• Bagelworks, Boca Raton

    Bagelworks, Boca Raton

    Comfort of comforts–the white fluorescent lights, the angry senior citizens shoving in line–is there a taste more sweet than the taste of a Bagelworks bagel, shmeared with lox spread and whitefish salad, topped with sliced tomato and onion and washed down with a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice? Welcome to Bagelworks in Boca Raton,…

  • Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

    Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

    Are you sick of Thanksgiving yet? You should be! For the past few weeks, every website, every magazine, every food guru has been espousing the merits of dressing vs. stuffing, cajoling you to make your own cranberry sauce and badgering you to brine your turkey. Now that the big day is over, Thanksgiving Talk is…

  • Thanksgiving Status Report

    Thanksgiving Status Report

    I’m not sure what I’m more stressed about: cooking this dinner for sixteen people or writing this post! There’s a lot to talk about so I’m just going to shoot this out like an email and hope for the best… are you ready? Here we go…

  • Thanks To My Florida Fans

    Thanks To My Florida Fans

    A huge thanks to everyone who showed up to my Boca book signing on Sunday. It was a treat to see my whole family there, all our family friends, and–to my delight–a few Florida readers who came out just from the tiny post I did right before the event. It was great to meet you…

  • The Amateur Gourmet’s Thanksgiving Game Plan

    Attached you will find a PDF file that’ll either inspire great terror or great awe. It’s a massive document, with all the recipes broken down over the days I’m home to cook. My only fear, right now, is too much sweet stuff: I may need to add mashed potatoes. But, alas, it is 1:06 AM…

  • Thanksgiving Recipe Testing: Pear & Beet Salad, Freezable Biscuits, and Pumpkin Mousse Parfait

    Thanksgiving Recipe Testing: Pear & Beet Salad, Freezable Biscuits, and Pumpkin Mousse Parfait

    This year, I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner for sixteen people. Let me say that again. This year, I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner for sixteen people. Pardon my French, but holy s**t what the f**k am I thinking? Sorry for cursing (do you say cursing or cussing? I say cursing) but this is a bit scary.…

  • My Dinner with Frank Bruni

    The dinner was set for Monday, October 22nd, and the e-mail came on Thursday, October 18th. It said: “We’re going to check out ___… at 8:30 p.m., reservation for four under surname ___.” (E-mail’s been censored for obvious reasons.) Then, on the 21st, another e-mail came with the subject: “Monday night location and slight time…

  • How To Roast A Chicken

    Of all the dishes in my repertoire, this is the one that gets the biggest wows, the one that Craig requests the most often, the one that never fails to impress: it’s the roast chicken from the Chez Panisse cookbook with a few touches of my own (namely: potatoes and garlic). This video will show…

  • Moim

    Moim

    Last we spoke about restaurant reviews, I’d sworn them off (see here) with the caveat: “If I go out to eat and have a spectacular meal, of course I’ll tell you about it.” Well a week ago that happened right here in Park Slope at a place called Moim.

  • A $5 Dinner from the Corner Bodega [Homemade Hummus with Homemade Pita]

    A $5 Dinner from the Corner Bodega [Homemade Hummus with Homemade Pita]

    There are moments when I don’t want to plan a dinner, but I don’t want to order in either. In those moments, I think about quick solutions: what if I buy some bread and make an egg salad sandwich? Why don’t I heat up leftover French onion soup? Or–in recent days–why not make some polenta?…