• Love Is Like A Frito Pie

    Love Is Like A Frito Pie

    I had some very special guests coming over this past Wednesday and so I spent the weekend before that trying to figure out what to make. My first destination was the top shelf of my cookbook collection, where, as you now know, I keep the books I’m most excited to cook from these days. The…

  • Everybody Loves Romano Beans

    Everybody Loves Romano Beans

    Recently on Twitter, someone named @Bobby Tweeted: “The worst writing online is those quirky 17-paragraph preambles recipe bloggers post before telling you what to put in your fuckin lasagna.” You might think that a Tweet like this (which has over 12,000 likes and 3,000 RTs) might enrage someone like me who spent over a decade…

  • A Trip To Bologna By Way of Rossoblu in Downtown L.A.

    A Trip To Bologna By Way of Rossoblu in Downtown L.A.

    My friend Toby spent a summer in Bologna during college and over the past few weeks (months?) he’s been talking to me about going to this new Italian restaurant in downtown L.A. called Rossoblu that cooks food from the region. “Yes, we should totally go!” I said in that tone that suggests that there’s a…

  • You Know You Want To Stir Ricotta Into Your Pasta

    You Know You Want To Stir Ricotta Into Your Pasta

    You’re going to start calling me a broken record on here. In fact, me saying that “I’m a broken record on here” feels like something I’ve said before. Essentially, I’m going to hit a few of the same themes in this post I’ve been hitting lately: (1) watching cooking shows on PBS; (2) going to…

  • Fun with Chiles

    Fun with Chiles

    This will shock none of you, especially if you know me in real life, but I’m something of a wimp. Roller coasters? Terrifying. Horror movies? As if. (Though I do love Rosemary’s Baby, but mostly for Ruth Gordon). And, in the culinary department, I’ve been avoiding chiles for most of my adult life. Sure, I…

  • Berry Blasted Oatmeal

    Berry Blasted Oatmeal

    There are two kinds of childhoods to have in America: the one where you’re allowed to have sugar cereal and the one where you’re not. I’m the product of the former sort of childhood and Craig’s the product of the latter. If scientists were to study us to see how my consumption of Lucky Charms,…

  • A Bold New Vision For My Cookbook Collection

    A Bold New Vision For My Cookbook Collection

    Since you last knew me, I’ve developed a few food-related obsessions. The first one is plates. I collect vintage plates now on Ebay and Etsy and I have quite a collection (OK, here’s a peek on Instagram). I’m also obsessed with old cookbooks, usually ones that have historic value (The Lutece Cookbook, for example) but…

  • Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

    Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies

    I know I’m late to the party with this one (the party being the “put tahini into your desserts” party) but I’ve also not been blogging for two years, so cut me some slack! The truth is, during my blogging hiatus, I was much more likely to make recipes that I’d already made before than…

  • A Most Excellent Breakfast Taco

    A Most Excellent Breakfast Taco

    One reoccurring theme you’ll discover on Amateur Gourmet 2.0 is that I watch a lot of PBS cooking shows. I learned how to make a daiquiri watching Simply Ming, and then, watching Rick Bayless’s show, I learned how to make a most excellent breakfast taco. If Ned Flanders became human and grew obsessed with Mexico,…

  • Saved By A Boston Shaker: A Perfect Lime Leaf Daiquiri

    Saved By A Boston Shaker: A Perfect Lime Leaf Daiquiri

    One of the best things about starting this blog again is the help that I get from you, my loyal readers. A commenter with a wonderful name, Adam, chimed in on my last post about cocktail-making (see: “The Time I Made A Lime-Leaf Infused Daiquiri But Couldn’t Open The Cocktail Shaker”) and suggested I try…