Writing about food since 2004.
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A Field Trip To Atwater Village: Atwater Village Farm, Proof Bakery & Canelé
One thing I know to be true about cities is this: they’re best judged by their neighborhoods. I fell in love with some of my favorite cities–Seattle, Atlanta, New York–by visiting off-the-beaten-path neighborhoods with hidden-away restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, book stores and movie theaters. In Seattle, there’s Capitol Hill and Ballard; in Atlanta there’s the…
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Ribollita (Italian Cabbage and Bean Soup)
I’m kind of digging this L.A. winter. I was worried it’d be too hot and that I wouldn’t be able to cook my cold weather comfort food. Instead, it’s just cold enough to make a big pot of soup–like this Italian cabbage soup called Ribollita–and to feel good about it. Served up with lots of…
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Reflections on Eight Years of Food Blogging
On Saturday, this blog turned eight. If you had a baby on the day that I started my blog that baby is now eight; in other words, your baby is not a baby. And neither is this blog. At the beginning, the blog seemed like a means to an end–a way to get noticed in…
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Fried Eggs with Roasted Potatoes, Garlic, Rosemary and Pecorino
If I do a post on Friday, it’s usually because I have a weekend breakfast that I want you to make. There was that time I told you how to make eggs, biscuits and bacon; and let’s not forget these banana walnut waffles. This weekend, all you’ll need are a few stray Yukon gold potatoes,…
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I Declare War on Frisée!
No one looks at a coil of barbed wire and thinks, “I would like to eat that.” Yet there are eaters among us who see a plate of frisée and think that very thought. Psychologists have a word for these people: masochists. How else to explain the inexplicable desire to consume razor-like stalks of pale…
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Easy Mac and Cheese
The easiest mac and cheese is the one from the box. The next one up, though, may be this one: instead of making a béchamel with butter, flour and milk–an easy enough process, but a process nonetheless–you heat three cups of cream and dump a bunch of grated cheese into it. You flavor the resulting…
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Lunch at The Spice Table / Dinner at Animal
Come along with me, we’re going for a drive. I just did an interview with L.A. Weekly’s food blog where they asked me what I’m most looking forward to about living in L.A., and one of my answers was: “Going on driving adventures.” Which is why we’re getting into the car… c’mon, we’re going downtown!
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Pan-Fried Brussels Sprouts with Bacon, Garlic and Mustard
Every year, Craig’s dad, Steve, makes the most amazing prime rib for Christmas dinner (see here) and every year I help out the best I can, usually volunteering to make a side dish. Last year I made a gratin but this year, since mashed potatoes were already on the menu, I offered up a vegetable.…
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Sitka & Spruce
Should good restaurant food challenge you? Or should it comfort you by reflecting what you already like to eat? Sitka and Spruce, a restaurant in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, is the first restaurant that I’ve visited in a long time that fully embraces the former strategy. The food, while very delicious, challenges you while you…
