• Chopped Liver!

    Chopped Liver!

    It’s time for chopped liver to make a comeback. I mean think about it: chefs flaunt their charcuterie and pâtés at places like Bar Boulud in New York and Salt’s Cure here in L.A. And what is chopped liver if not liver pâté’s chunky Jewish cousin? I grew up eating the stuff–my grandmother used to…

  • Banh Mi at Ink.Sack, Chile Rellenos at Loteria

    Banh Mi at Ink.Sack, Chile Rellenos at Loteria

    Let me tell you about this sandwich that I ate at Ink.Sack, Michael Voltaggio’s sandwich shop on Melrose. It’s a Banh Mi, which if you haven’t had one (and I had my first one on Calvin Trillin’s walking tour of Chinatown many moons ago) it’s a sandwich, served on a baguette, usually made with pork…

  • Sexy Cabbage Sexytime

    Sexy Cabbage Sexytime

    Let’s face it, cabbage is a tough sell. Even though it’s what makes coleslaw coleslaw and it’s a crunchy companion to a fish taco, most people associate it with their grandmother’s boiled cabbage fouling up the air with its death-like aroma. That’s why I’m titling this post Sexy Cabbage Sexytime because the other night, I…

  • Way Beyond Bagels

    Way Beyond Bagels

    The Jewish diaspora is the kind of phrase you only use in college, and even then you’re not sure what it means. But I know this much: Jews in Boca Raton, Florida make good bagels. I’ve long sung the praises of Bagelworks on Glades Road near the Turnpike–my favorite bagel destination when I visit home…

  • Apple Pie Cookies By The Seat Of My Pants

    Apple Pie Cookies By The Seat Of My Pants

    It’s considered a hard and true fact in the food world that baking is a precise discipline and that cooking–sauteing, roasting, salad-making–is looser, freer, more of a vehicle for personal expression. Why does that always have to be the case? Isn’t it possible that, if you know a thing or two in the kitchen, you…

  • My First Persimmons

    My First Persimmons

    I am new to persimmons. I’d heard of them, Pim once gave me a delicious jam she’d made from them; but purchase them and eat them in the real world? I had not. And then, on a recent trip to the Hollywood farmer’s market, I saw piles of them everywhere.

  • That’s Not A Lime Tree

    That’s Not A Lime Tree

    You may recall, when we first moved into our L.A. apartment, that I described a courtyard with a lime tree in it. I’m embarrassed to say that even though I have many dishes in my repertoire that involve limes–oatmeal with ginger, coconut milk and lime; sea scallops with citrus risotto–I haven’t once plucked one off…

  • The A.G.’s Thanksgiving Guide 2011

    The A.G.’s Thanksgiving Guide 2011

    You thought you might avoid it here on my blog–the Thanksgiving deluge that happens on all food sites this time of year–but this weekend I broke down and cooked a Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving for Craig and his aunt and uncle. (I’m not cooking for my family in Florida this year–we’re eating out so I can relax…

  • Slow-Roasted Herbed Turkey Breast

    Slow-Roasted Herbed Turkey Breast

    Finally, there’s the turkey itself. For years my mom tried to convince me to make just a turkey breast for the Thanksgivings I’d make at home. And for years I refused because I’d never made a whole turkey before and wanted to document that experience for the blog. But because I was cooking a pre-Thanksgiving…

  • Persimmon Cranberry Sauce

    Persimmon Cranberry Sauce

    I love cranberry sauce. You can keep your stuffing, your gravy (blech!), as long as you give me my cranberry sauce, I’m happy. What’s astonishing to me about cranberry sauce is how insanely easy it is to make. The idea that people open a can of that gelatinous mound of cranberry goop is mind-blowing to…