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Here’s how I know if I need to buy a cookbook or if I can put it safely back on the shelf: I open to three random recipes and if those three recipes look really, really good — like ones I’ll actually be excited to make — it’s a keeper. And that’s how it was…

If you’ve never had a Concord grape, imagine the flavor from a purple lollipop or purple gum, then imagine nature producing that flavor instead of a factory, and you’ll get the idea. A Concord grape tastes like the cartoon version of a grape; the flavor of a grape that we all have in our head…

I love that thing where all cultures have a different version of the same dish. Like meatballs: kofta in the middle east, Polpette in Italy, Swedish meatballs at IKEA. And though I can’t cite as many examples when it comes to migas, that genius combination of tortilla chips and eggs, it immediately brings to mind…

Hyperbole on a food blog? Well I never! Look: I’ve eaten many a sticky bun in my day (that sounded dirty) and the best sticky buns I’ve ever experienced were the ones that I ate in my kitchen just two days ago when I made the Sticky Sticky Buns from Joanne Chang’s essential Flour cookbook.…

Iconic dish names have to start somewhere. Who invented Toad in the Hole? Chicken a la King? S’mores? I’m sure they all have stories, and if we had more time we could research those stories, but my point is that sometimes a dish needs an official name. And that’s why I Christen (what’s the Jewish…

Here’s the thing about my Jewish childhood: I grew up eating lox, I grew up eating eggs, and I grew up eating onions (lots and lots of onions), but I didn’t grow up eating matzo brei. What can I say? It was a blindspot in my otherwise very Jewish upbringing. And it’s a shame because…

Banana bread is a great way to pretend you’re that eating something virtuous when, really, you’re eating cake. That’s what makes this chocolate banana bread, from Jessie Sheehan’s Snackable Bakes (my new favorite baking book), such a treat. There’s no pretense here about “healthfulness” or “low-calories” or “gluten-free” (not that there’s anything wrong with that).…

When it comes to granola, we’re all living in denial. The word evokes such feelings of healthfulness, it’s actually become an adjective to describe somebody who’s wholesome. “They’re a little too granola,” you might say about that guitar-playing, “aw-shucks” guy in your reading group. But the truth is that granola is PACKED with sugar. I…

Little Miss Muffet can keep her curds: I’m stealing her whey. Especially to make these blow-you-a-whey pancakes with homemade labneh which (spoiler alert!) are easily some of the best pancakes that I’ve ever made and/or eaten in my life. The secret is the milky white substance that collects in the bowl underneath the sieve when…

There used to a website called “Is It Iced Coffee Weather?” that would tell you whether you should drink hot coffee or iced coffee on a particular day. I’d like to build a similar website for oats. For me, it’s either overnight oat weather or hot oatmeal weather. Right now, in L.A., we’re on the…