Writing about food since 2004.
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10 Food Rules Worth Breaking
Most of us know the rules when it comes to cooking: wash your hands after handling raw chicken, don’t wash a cast iron skillet with soap, etc. Yet, over my many years of cooking (both with chefs and by myself), I’ve learned that certain rules are time-wasters that do very little for you or your…
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Make Your Own Taco Night (with Homemade Corn Tortillas)
When you have a three year-old staying with you, chances are you’re probably not going out to dinner. We did go out one night and that’s a whole story in and of itself. Most nights, though, I cooked and that turned out to be a lot of fun, coming up with food to make for…
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Soaking The Pan
There’s a certain person that I live with (not the cat) who, whenever he does the dishes, often leaves a pan to soak. This infuriates me because I consider it the ultimate cop-out. Also, what it really means is that when he’s done there’s still work to do because when I want to cook the…
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What’s Stopping Me From Becoming A Vegetarian?
I’m on the edge. This story got me there, this one (which I could only read part of) almost pushed me over. Superbugs and industrial slaughterhouses are facts that live in my brain now and they reside there with images from Food Inc., essays by Michael Pollan, and all the other tracts and screeds I’ve…
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Black Chickpeas and Roasted Sweet Potatoes on Black Chickpea Hummus
Pride in the name of dinner: I’m really proud of this healthy dish I came up with last week. It started in the morning when I cracked open a bag of black chickpeas, poured them into a large red bowl, filled it with cold water and left for the day. 8 hours later, when I…
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Let’s Order A Pizza
One of the great joys of living in America is that, at any moment, no matter where you are, you can order a pizza. This was a fact well-known to me when I was in high school and college. “Let’s order a pizza,” is a phrase most of us are quite comfortable saying and it…
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Food Is Art At Red Medicine
Pop quiz, hot shot: you’re at dinner, sitting at a table, celebrating your anniversary, and someone puts this glass bowl in front of you. Do you: (a) Admire this beautiful display as a table decoration or do you (b) Eat it? The answer, it turns out, is both.
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Chocolate Cranberry Oat Cookies So Good They’ll Stop Your Kid From Crying
Parents of three year-olds, I salute you! We have house guests this week, our friend Celia and her three year old daughter, Johanna. And while I’d been told that the terrible twos are nothing compared to the terrible threes, that really had no significance for me since I don’t have children, I just have a…
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Who Was Stendahl the Food Writer?
The other day, at another used book store (this one in Atwater Village), I stumbled upon the cookbook you see above and what caught my attention wasn’t the picture or the title but the name of the author. Like Madonna or Cher, here was a food writer with a one word name. Are there any…
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Tasting Notes: Flemish Sour Ale, Delirium Tremens, Centine Toscana
My literary muscles have been flexed thoroughly on the subject of food, but not so beverages. And yet I drink beverages every day. I am drinking beverages right now! (An overly sweet Chai tea and a glass of water, for the record.) Last week I decided to throw my hat into the wine/beer writing ring…
