• Gina DePalma’s Creamy, Dreamy Ricotta Cheesecake

    Gina DePalma’s Creamy, Dreamy Ricotta Cheesecake

    For years, I’ve wanted to make a ricotta cheesecake. One time, long ago, I did it in a coffee mug–I was going through a weird phase of my life, then–but that was it. I never actually made a real ricotta cheesecake. Then, this weekend, I was supposed to bring a dessert to a dinner party.…

  • Turkey Leg Confit (Fancy Dinner, Cheap Ingredient)

    Turkey Leg Confit (Fancy Dinner, Cheap Ingredient)

    America’s obsession with breasts goes far beyond the pages of Maxim magazine; it’s readily apparent in the poultry section. A large chicken breast for two now costs as much as a whole chicken. And a turkey breast can run as much as $15. America: stop your obsession with cleavage and lower your head a little.…

  • Cooking For A Chef

    Cooking For A Chef

    At first I wasn’t nervous. Or, at least, I told myself I wasn’t nervous. My friend Barrett Foa, who agreed to come on The Clean Plate Club, told me that his dream food guest would be Suzanne Tracht, the celebrated chef at Jar here in Los Angeles (also, a Top Chef Master). Before I knew…

  • Chocolate Malteds

    Chocolate Malteds

    Most people who buy malt powder do so to make malteds, not homemade everything bagels. But days after making those bagels, I found myself with a perfectly good carton of malt powder and, having made a chickpea stew for dinner, I figured: “Hey, we deserve some chocolate malteds.” Here’s the thing about chocolate malteds: you…

  • Life with an Oven Window

    Life with an Oven Window

    Here’s a screenplay pitch (boy, I’m getting so L.A.): a young man lives for years without an oven window and then suddenly he moves into an apartment with an oven window. Are you sold yet? The oven window allows him to watch cakes as they cook so he doesn’t have to open the oven to…

  • Marcella Hazan’s Immortal Tomato Sauce Recipe

    Marcella Hazan’s Immortal Tomato Sauce Recipe

    While Craig was gone these past nine days, I found myself watching a lot of True Blood on HBO Go. I’m still finishing up Season One, so no spoilers please, but I found myself quite choked up at a moment that was a subtle one, as far as the series goes. Sookie, the protagonist, is…

  • Reasons To Make A Crumb Cake This Weekend

    Reasons To Make A Crumb Cake This Weekend

    1. Because it’s the weekend and you can eat whatever you want and not get fat. 2. Because crumb cake works equally well as breakfast, as an afternoon snack, a post-dinner dessert or a late night treat. 3. You have four sticks of butter in your refrigerator and you don’t know what to do with…

  • Stuffed Eggplant with Lamb and Pine Nuts

    Stuffed Eggplant with Lamb and Pine Nuts

    Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem is so popular Julia Moskin of The New York Times did an article about “Jerusalem fever.” Do I have Jerusalem fever? Well, I’ve been cooking from it gradually, making that fattoush a few months ago, and that beet dip I posted about yesterday. The beet dip was for this week’s Clean Plate Club…

  • Beet Dip

    Beet Dip

    “Dip” is a funny word because, really, does it make you hungry? It connotes a drop in the road or a dippy person. It’s also kind of retro. “How about some chips and dip,” says a mom on a black-and-white TV show from the past, doesn’t matter which one. Oh: it also connotes chewing tobacco…

  • My Heart’s Aflame For Chengdu Taste (My Mouth Too)

    My Heart’s Aflame For Chengdu Taste (My Mouth Too)

    This is the place. I’ve been in L.A. for two years, stalking my way around the San Gabriel valley, slurping noodles at Tasty Noodle House and tearing into salted egg yolk pastries at Sea Harbour. Secretly, I was looking for a place that would put our favorite New York Chinese restaurant, Grand Sichuan, to shame.…