• Satanic Saran Wrap

    I have a sneaky suspicion that my life is a TV show, a la “The Truman Show,” except instead of Ed Harris as Kristoph lovingly overseeing my every move, there is Bob Saget–a la “America’s Funniest Home Videos”–overdubbing my actions with obnoxious voices and irritating sound effects. Anyway, that’s how I felt tonight trying to…

  • A Cobbler Recipe for Cobbler People: Cherry and Apricot Cobbler

    In this world there are pie people, tart people, and cobbler people.Pie people, bless their souls, say things like “bless their souls.” They wear aprons and buy toilet paper at Sam’s club.Tart people are a little edgier, but not much. Their hair is cropped and they wear wire-rimmed glasses. They don’t favor Yanni, but they…

  • Do not affect a breezy manner.

    I am a big nerd who reads Strunk and White’s Elements of Style for pleasure. Not just pleasure: edification. According to the blurbs on the back it is a “nonpareil” (The New Yorker) “the best book of its kind we have” (St. Paul Dispatch) and “as timeless as a book can be in our age…

  • The Best Chain Restaurant in America: Houston’s

    We are going to do tonight’s posting in one big mega-post. Since I only have two things to talk about–geese and Houston’s–we’ll be ok. Oh, plus there’s popcorn. But first geese.Driving to Houston’s today, some old people were holding up traffic on La Vista Road. I leaned my head out the window like an angry…

  • A Four Month Anniversary Review on Drowsy Sudafed

    It has just come to my attention that today (well, yesterday) is this site’s four month anniversary. My first post was January 14th, 2004 and since today (well, yesterday) is May 14th, 2004, that makes it four months of Amateur Gourmet greatness. To mark the occassion, I just popped two drowsy Sudafeds and I plan…

  • Chicken Soup Redux

    You know you’ve been blogging too much when you start to repeat yourself. Similarly, you start to repeat yourself when you’ve been blogging too much. Nothing illustrates this better than chicken soup.In February I posted Charitable Chicken Soup for my Roommate’s Soul which featured an Epicurious chicken soup recipe that I can’t seem to locate…

  • The Ingredient Game: Round One

    Here is how we play the ingredient game. I type out the ingredients for a food product and you have to guess the product. I will also give you two clues. The winner receives the love and respect of the Amateur Gourmet Community.Two Clues:1. This is a prepackaged product;2. It is desserty in nature.Ingredients: Sugar,…

  • Starve a Cold

    The secret’s out: I have a cold. Not only that, I gave it to Lauren. We are none too happy.For lunch we souped at Bagel Palace. We were given a choice between traditional chicken noodle soup and just plain noodle soup. We never really asked what the difference was, so we went with traditional and…

  • The Thursday Night Dinner Song: “What I Did For Bread”

    It took up too much refrigerator space. I’m moving to New York. It looked so nasty.I mean, look the container was gigantic:Yet for those who followed my travails of bread production as documented in the Funny Food Film “Project Sourdough,” you will be heartbroken to know that tonight I did what was inevitable. I poured…

  • Gentrification and Creme Brulee Cheesecake in East Atlanta

    You know how in “The Shawshank Redemption” the old man, Brooks, kills himself because he can’t adjust to life outside the pen? (Sorry for ruining it, those who haven’t seen it). Well I’m starting to feel his pain. Two days, now, since graduating law school and what have I done with my time? I’ve returned…