Really, now? Fennel pie? Are you going to eat (and cook) that? I asked myself these same things, too. And while I was making this pie, at the Photojojo Food Photo Safari on Sunday, I heard many similar concerns from lookers-on. (I told you winter was a tricky time of year for finding seasonal pie [...]

Oh my god. My stove and oven won’t work. I’m dying — I’m going to die. Any second now. I’m sweating. I’m pacing around the kitchen like Woody Allen in Hannah and Her Sisters when he realizes that he’s eventually going to die. Is there no saving grace in the universe, to make our miserable [...]

Happy holidays, food lovers. I hope everyone’s had their fill of celebratory treats both sweet and savory. No? Well, there’s another holiday coming up in a few days, the eclipse of 2008, but that one’s less about food (or holiness) than drink. Perhaps you, like I, are still looking forward to serious snacking on New [...]

Sometimes, I have an internal speedometer going on when cooking at home. Twice in the past few weeks I made a batch of these cookies in record time, before taking off to bring them to holiday house parties. Even when I’m not in any rush, I get a keen satisfaction out of completing a (good) [...]

There’s no place like Brooklyn for the holidays. I’m sticking around this year, except for a Christmas trip over to Jersey. And if you’re also kicking it in NYC, then there’s plenty of fun to be had. Specifically, this fantastic day of food and photography that my friends at Photojojo, the Whisk & Ladle Supper [...]

Did someone say “Christmas goose”? It seems to be echoing in the minds of many this time of year. But as Tom eloquently warns, it’s not always the home cook’s best call (listen to this guy – he’s a butcher). My mom will not let my dad forget the Christmas when he, spurred by Dickensian [...]

Thanks to everyone who submitted their original, thoughtful and personal Reason for Not Eating Out #27 entries! There were so many good reasons among them — including avoiding the “drunken riff-raff” or the walloping calories of Southern eaten-out specialties. I go the sense that a lot of you are bloggers trapped in a busy person’s [...]

It’s official: My diet is heading into a recession. Chocolate, bacon and cheese — three deadly food sins. The Devil’s Triangle, if you will. All in one sugary, buttery package. Oh, what are we waiting for?

‘Tis the weekend to get some gifts! It seems like no media outlet can resist offering their two cents on budget-friendly holiday gifts this season. (I’m listening to Sound Check right now doling out their musical gift picks.) And this year, neither can I.
I usually don’t dish about gift-giving, or other modes of culturally forced [...]

“Honey, I want to see where they make the lite cream cheese” is one of my favorite lines in that irresistibly silly Christopher Guest mockumentary, Best in Show. A wife says it to her husband after he suggests visiting “the place where they make the cream cheese” in Philadelphia. This is the way I feel [...]

Get ready to drool at all the made-at-home marvels on Bon Appétit today. They’ve just launched their first-ever Blog Envy feature, a slideshow of holiday recipes from food blogs all around — and my cranberry Thai curry duck breast (a few posts below) made the cut! My envy of the moment among them — and [...]

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has this tendency: to fall in love with a certain vegetable for about a week’s worth of nonstop eating at a time, then move onto the next affair. A few weeks ago this happened with beets. Afterward, it was sweet potatoes, roasted simply, with no salt and [...]

What’s more fun than cooking, learning and eating together spectacularly? If you’re someone like me, the answer is nothing. If you’re someone like Michael J. Cirino, founder of the educational workshop and supper club A Razor, A Shiny Knife – no wait, scratch that. There is no one on the planet like Michael J. Cirino. [...]

I was reading one of my favorite kill-time-with-funny blogs, Passive Aggressive Notes, today when I came across this post.

For those not familiar with the blog, readers from all around can submit notes and other examples of passive aggressive (or just aggressive)-ness in action so that everyone can laugh at someone’s petty tyrancy. After the giggles [...]

The culinary concept of “Asian fusion” is one that both excites and troubles me. It’s sparsely defined (there is no Wikipedia entry for it), and it sometimes can mean a melding of different Asian cuisines, or a hybrid of East-West tastes. Understood in the latter sense, I find that I really do enjoy so [...]

Cauliflower: it’s great pickled, it makes a delicious cream soup, and a prize-winning casserole. It’s tasty when stir-fried with Indian spices, near-invisible tossed into risottos, and it mixes amicably in salads, raw or lightly steamed. Is there anything you can’t do with this versatile veggie? Okay, so maybe we’re not on board with an ice [...]