• Flambé Story

    Flambé Story

    When Craig’s parents stayed with us last year for Craig’s graduation, they were very amused to come home one day to find me in the kitchen candying orange peel for no reason. “Do you just do that?” asked Julee, Craig’s mom. “Decide to make something just for the heck of it?” Pretty much! And that’s…

  • Cold Weather Lunches in N.Y.C. (Setagaya & Pearl)

    Cold Weather Lunches in N.Y.C. (Setagaya & Pearl)

    There are cold days and then there are really cold days and on those really cold days you probably want to stay at home, under the covers, and never get out of bed. But then you have to get out of bed and, more importantly, you have to eat and if you’re in Manhattan running…

  • My Favorite Way To Use Homemade Chicken Stock

    My Favorite Way To Use Homemade Chicken Stock

    I can imagine many of you who read the last post about homemade chicken stock were probably thinking, “What’s the point?” You were probably thinking that in far less time and with far fewer dirty dishes, you could just buy a carton of the boxed stuff, squeeze it into your braise or your soup and…

  • Chicken Stock, 1 2 3

    Chicken Stock, 1 2 3

    It’s cheap and easy to have homemade chicken stock on hand: all you really need is time. And thyme. But mostly time. Sure, it can be expensive–I still can’t get over The Barefoot Contessa’s recipe which calls for not one, not two, but THREE whole chickens that you boil for three hours and discard. That…

  • Easy Homemade Granola

    Easy Homemade Granola

    Now that I’m a health guru you might suspect that I made granola last week because of my new fitness regimen. But you’d be wrong, very wrong indeed; I made granola last week because of the newest cookbook in my collection, a gorgeous cookbook that I bought for my friend Lisa’s 30th birthday and that…

  • Mustard Chicken with Bacon and Cream

    Mustard Chicken with Bacon and Cream

    This is not a recipe for the faint of heart. It’s a recipe you can only get away with in cold weather–VERY cold weather–and even then you may hear that spiky haired fitness guru from the 90s, Susan Powter, in your head screaming: “Stop the insanity!” Susan Powter has a point: you’re about to bake…

  • Roasted Parsnips

    Roasted Parsnips

    Easy. Shockingly easy. Are you ready? In one paragraph, here we go (courtesy of David Tanis and his marvelous book, “A Platter of Figs.”) Buy parsnips (4 to 5 pounds). Heat the oven to 375. Peel the parsnips. Quarter them lengthwise; remove the central core. If they’re large, cut them into 3-inch lengths. Toss with…

  • Katy’s Pizza

    Katy’s Pizza

    Pizza god Adam Kuban of SliceNY and Serious Eats had this to say the last time I made pizza: “AmGour: I love ya and all, man, but you gotta spread that dough out thinner!” A thin crust, it turns out, is the sine qua non of perfect pizza. The great pizzas of New York–Di Fara,…

  • How To Make An Apple Pie

    How To Make An Apple Pie

    Some of us have Oedipal complexes, others have Electra complexes, but very few of us have a complex based on apple pie. Allow me to lay on your therapist’s couch for a moment: I have a serious pie issue. My apple pie is inadequate–it comes from Martha Stewart–and though it often inspires a happy nod…

  • Cacciucco at The Union Square Cafe

    Cacciucco at The Union Square Cafe

    Some people are haunted by ghosts, others are haunted by a sense of meaninglessness in a vast, expanding universe; but me? I’m haunted by food. Restaurant dishes, dishes I make I home: it doesn’t matter. I crave them, I want them. Lately, I’ve been haunted by a dish I ate two weeks ago with my…

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