• Explain Yourself, Minute Maid Lemonade

    0% juice? Really? But you have a picture of beautiful, fresh lemons on your label… if you have 0% juice, why are those lemons there? Shouldn’t you have a picture of a pile of citric acid, maybe someone snorting it off a table like Mark Wahlberg in Boogie Nights? But seriously, why can’t you put…

  • New Apartment? New Oven? Buy This

    This is an old school food tip, I didn’t invent it or anything, but I wonder how many of you actually do this? I’m here to tell you that I do this. When I move into a new apartment, I buy an oven thermometer to calibrate the oven. If you don’t do that, you don’t…

  • Something Happened At Rustic Canyon

    Something Happened At Rustic Canyon

    On Thursday night, we were supposed to go to dinner with Craig’s former boss and the boss’s wife. A work dinner, so to speak. “7:30 at Pizzeria Mozza,” said Craig, earlier in the day. Then, as 7:30 rolled around, Craig pulled me aside. “I told a white lie,” he said. “We’re not going out with…

  • Almond Cake with Plums

    Almond Cake with Plums

    “Take a risk or play it safe?” That was the question I asked myself the day before Besha Rodell and Rachel Shukert came over for dinner last week. Rachel I wasn’t nervous about. Even though I’d never met her before, I knew we’d click because we’re both musical theater geeks. The food would be secondary.…

  • Breakfast Crêpes with Eggs, Bacon and Cheese

    Breakfast Crêpes with Eggs, Bacon and Cheese

    Our first weekend in the new apartment and it was my mission to make breakfast. I’d carried a box of foodstuffs from our old refrigerator to the new refrigerator so as not to waste anything and that box contained perishables like eggs, bacon, butter and milk. In my pantry, I had flour, sugar and salt.…

  • The Kingston Negroni

    The Kingston Negroni

    Listen up, Negroni lovers. The other night I was with my parents at Hinoki and the Bird and, on the Negroni section of their drink menu, I spied a drink called The Kingston Negroni. The bartender heartily recommended it and so I gave my nod of approval. “Let’s do this thing,” I said, but not…

  • The Top 5 Dishes I’ve Eaten in My Travels

    CNTraveler asked me to pen a piece about the Top 5 Dishes I’ve Eaten In My Travels…so here it is, live on their blog. Lists like these are always arbitrary, though the arbitrary nature of it can still be revealing. Clearly, from this list, I prefer rustic, “real” food to finer, fancier fare. But maybe…

  • Oven-Broiled Eggplant Dip

    Oven-Broiled Eggplant Dip

    Remember that time I made a stovetop-charred eggplant dip (aka baba ganoush)? Really? You don’t remember that? Because that was like a week or two ago. You really ought to have your memory checked. Anyhoo, I realize that many of you may have been intimidated by the idea of stovetop charring. “Put an eggplant on…

  • Pasta with Chickpeas, Bacon and Spinach

    Pasta with Chickpeas, Bacon and Spinach

    We did a very smart thing this weekend: we invited friends over for dinner on Sunday night which forced us to finish unpacking and get our new place in order. Worked like a charm. By early Sunday evening, all of our boxes were unpacked, our furniture was properly placed and all of the lights were…

  • The Other Side of Our New Kitchen & A Plant

    Chloe, our beloved neighbor back at the old place, pointed out–before I left–that in my “new kitchen” post I only showed one side of the kitchen, not the side with the stove. So here it is: the other side of our kitchen, with a glance into the other room which had some boxes in it…