Q: How do you decide what to make?

A: A lot of things factor in to how we create our menus. One of the most important is just looking at the Web site of our online grocer, Fresh Direct. They rate all of their veggies, produce, fish, and meat, so if we see something that looks really good, or that’s featured because it’s in season or is on sale, we’ll work around that. We try to have seafood once a week, usually Sunday or Monday (or maybe Tuesday), so that we can use fresh fish and not frozen. We also try to eat vegetarian once a week. We hate to waste food, even herbs, so if we need a bunch of dill or head of cabbage for a recipe one week, we’ll try to find another recipe for later in the same week or early in the next that uses that same ingredient.

There always seems to be one dish on the menu that got there because of a conversation that started with “You know, we haven’t had X in forever”. At the same time, we’re looking at new recipes throughout the week and if we see something new and fun we’ll add that to the menu too. Occasionally, we’ll take a trip somewhere and see ingredients that help us plan a menu, like duck or shellfish or fresh veggies when we take day trips to Long Island. Last but not least, we generally save more complicated dishes for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and holidays because we have more time to cook.