Writing about food since 2004.
Category
Recipes
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The Polenta Post
Foodies are often polenta bullies. “You should have polenta in your pantry,” they’ll tell you. “I make polenta all the time,” they’ll brag. “I named my first born child Polenta,” they’ll confess. Foodies really love polenta. And so tonight I adopted a “if you can’t beat them, join them” philosophy and fried up some polenta,…
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That’s My Lebovitz! A Crack at David’s Chocolate-Almond Buttercrunch Toffee
Imagine a sitcom called “That’s My Lebovitz.” It takes place in Paris at the chateau of an emigre American pastry chef who loves to shake his rolling pin at old French women and humor the visiting American nebbish (played by me) who insists on learning things about Paris and baking and taking pictures of his…
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Birmingham Beet Salad from “Frank Stitt’s Southern Table”
Jason Sholar is an exemplary human being. He ran the “Secret Cookbook Santa” for me this year and completely on his own accord sent me one of my most desired cookbooks from my Amazon wish list: “Frank Stitt’s Southern Table.” This gigantic beautifully photographed book has an introduction by Pat Conroy who wrote “The Prince…
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Born to Roast (Root Vegetables, Roasted)
Watching Iron Chef America tonight–Batali vs. Dufresne (of WD-50)–I recalled something that I read, heard or saw somewhere that goes a little like this: “Cooking is about technique. Once you learn the techniques, you can do anything.” This philosophy makes tons of sense as you watch these iron chefs fly around their kitchens. They are…
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A Eureka Pasta Moment with Butter, Parmesan and Nutmeg
In the course of working on my book proposal, I had the privilege of interviewing a food celebrity who told me to stock my pantry with Parmesan and nutmeg (among other things). Around this time I began cooking a pantry staple: pasta with butter, parmesan and nutmeg. The thing that makes this dish wonderful is…
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Ven’ll You Roast Fennel?
The Barefoot Contessa, that wily vixen, she’s just so smart. She told me (via her TV show) to roast fennel and did I listen? Never. “The fennel,” she says, “gets caramelized as it roasts and it’s so delicious.” Did I heed her advice? Not at all. Until yesterday. Yesterday I was roasting chicken and instead…
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This Bread Has Bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S
This post is dedicated to Gwen Stefani, whose “Hollaback Girl” did for bananas what “MacArthur Park” did for cake. According to Gwen, “this shit is bananas,” and I couldn’t agree more. This is a fancy banana bread from a recipe in the Gourmet Cookbook available here at Epicurious. The bread contains three very ripe bananas,…
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“Pass Me Some More of that Devil Corn” (Craft Caramel Corn, That Is)
When I met Derrick and Melissa at Craft in October, our meal ended with a tiny gift from the kitchen. Caramel Corn: Longtime readers of this site will tell you that caramel corn has been the bane of my cooking existence for almost two years now. Disaster after disaster leaves me with burnt, globby messes…
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Make Room For Mushroom Soup
There are certain recipes that, when you begin them, you instantly know that this is something you will want to do again and again: that these steps, these mini-procedures, have an intrinsic logic to them that will contribute to a glorious whole, even before the glorious whole is achieved. That’s how I felt tonight making…
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A Bird of One’s Own: A Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving for One
“You should do something on your site for Thanksgiving,” suggested my mom yesterday in the afternoon. If only she knew the grand plan I’d been hatching over the past couple weeks. I was to invite hordes and hordes of friends over on Sunday to revel in the splendor of my autumnally decorated apartment; to clink…
