on tofu–they’re not for me. Frankly, I don’t trust you if you don’t eat cheese.”

To read more of my monthly Food & Wine column, click here.

(And for all of my archived PNJ Food & Wine and ABC News columns, click on Glam Girl Cookin’ and Foodie Musings.)