• That Time I Made Savory Oatmeal and It Was Kind of Weird But I Ate It Anyway

    That Time I Made Savory Oatmeal and It Was Kind of Weird But I Ate It Anyway

    When I first heard about savory oatmeal, I felt confused. Onions in oatmeal? Is that even possible? What planet are we on? I grew up eating oatmeal out of little packets, the kind you tear open, pour some water on and stick in the microwave. My preferred flavor was maple brown sugar, but occasionally I’d…

  • Stick A Fork In It (Or: When Food Blogs Stopped Being Food Blogs)

    Modern food blog convention would dictate that this post should begin with a picture. In fact, it’s a bit of a suicide mission to write a post without one. I went on to Google images (a risky proposition, because you can get sued for using someone else’s image) and then thought against it. The whole…

  • Salad niçoise

    Salad niçoise

    I almost titled this post Salad Not-çoise because my starting point, with the recipe, was David Lebovitz’s blog post where he beautifully describes a salad–an authentic Niçoise–that is nothing like the one I ended up making. In fact, David might be horrified by the one I made, especially since he quotes Jacques Médecin, the authority…

  • Cutting Board Graduation

    Cutting Board Graduation

    There comes a time in every home cook’s life when you bid farewell to a favorite cutting board and replace it with something better. My cutting board, for the past five years (or longer), has been a neon green rubber affair, one that I purchased at Williams Sonoma after getting knife lessons at the Union…

  • Lou (A Story of Wine and Sardines)

    Lou (A Story of Wine and Sardines)

    If you’re lucky in your life, you’ll encounter a person who is so passionate about a particular subject, they become a constant resource, a trusted guide through a murky world you might not otherwise enter. Sometimes this happens socially–you meet a classical music maven at a cocktail party who gently nudges you towards Schubert–other times…

  • Easy Weeknight String Beans

    Easy Weeknight String Beans

    The name of the game on a weeknight, as far as I’m concerned, is “big results, minimum effort.” Recipes that meet that criteria are few and far between, but when you hit on one (like the roasted broccoli, for example) you’ll never forget it. Meet your new string bean side. You won’t need your old…

  • Curried Lentil Soup

    Curried Lentil Soup

    I’m not a religious person except when it comes to the healing power of chicken soup. At the first sniffle of a new cold, I’m usually plopping a raw chicken into a pot with root vegetables and parsley and dill; or, more recently, doctoring homemade chicken broth with ginger, soy sauce, and chile paste. Last…

  • Breakfast Risotto

    Breakfast Risotto

    Is there any dish with more rules attached to it than risotto? Watch any episode of Top Chef where someone tries to make it, and you’re bound to see someone packing their knives and going home. There are rules about the kind of rice you use (Arborio vs. Carnaroli), what kind of stock you use…

  • Birthday at Bestia, Dinners at Chez Emily, The Hart and the Hunter & The Coconut Club

    Birthday at Bestia, Dinners at Chez Emily, The Hart and the Hunter & The Coconut Club

    When you look at these pictures, you’re not going to believe me when I tell you I’ve been on a bit of a health and fitness kick lately. That’s right: five days a week at the gym, salads, chicken breasts, the works. My strategy, though, is to reward myself on weekends and birthdays and at…

  • A Healthy Farmer’s Market Buffet

    A Healthy Farmer’s Market Buffet

    A few weeks ago, for the Golden Globes, I did something I’d never done before: I served health food to a crowd. Now when I say “health food,” I don’t mean the punishing kind that makes you weep with displeasure (tofu on a bed of undressed arugula or something like that); I mean the kind…