• Scavenger Hunt Results 2010

    Scavenger Hunt Results 2010

    At first the idea of tallying up the points for the 2nd Annual Foodie Photo Scavenger Hunt seemed tedious; but then, once I started doing it this morning, I found myself laughing out loud at some of the pictures and smiling at some of the captions. The best caption was the one at the end…

  • Big News: The Next Book!

    Big News: The Next Book!

    A few weeks ago, something extraordinary happened. To understand the extraordinariness of this extraordinary thing, we have to rewind a month or two. I’d been working with an excellent agent, Alison Fargis of The Stonesong Press (who I was introduced to by Matt & Renato of Baked) on a new book proposal. This was a…

  • The 2nd Annual New York Foodie Photo Scavenger Hunt

    The 2nd Annual New York Foodie Photo Scavenger Hunt

    If you’ve been reading this blog for more than a year, you may remember an exciting contest from last year called “The Great New York Foodie Photo Scavenger Hunt.” It worked like this: I wrote a long list of celebrated New York foodie destinations and assigned different points for various tasks that contestants had to…

  • The James Beard Awards’ Chef’s Night Out

    The James Beard Awards’ Chef’s Night Out

    I have a secret to reveal: this year, I was a judge for the James Beard Awards. Whoah, I just heard your collective gasp through the computer screen. Believe me, I gasped myself when they asked me. It’s a pretty gasp-worthy fact, considering that the James Beard Awards are like the Oscars of the food…

  • Ramps: What Up With That?

    Ramps: What Up With That?

    There’s this SNL sketch that Craig and I find pretty funny. Actually, I’m not sure it’s even that funny; it’s more amusing than funny. Essentially, there’s this talk show host (played by Kenan Thompson) who hosts a show called “What Up With That?” and he sings a theme song (also called “What Up With That?”)…

  • Meyer Lemon Meringue Pie

    Meyer Lemon Meringue Pie

    Ok, I promise, this is it with the Meyer lemons. You’re sick of them–after this post, and that post–I know, I know. And when Lindy drew lemons (that sort of look like Meyer lemons) into my banner this month, who knew I’d be writing so much about them? Unless this was Lindy’s master plan? What…

  • Meyer Lemon Chicken & Asparagus

    Meyer Lemon Chicken & Asparagus

    There are two dishes referenced in Kim Severson’s “Spoon Fed” that don’t have corresponding recipes: the first is a chicken stuffed with Meyer lemons, the other is something called a “Jewish muffin.” I haven’t had any luck parsing the mysteries of the Jewish muffin, but after an exchange on Twitter I was able to extract…

  • Tartufo at Lupa

    Tartufo at Lupa

    The Brown Bonnet from Carvel Ice Cream was a staple of my childhood. It’s hard to believe it now, but our family would ride our bikes together to the Carvel on Long Beach Road in Oceanside, Long Island, where I grew up. We’d dismount, mosey inside and place our orders and my parents’ orders were…

  • Salted Caramel Sauce

    Salted Caramel Sauce

    For those of you daunted by the rainbow cookie recipe, fear not: here’s a one-pot dessert sauce that, with a tub of good vanilla ice cream (I like Häagen-Dazs), will transform your entire weekend. It’s salty, it’s sticky, it’s sweet and it takes just a few minutes.

  • Rainbow Cookies

    Rainbow Cookies

    Neighborliness isn’t a word you hear much in New York City. Sure, we’ve met our neighbor neighbors a few times (the man right next door asked me to stop playing show tunes on the piano at 3 AM; can you believe the nerve?) but I’d never call our relationship with our neighbors neighborly. No, I…