Category

Recipes

  • Orange Cranberry Scones

    Orange Cranberry Scones

    Chef Anita Lo, who you’ll meet on next week’s episode of “Someone’s In The Kitchen With,” made a point to say that her mentors were David and Karen Waltuck, the proprietors of the legendary restaurant Chanterelle. This fact stayed with me after Chef Lo left my apartment and when I found myself, a few hours…

  • Cooking for Vegans (Watermelon Salad, Cauliflower Steaks & Coconut Lime Rice Pudding)

    Cooking for Vegans (Watermelon Salad, Cauliflower Steaks & Coconut Lime Rice Pudding)

    I was flipping out on Saturday because I’d extended a dinner invitation to an awesome friend named Isaac (he directs stunning music videos, check them out here) and Isaac is a vegan. But not just a vegan: a vegan with a nut allergy. I was already cooking a “thank you” meal for Lizzie Leitzell, my…

  • Breakfast “Burrito” with Two Salsas

    Breakfast “Burrito” with Two Salsas

    You may have noticed that I’ve been posting more and more original recipes here. I like that. It makes me feel like, in the past 7+ years of running this blog, I’ve learned a thing or two. Still; not everything I do is a major success. Sometimes my original conception for a dish doesn’t work…

  • Kitchen Sink Pasta Salad (with Yogurt and Herbs)

    Kitchen Sink Pasta Salad (with Yogurt and Herbs)

    The scene? My kitchen. The day? Last Thursday. The idea? Take everything out of my refrigerator–fresh mozzarella, a red onion, scallions, celery, parsley, dill, a nectarine (ok, that wasn’t in the refrigerator, it was on the counter)–and make dinner. I didn’t know what I was going to make but then I had a thought: “What…

  • The Best Dinner Rolls of Your Life

    The Best Dinner Rolls of Your Life

    Who invites friends over for dinner rolls? On Thursday night, I did that very thing. I texted our friends who live in our building and said, “Hot dinner rolls and honey if you want right now!” It was a strange text, one that I thought might be met with radio silence. But one friend, our…

  • Yucatan-Style Slow-Roasted Pork Tacos

    Yucatan-Style Slow-Roasted Pork Tacos

    When the James Beard award-winning editor of The Washington Post food section writes a cookbook, you know you better buy it. In my case, I blurbed it–(look for me on the back cover!)–because the book in question, Joe Yonan’s “Serve Yourself,” is truly excellent. It’s not one of those cookbooks full of familiar recipes that…

  • Oatmeal with Ginger, Coconut Milk and Lime

    Oatmeal with Ginger, Coconut Milk and Lime

    It’s easy to innovate when you’re working with a set formula. Oatmeal has a set formula. Bring 1 and 3/4 cups water (or milk) to a boil, add a pinch of salt, add your rolled oats, lower to a simmer, stir and cook until your oatmeal’s absorbed most of the liquid. Then sweeten with a…

  • Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

    Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

    Meet your new favorite weeknight dinner. It asks only a few things of you: that you have a cluster of esoteric ingredients on hand (chili paste, rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil), and also a few familiar ones (ginger, soy sauce, peanut butter). It asks you to boil water and to blend things up in your…

  • The Raw Rhubarb Daiquiri

    The Raw Rhubarb Daiquiri

    You can taste great food in your head long after you first experience it. That’s the case for me and the rhubarb cocktail I drank at Franny’s in 2009. Most rhubarb drinks have a cooked quality to them; the rhubarb is generally poached in a sugar syrup. The Franny’s rhubarb drink (which, apparently, is made…

  • How To Make Authentic Guacamole

    How To Make Authentic Guacamole

    My first experience with guacamole was the one in The Barefoot Contessa book, a flavorful guacamole that has the requisite avocados, red onion and lemon juice, but departs from the norm with fresh garlic and a few hits of Tabasco. Up until last weekend, if I were sent to the store to shop for guacamole…