What could be better than a summer meal of lobster, corn, and tomatoes? The lobster and corn merely need to be steamed and perhaps buttered generously, the tomatoes sliced and dressed. Couldn’t be simpler.

The Montauk Monster is missing. The putrescent carcass of the creature whose image has captivated millions around the globe and spawned nearly as many identities was taken from two Montaukers. They said they planned to supply the beast’s bones to an artist who had already found a buyer for signed monster art.

Ever since Jenna Hewitt, Rachel Goldberg, and Courtney Fruin found the thing in front of the Surfside restaurant, the electronic clones of the creature have invaded computers — by way of Ms. Hewitt’s snapshot — until the Internet itself is threatened.

One of the things I love best about spring vegetables is how beautifully they go together. Peas and spearmint are a match made in heaven. Asparagus and morels combine a sprightly green flavor with a mild earthy one. In Provence, spring is celebrated with a fricassee of artichokes, fava beans, peas, and asparagus.

Looking for some Valentine’s Day inspiration the other day, I ventured into one of those mega-blocklong-bookstores. Surely there will be a lovely display of Rumi’s love poems, Shakespeare’s sonnets, or perhaps some bodice-ripper novels. Anais Nin? 

Will Jordin Sparks have a wardrobe malfunction while singing the national anthem? Will Tom Brady be able to play? Will his gazelle of a girlfriend, Gisele Bundchen, be an albatross as Jessica Simpson has been for Tony Romo? Will I have enough spicy chicken wings to last through the halftime show? Is my TV screen big enough? 

Baking homemade holiday treats is one of my favorite traditions. Cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg are as much holiday scents to me as pine, balsam, and paperwhite narcissus.

Shared recipes. Old, old family recipes. What a treasure trove of history! I couldn’t wait to dig into them. Some had helpful notes scribbled on them. One even had “very bad recipe” scrawled on it, and yet it had been saved with the others to live on.

The name “soul food” gained popularity in the 1960s when the word "soul" became associated with all things African-American. But its origins go way back to the Antebellum period, when slaves in the South would create meals out of discarded meat parts (pig’s feet, ham hocks, tripe) and the tossed-away leafy tops of vegetables such as beets and turnips, and otherwise would rely on whatever they could catch, fish, or farm for their meals.

I got a great recipe for granola from a famous bakery in Los Angeles last year. I have fiddled with it so much, this is now my recipe. Besides, I've conveniently forgotten the name of the bakery. I even put this granola on top of salads!

Football for a person who likes to cook is an excuse to pull out an arsenal of retro junky recipes. Chile con queso made with Velveeta cheese! Deviled shrimp! Guacamole, chips ’n’ dips galore! Buffalo wings, spicy killer chili with corn bread. I think the only requirements for being appropriate football food is it must be fattening and easy to pick up.

Spend just an hour with Eleanor Whitmore and you know you have met someone extraordinary. Not that she would ever say so. She focuses not on what she has done, but on what she has gotten from the doing. 

Ireland is the only other country I know of that has any special food for Halloween. There’s a famous dish made with potatoes. Dawdling along through my treasured Irish cookbook by the doyenne of Irish cookery, Theodora Fitzgibbon, I came upon some recipes and lore about my favorite Irish dish: colcannon.

Wine labels are highly regulated by the federal government, more methodically even than food labels. It is mandatory to identify in some detail at least seven items, some so boring that it led to the invention of a second label on the back of the bottle to split the tedium and give us a bit of relief and respite while reading the primary label.

My major point in a recent column about storing wines was that there is a difference between keeping wines for up to a few years in a condition where they are ready to drink and aging important wines for the future. Even if you are doing both, serving wines correctly is at least as important as how they were stored.

The rugged canyons and sprawling ranches around Penjamo in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato are haunted with stories of hidden treasure, Catholics fleeing persecution by the Spanish crown, and of revolutionaries like Pancho Villa. Along with these tales, which straddle the line between the historic and the fantastic, are the extraordinary stories of ordinary people who went “al otro lado,” as the people in Penjamo say — to the other side. 

These savory potatoes could serve as a main course for lunch with just a small green salad to balance their richness. They’re really much too interesting to play second fiddle in a meal. Select large, blemishless Idaho baking potatoes for this dish.

Are you ready for some football? America is. That day of days, Super Bowl Sunday, is upon us and it’s the most-watched television event in the country. So chances are that, wherever you are, some football will be part of your consciousness on February first. 

Casseroles come in so many shapes and sizes and ethnic backgrounds, and with the right ingredients they are splendid for entertaining variable numbers of people and also have the virtue of staying reasonably hot on buffet tables.

Peaches are so delicate and easily bruised, it’s obvious that the beauties from California cannot possibly be tree-ripened. But they are fine for making jams, conserves, and chutneys — anything cooked.