My birthday dinner last night was baby back ribs slow-braised at 250F/120C in wine, Worcester sauce, honey, and garlic, then hickory-smoked and finished with a glaze of barbeque sauce barked at high temperature under the grill; dauphinoise potatoes à la Jeffrey Steingarten; and bi-colour sweetcorn pretty fresh off the field in Harvard, Massachusetts – the town, not the university. We ate quite late (note bathrobe) and were stuffed, so dessert, a Maine blueberry grunt with vanilla ice cream, was deferred to tonight and is steaming on the stovetop now.