It adds delicious flavor, but it also serves as an emulsifier, so the dressing doesn’t break back into separate oil and vinegar layers.

You can use prepared Dijon mustard, or–if you like some heat–Coleman’s mustard.

Prepare your vinaigrette in the usual ratio of 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar. In addition to the mustard, you can include fresh garlic.

Ingredients

Check out the different types of mustard in our Mustard Glossary.

If you bring home the bacon, you’ve got to pay tax on it—very soon.

Even if you’ve already filed, Tax Day (on April 18th this year*) is a painful reminder of those hard earned dollars that never make it to the bank.

*Why not April 15th? The District of Columbia celebrates Emancipation Day on April 16, the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s signature of the Compensated Emancipation Act. But this year, April 16 falls on a Saturday, so Emancipation Day will be celebrated on Friday, April 15th.

So, you deserve a drink. Mix up a “Bringing Home the Bacon” shot, courtesy of Hornitos Tequila. Sweet and smoky, it’s easy to make.

The 16th Amendment, ratified by Congress on February 3, 1913, is generally cited as the beginning of personal income taxes. However, to pay for expenses during the Civil War, Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1861, which included a tax on personal income. Learn more.

We love asparagus, and eat it almost daily during the season (April, May and June).

Simply steamed fresh asparagus is so delicious, we find it needs no embellishment—no salt, no butter, no lemon juice or other seasoning. It requires just a quick visit to the vegetable steamer (or microwave) and is ready to eat. (Note: While some people love it, we think that a vertical asparagus steamer is a waste of space.)

For a more complex dish, try this easy recipe for oven-roasted asparagus with feta cheese, garlic and a balsamic drizzle. It’s a combination of sweet, earthy, salty and garlicky flavors. If you don’t like feta, you can substitute fresh goat cheese.

The recipe uses balsamic cream (crema di balsamico), a reduction of balsamic vinegar that has sweet and tangy notes. It’s pricey, but you only use a drizzle at a time. If you don’t want to purchase a bottle, you can substitute balsamic glaze or even plain balsamic vinegar.

Enjoy the recipe with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc; or check out these wines and beers that pair with feta.

1. Look for firm stalks of a uniform width and a minimum amount of woodiness at the end. It doesn’t matter if they’re thick or slender: both are equally tender. But you need uniformity of size to cook them evenly.

2. The tips should be tightly closed. Once they begin to separate, it means that the asparagus is older and won’t have the best fresh flavor.

3. While most sources advise you to trim the asparagus at its natural breaking point (just bend the stem end down and you’ll see it), we find that we can trim as far as the green portion goes—often an extra inch or two—without having the end being woody in texture.

Even though our pears ended up baked to
a brown color, we didn’t want them to
oxidize before baking. Photo by Louis
Hiemstra | IST.

Our first project was pear tarts. As we fanned the pears, the phone rang; we ended up chatting for awhile and the pears began to oxidize (turn brown).

Most of us have been taught to squeeze lemon juice over the exposed flesh of a cut fruit or vegetable to slow the browning process. You can also sprinkle fruits and veggies with ascorbic acid (vitamin C powder).

But we took another route: acidulated water, which is water mixed with an acidic liquid. It works much better than trying to toss a fanned pear with lemon juice while keeping the slices intact.

Instead of squeezing lemon juice onto the fruit, add two tablespoons of lemon juice, wine (red or white), or vinegar (red, white or cider) to one quart of water.

We whipped up a batch and dipped the pears into it—while still on the phone. It’s a great technique if you have a good amount of fruit to protect.

Alas, The Cheesecake Factory has no locations in New York City, where we live. So we did the next best thing: We made our own Luau Salad. Here are the ingredients:

1. WONTONS. We used fried wonton strips that we had on hand from Chinese takeout. Next time, we’ll buy wonton wrappers and fry and season them.

2. HEAT oil to 375 F°, slide in the wrappers and deep-fry until golden brown, turning to brown evenly. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with black and white sesame seeds while warm.

3. PRESS the seeds into the wrappers. Store-bought wonton wrappers are round, not square like the custom-made wrapper in the photo. But if you want a platform on which to layer the salad, you can substitute lavasch flatbread with sesame seeds.

4. LAYER the salad as shown in the photo. Enjoy!

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*We used 2.5 parts olive oil, .5 part sesame oil and 1 part apple cider vinegar.