For a city congested with new film festivals that crop up each summer, this one actually sounded like a novelty: The first-ever New York City Food Film Festival takes off this June, screening independent features and shorts by filmmakers from all over the country. The event seems to be the brainchild of Schnack co-conspirator Harry [...]

dandelion greens, wood sorrel and second-year burdock stem in a soy vinaigrette made with wild garlic and hedge mustard, all foraged from Prospect Park (except liquids)
The food of this city is bountiful. It’s brimming with so much, and in such great variety, that you will never be keep up with it all, no matter how [...]

Is there anything you can do with rhubarbs except make pies and jams and jellies, often in combination with a sweet red fruit? The world may never know. I’m not in any mood to find out myself, because before this I was a virgin to making the classic rhubarb pie.
Okay, maybe I still am, since [...]

open face: roasted red pepper, basil and swiss cheese tops a homemade no-knead slice of bread

I can’t express enough what a good grilled sandwich-making bread the No-Knead Bread recipe makes. It’s just meant to be: the perfect crackling, lacy froth of bubbles around the bread’s crust that crisp up to a delicate network of texture, [...]

There’s always those nights when I’m craving something that feels like it’s from a greasy take-out restaurant. My creations never, thankfully, end up quite as greasy, and I hope it stays that way. I’m not sure that I would even know how to make food as greasy as some restaurants do — is it not [...]

Bartenders all over the city have been loving the lychee, so why can’t I? Especially in the summer months, when cool, juicy and sweet flavors rule. And especially when Sugar High Friday, the dessert food-blogging event created by The Domestic Goddess, is calling this month’s challenge theme “Shades of White”, hosted by Seven Spoons. I’m [...]

I can’t find anything bad to say about this pantry meal. I made it one night accidentally, when I was craving a light pasta dish with maybe a little sundried tomato and some fresh artichoke, neither of which my local Associated Market had. It was getting late, and I didn’t feel up for walking much [...]

If I had my way with space, I’d have three different types of basil growing in my front yard (okay, my apartment building’s front patch of grass). This would have to include the ubiquitous Italian variety, with its shiny, fat teardrop-shaped leaves. As well as the purple basil which I’ve been eyeing and smelling at [...]

Moms love French food. Soufflés make her sparkle. Provençal sounds like a good name for a kid to her. Bistros are her preferred bar. The allure of this country’s culinary je ne sais quois can might coincide with a vast generation clued in to its mysteries and virtues by a tall, warbly-voiced, and ever so [...]

No seasonal food taboos can get between me and my favorite Italian rice dish (are there any others?): risotto is delicious year-round. It simply absorbs the season into its gooey mass and holds it there snug like a mother kangaroo. Lemon? Sure. Crisp spring vegetables like sugar snap peas, juicy zucchini and fresh chopped scallions? [...]

Gosh, this blog can be so one-sided. How sick are you of hearing nonstop touting of the institution of cooking and eating in? Sometimes even I am. Which is why I decided to have a chat on the topic with my good friend Jordan, who once confessed to me a few months after moving into [...]

As I was celebrating the shameless drinking holiday oft misunderstood as Mexico’s Independence Day this weekend, I learned that a) Cinco de Mayo is not even terribly important in Mexico, and that b) it was mostly invented by American spring breakers crossing the border to get wasted, so says a friend who happens to be [...]

Two summers ago I tried to grow basil, parsley, dill and another herb I can no longer remember in small pots placed on my old apartment window ledge. They didn’t make it very long. Some, which I had decided to plant from seeds, were never even born. The whole dirt-caked affair was so sorry that [...]

Excerpted from “Easy Riser,” currently in newsstands the May 2007 issue of Vogue:
“… most contestants at the bake-off at the Brooklyn Kitchen flavored their breads heavily; I’ll admit to enjoying one made with cracked pepper and potato water… ”
That would be mine! Wow — I feel incredible. (Does my hair look okay?)