I love Springtime in Atlanta. It’s my favorite Spring anywhere. The whole world changes: the air is crisp, but warm. The trees are in bloom. Everything smells green and fresh. Unless of course you’re talking about the Dead Shrimp Trees.This is what I call the Dead Shrimp Tree. Beautiful, no? I love Dead Shrimp Trees.…

Today’s wade-through begins with a tour of New York cheesecakes from the New York Times. I really enjoyed the internet-only audio guide that showcases the seven best cheesecakes in the city.Click here, you won’t regret it. (The one I most want to try is the ricotta-marscapone cheese cake at Cesca).One more from the NYT: I…

It was so nice today to read all about the people reading my site. And thanks for your many compliments! Now whenever I post, I’ll at least know there are 31 charming people eager to hang on my every word. And as for the member of your family I most resemble, the correct answer is:…

I really have no idea how many people read my website on a regular basis. The Janet Jackson cupcake thing clutters my Sitemeter info to the point that the numbers don’t really tell me anything. Which is why I’d like to ask you a favor. If you read the site on a regular basis, can…

Today, Nancy instructs us to lift the lid off the starter and to smell it. Does it smell yeasty? Yes. “It smells like cheese,” offers Lauren. And notice the activity! All the bubbles…so many bubbles. I specially loaded this picture so you can click it for an ultra-large image. Be careful though: Monistat doesn’t work…

John Kessler is Atlanta’s premier food critic: our city’s culinary landscape owes a great deal to his passionate pen. I sent him a self-indulgent e-mail a couple of weeks ago, inviting him to check out my webpage. He kindly responded that he would. Then, after my blackout survival post, he e-mailed me to say that…

My senior year of college, my favorite professor, Rick Rambuss, invited four of his favorite students to dinner, one night, at his house. When one of them died unexpectedly, I was called in as a replacement. It was a key moment in my culinary genesis: the meal was brilliantly prepared by his partner, Chuck. There…

This morning, the starter was completely separated: one layer of doughy-floury-gook and one layer of purplish-clear liquid. This afternoon, though, everything seemed to be united and little bubbles were forming. This is how it is now. Those bubbles, methinks, are CO2. That can only mean one thing: (cue lightning) (cue Frankenstein music) IT’S ALIVE! IT’S…

I give you: Save Martha!

I am a food magazine impulse shopper. So much so, in fact, that two weeks ago I threw away a stack of food magazines that stacked up taller than me–and I was wearing heels!Among my guilty food magazine pleasures are: 1) Cook’s Illustrated; 2) Bon Apetit; and 3) Saveur. (I subscribe to Gourmet, otherwise it…