Category

Essays

  • Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud

    Every Silver Lining Has a Cloud

    It started with a tremor.For the past year, I’ve had a tremor that Craig would notice whenever I held up my fork or the remote control or my phone to play Connections. We chalked it up to twitchiness or nerves but then the tremor persisted and became really noticeable. A friend saw my hand shaking…

  • Salad on the Same Plate as Dinner, Revisited

    Salad on the Same Plate as Dinner, Revisited

    Back in 2013, when I was still something of an innocent, I wrote a post called “Salad on the Same Plate as Dinner” in which I argued that hot food and cold food never belong together on the same plate. I was specifically reacting to a dinner that I had at Parm on the Lower…

  • A Response From America’s Test Kitchen

    A Response From America’s Test Kitchen

    After posting yesterday’s post about applesauce and “best recipes,” I woke up to an e-mail this morning from Tucker Shaw, who’s the new editor-in-chief of Cook’s Country at America’s Test Kitchen. Tucker’s actually been a long-time supporter of my blog (a blurb of his is featured on my first book) and I had no idea…

  • There Is No Such Thing As The Best Recipe

    There Is No Such Thing As The Best Recipe

    OK, I’m going to tell you a secret, and maybe it’s an obvious secret, one that you already know (especially since it’s the title of this post), but I also think it’s a secret most people don’t want to acknowledge: there is no such thing as the best recipe. Now I say this as someone…

  • OK, I Lied: It Sucks To Cook After Work

    OK, I Lied: It Sucks To Cook After Work

    Remember that time that I was a full-time food blogger? And I had the nerve to say things like: “You can cook after work! It’s easy.” Well I’d like to take that person, pin him against a wall, and say: “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Because now that I have a full-time…

  • What’s Going On With Food Blogging?

    What’s Going On With Food Blogging?

    For as long as I’ve been a food blogger (more than a decade), I’ve been an open book; sharing major life events as they’ve happened–moving to California, getting engaged–and pretty much treating you, my faithful audience, like a close friend I could trust. Then, sometime around October, something happened that I didn’t feel comfortable putting…

  • What Your Food Says About You

    What Your Food Says About You

    Recently, I synched my Apple TV with my Flickr account so that when the screensaver comes on, all of my pictures on there–over 28,000–dance across the screen. And, wouldn’t you know it, most of those pictures are pictures of food. In fact, when I open my iPhoto and try to find pictures of me and…

  • Just So You Know, Food Arrives When It’s Ready

    Just So You Know, Food Arrives When It’s Ready

    There’s a new restaurant trend afoot, one that takes the form of a casual, shoulder-shrug of a sentence, usually uttered by a server after he or she takes your order. It’s the sentence in the title of this post: “Just so you know, food arrives when it’s ready.” It’s a sentence I heard last night…

  • Food That Makes You Happy, Food That Makes You Healthy, Food That Makes You Hot

    Food That Makes You Happy, Food That Makes You Healthy, Food That Makes You Hot

    The original plan was for me to take my shirt off. I know, you’re all drooling on to your keyboards at the thought, but settle down! I needed a goal, something to motivate me to get into shape. This was in February. I rejoined my old L.A. gym, Crunch, which makes absolutely no sense because…

  • Ten Things You Should Never Serve At A Dinner Party

    Ten Things You Should Never Serve At A Dinner Party

    Let me begin by saying that anyone who invites you over for dinner is doing you a favor. Without question, hosting dinner is hard work–the shopping, the prepping, the actual cooking, plus the cleaning–and anyone who takes it upon themselves to do all of that for you deserves your gratitude. That said, sometimes somebody invites…