As you may recall, I spent a good amount of time a few weeks ago reading all about bread in my birthday present of a book “Nancy Silverton’s Breads From The La Brea Bakery.” The idea of starting a starter–that strange combination of flour, water, and grapes that is the lifeblood of good bread–seemed a…

Now I can load the site, but apparently many people can’t. Among those who can’t are:1) My mother;2) Two friends.How can this be? Oh, the humanity!

Glitches and travel aside, I have composed and recorded a swishy song commemorating all the meals consumed over Spring Break. I give you: The Break That Was Spring! (Apologies to Rogers, Hammerstein, and especially Julie Andrews).Download file

First of all, today has been a frustrating day for The Amateur Gourmet. I spent like 8 hours on the phone with godaddy.com trying to figure out why the site wouldn’t load, and then–after two unhelpful phone conversations–it came to my attention that the problem was with Typepad. In a flash of good luck, the…

A good history of pizza at NYC Eats. (Lombardi’s is where Lisa, Ricky and I ate at in our Eating the Lower East Side video).

Tonight, instead of documenting our dinner, I decided to do an expose on what my family drinks. We begin with my father.Dad’s Drink: Tanqueray and TonicThis is my father’s signature drink. It is actually many people’s signature drink. How did my father come to adopt it as his own?”I used to drink 7 and 7,”…

Mom and I went to Starbucks today. Here’s our drinks:Mine is on the right. It is a simple caramel frappucino. Two words.Mom’s is on the left. What is it? You may want to rub your eyes before you read this:An iced non-fat decaf sugar-free vanilla latte.Never have so many words been expended on one drink.

A charming video of dinner with my parents and grandparents. Quicktime and hair piece required!

Madame Fifi (aka: my mother) and I ventured today to the opulent world of Palm Beach. We lunched at Renato’s, a charming place off Worth Avenue where ladies in large hats drank martinis and picked at their salads.The interior was quite lovely……though I felt out of place in my gray sweater. Next time I’ll know…