• Homemade Ginger Ale

    Homemade Ginger Ale

    On a Sunday afternoon, lounging around my apartment watching “Terms of Endearment” on HBO, inspiration suddenly strikes and I am compelled to make ginger ale from scratch. It would take a team of behavior specialists and Debra Winger fans to analyze this phenomenon, but suffice it to say: I was hot and I had ginger.…

  • Pineapple with Molasses & Lime Zest

    Mario Batali is my #1 favorite food-world hero: I love his books, I love his old Food Network show “Molto Mario,” and I love his restaurants. When I found out, last year, he was doing a show about Spain, I was delighted. Especially since Craig and I are going to Spain this summer–we leave at…

  • Colorful Coleslaw

    Colorful Coleslaw

    Admit it: we all watch “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.” So we all saw it when Dina’s daughter derided the coleslaw set out for her going-away party to Cyprus. “Who ordered all this coleslaw?” she groused and we all laughed because that gloppy, mayonnaisey mound of coleslaw did look pretty nasty. But take heart,…

  • Blue Hill Stone Barns

    Blue Hill Stone Barns

    I’m no theologian, but I’m pretty sure that if there is a heaven, it’s a lot like Blue Hill Stone Barns. You arrive by train, the water of the Hudson glistening as you glide along the tracks. The cabs waiting for you to take you to the restaurant aren’t normal cabs: these cabs are clean,…

  • Live with Julie Powell

    You ever play that game where you try to figure out who would play you in the movie version of your life? (I still haven’t figured out who would play me: any ideas?) Well Julie Powell, author of “The Julie/Julia Project,” has a real-life answer to the question in the form of Amy Adams who…

  • The Best Beans of Your Life

    The Best Beans of Your Life

    If someone asks my friend Diana what I got her for her birthday this year, she’s very likely to answer: “Beans. I got beans for my birthday.” That sounds like a negative thing, but in the case of Diana’s birthday dinner, it was entirely positive. These beans, like the beans Jack trades his cow for,…

  • Bespoke Chocolates

    Bespoke Chocolates

    Food people are my kind of people. That’s why so many of the people I’ve met since I started food blogging have become good friends: they’re generous, they’re insightful, they’re creative, they’re smart and they have good taste. So friendship was clearly in the stars when a longtime reader named Rachel Zoe Insler informed me…

  • Your Table Is Ready

    The hardest table to get in New York right now is at the Minetta Tavern. It was already a madhouse right when it opened (which is why I made it part of my NY Foodie Photo Scavenger Hunt (hey that’s the 2nd time I linked to that today)) but then it got three stars from…

  • Spaghetti with Ramps (A Recipe)

    Spaghetti with Ramps (A Recipe)

    A few weeks ago, I told you about the spaghetti with ramps I ate at Franny’s in Park Slope. It may be the case that ramps have come and gone now and you’ve missed your window, but if, like me, you stumble upon them at a farmer’s market this weekend, here’s an easy way to…

  • Mayonnaise-Based Sauces

    Mayonnaise-Based Sauces

    Growing up, there was nothing I hated more than mayonnaise. NOTHING. The idea of putting mayonnaise on a sandwich repulsed me. It still does, actually. I mean: if it’s a burger and there’s mayonnaise on it, I’ll overlook it because it blends with all the juices and the ketchup and the mustard and makes something…