Writing about food since 2004.
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Who Drinks This Stuff?
The other day at Gelson’s, I was looking for almond grappa to make Franny’s toasted almond gelato (shockingly, I was unsuccessful) and during my search I spied the bottle you see above. Who drinks this stuff? First of all, I think it’s hilarious that it translates to “The Spirit of Paris” and the flavor is…
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Deviled Egg Salad
After mastering April Bloomfield’s recipe for Deviled Eggs, I woke up the next day–a Saturday, as a matter of fact–and thought about the ingredients I still had on hand from the previous day’s venture: homemade mayo, eggs, those same pickled chilies. I also saw English muffins. What if I made a Deviled Egg Salad and…
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Brian’s Red Beans and Rice
My newsletter readers (you do know I have a newsletter, right? Another one’s going out later today: sign up here!) went nuts last week when I shared a picture of my friend Brian’s red beans and rice and didn’t offer up a recipe. “Can you get the recipe?” one replied. “Where’s the recipe?” wrote another.…
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Look, I Don’t Know How To Tell You This, But My Cake Stand Is Also A Punchbowl
Sometimes you invite people over to your house, and you sit around and have a pleasant conversation while sipping lemonade or iced tea or maybe a combination of lemonade and iced tea which is called an Arnold Palmer, named after a golfer who my dad admires. Other times, you invite people over to your house…
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Perfect Deviled Eggs
Any time I’ve ever made deviled eggs, I’ve basically spooned a gloppy mayo-yolk mixture into floppy egg whites and masked the ugliness with either smoked paprika (see here) or weird garnishes (see my Deviled Eggs Three Ways). The problem was always that filling: never stiff enough to pipe, always wet enough to spoon. This time…
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A Beginner’s Guide To Grilling
Summer’s almost over which isn’t a big deal here in L.A.–it’s almost always grilling weather here–but for the rest of you, I bet you’re split into two groups: those who are grilling up a storm and those who, like me, don’t have the courage to play with fire. Well, that was me until 24 hours…
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How Do You Eat Corn?
At last night’s BBQ bonanza (wait, am I allowed to call it a BBQ?) I noticed a funny thing. Craig ate his corn by rotating the cob and leaving his teeth stationary; I ate mine by chomping across and then rotating the cob. So the plate above is Craig’s and you can see how he…
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Sweet and Spicy Pickled Peppers
There are many things in this world worth pickling–cucumbers, carrots, pig’s feet (if you happen to have a few lying around)–but my favorite thing to pickle? It’s peppers, just like that tongue-twister about Peter Piper. (How do you pick a peck of pickled peppers, anyway? If they’re pickled, aren’t they in jars? I guess you…
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I’m Scared To Grill
Finally, I have an apartment with a shared backyard where I could get a Weber grill. Not only that, there already IS a Weber grill out there that my neighbor says I can use. And also? I have a bag of charcoal that I bought last year because I thought I could get a Weber…
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Baked Ziti
We all need a good baked ziti recipe, don’t we? Well here it is. I was looking for something like this to serve up for Episode #3 of The Clean Plate Club. Pasta being my favorite food, I wanted to serve pasta without having to be in the kitchen the whole time, boiling, straining, stirring,…
