• Pregnant Surprise Party

    Pregnant Surprise Party

    How do you surprise a woman who is nine months pregnant on her birthday? Meet Krisse and Josh: Josh e-mailed all of us a few weeks ago that Krisse, his very pregnant wife, was disappointed that she couldn’t celebrate her birthday. So he decided to surprise her. “But wait,” you may ask, “isn’t that dangerous?…

  • Latke Party

    Latke Party

    Meet Ramona, co-host of our first party–a latke party that I attended with Stella the other day. Ramona is the wife of one of my former teachers, a teacher who enjoys his anonymity. Suffice it to say that I was flattered to be invited to this teacher’s latke party (I didn’t even know this teacher…

  • A Blind Date At Babbo

    A Blind Date At Babbo

    A few months ago, at the end of September, John Kessler–former food critic for the Atlanta Journal-Constiution and one of our nation’s best food writers–e-mailed me. John and I met back when I lived in Atlanta. He wrote a really kind and thorough piece about me just when I was starting out (you can read…

  • Fall Out Of Fall With A Matzah Ball

    Fall Out Of Fall With A Matzah Ball

    Every year, around this time, it happens. The weather turns cold and I get a cold. And when I get a cold I make chicken soup. But this year, instead of the usual egg noodles I add from the bag, I decided to make my first matzah balls using the recipe from Joan Nathan’s “Jewish…

  • The Call of the Cauliflower

    The Call of the Cauliflower

    My grandmother used to boil vegetables. I’d ride my bike to her house on East Lexington Ave. in Oceanside, NY and I’d walk in and smell boiled cabbage and carrots and cauliflower (the “C” vegetables) which she’d then top with Mrs. Dash. I thought it was wonderful—it’s one of the few taste memories I have…

  • Make Bread

    Make Bread

    Last week the NYT published a piece on how to make supremely excellent bread at home with minimal work and maximum reward. Luisa of Wednesday Chef attempted it and her results look marvelous. But the other day I wanted home-made bread and I wanted it then and there. The NYT technique requires 12 hours of…

  • Food In Threes

    Food In Threes

    Because I now have a roommate (Diana) and because I also have a sig. oth. (Craig) it ends up that when I cook these day I’m cooking for three. So, as you can see, the other day when I made bread from scratch (that’s the next post!) I served it for three with arugula salad,…

  • Choose Your Own APPLE Adventure

    Choose Your Own APPLE Adventure

    (1) You go to the farmer’s market and bring back a bag of apples. If you want to eat these apples out of the bag go to (2). If you decide to make an apple pie go to (3). (2) Oh no! You’re choking! No one’s there. You’re dead. (3) You grab your Martha Stewart…

  • Chutzpah, Truffles & Alain Ducasse

    Chutzpah, Truffles & Alain Ducasse

    It occurs to me at the end of this post that I didn’t, in fact, tell you what a white truffle tastes like. How to describe it? It’s really the smell that gets you–the smell is pungent and earthy and unlike anything else you’ve ever smelled. See, wasn’t that helpful? I also want to mention…