• 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…

  • Gina DePalma’s Fonduta

    Gina DePalma’s Fonduta

    [One of my favorite people in the food world–actually, in the world period–is the brilliant writer/chef/pastry chef Gina DePalma, author of Dolce Italiano and former pastry chef at Babbo. If you’re not following her on Twitter or reading her blog, you really should; it’s excellent. And here she is with a sauce that’ll make all…

  • Lemon-Caper Beurre Blanc Sauce (Or: Don’t Tell Your Doctor)

    Lemon-Caper Beurre Blanc Sauce (Or: Don’t Tell Your Doctor)

    [Sometimes I think that Craig’s dad, Steve Johnson, writes more popular posts than I do when he’s at the helm of my site. Here he is, joining the Sauce Week fray, with a Lemon-Caper Beurre Blanc that I hope he makes for me the next time I visit Bellingham. Take it away, Steve!] Several years…

  • Espagnole Sauce: My Culinary Everest

    Espagnole Sauce: My Culinary Everest

    [My friend Diana Fithian–playwright and home cook extraordinaire–kicks off Day 2 of Sauce Week with this epic post about one of the world’s most difficult and important sauces. Take it away, Diana!] When Adam asked if Iʼd like to contribute to Sauce Week, and sent a list of sauces to choose from, there was one…

  • Rib-Eye Steak with Sauce Béarnaise

    Rib-Eye Steak with Sauce Béarnaise

    A few months ago, when I first conceived of Sauce Week, I set out to make a dinner for myself that promised to be so outrageously decadent, I’d have to close my blinds before eating the first forkful. The premise was pretty basic–steak and potatoes–with one key difference. I was going to drench the whole…

  • Welcome To Sauce Week

    Welcome To Sauce Week

    A few months ago, I had an idea. “What if I devoted a whole week on my blog to sauces? Just posts about all different kinds of sauces and I enlisted my friends to make some sauces and I also made some sauces and, you know, it was just a whole week of sauces.” So…