The Bacon Takedown: Holy Smokes

To all those tired of the pork belly and bacon food fad, I've got bad news for you. It's far from over. Anyone who might have walked within a one-block radius of Radegast Biergarten in Williamsburg sometime between 4:45-7pm yesterday would have seen the hoards of hungry bacon lovers lining up outside the bar ("Is this for the bacon festival?" I heard a lot of). When I arrived at the time the first-ever Bacon Takedown officially began there, 5pm, that line reached well down the block.

Lemon Thyme Bars

Just a simple twist on an old favorite. I love how a snip of fresh herbs spruces up just about anything. Visually, a sprinkle for garnish adds professional panache, and hidden somewhere in the dish, lends a lurking note of freshness. That goes for desserts as well.

A Day at Queens County Farm Museum

Spring is officially here, and to celebrate the first day of nature's annual renewal, I took a field trip out to a farm. Only I didn't leave the city. At the end of the E and F subway lines and a quick hop eastward on a bus lies the Queens County Farm Museum, the oldest continually farmed tract of land in the city, and now the site of a renewed agricultural program that's growing still. But unlike Stone Barns or similar close-to-urban country idylls, entrance to this farm is free.

The Chowder Slam results!

Thanks to fourteen chowders, it was warm and clammy in the back room of Jimmy's No. 43 on Saturday. Fifteen, if you counted the pot of Manhattan-style chowder that the restaurant's resident chefs cooked up as extra, which was still going strong by the end of the event and made a perfect straggler second-course. But the real battle was fought by the amateurs. This time, the cook-off community of NYC was drawn a wildcard dish du jour: chowder. And a mean chowder they responded with, which was for many of them their first try at cooking the dish.

Mini Mushroom Pies

I subscribe to the theory of "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade"; that is, cook your way through your problems. I'm faced with a terrible predicament at home: one of my best friends is moving away from our neighborhood halfway across the world, to Australia. I've known this for a few months, but it's finally begun to sink in. So for her going-away party, I thought I'd try my hand at miniature-sized, vegetarian-friendly versions of the savory treat to "celebrate."

New Amsterdam Market benefit chowder cook-off is tomorrow!

I do love a new cook-off! Tomorrow, a smattering of home chefs will be bringing their best to Jimmy's No. 43 in celebration of local, sustainable and artisanal foods which New Amsterdam Market vigorously supports, and winter's favorite soup: chowder. There may be few parameters on what makes a chowder just that, but no one can argue that the best chowders are usually chock full of chunks, every spoonful of the stuff a claustrophobic array of deliciousness. And that's probably just what the backroom at Jimmy's No. 43 will be like tomorrow from noon to 5pm.

Eating BBQ in Austin and Lockhart, TX

My brain is on BBQ. Smoked, slow-cooked meat has no doubt lodged itself deep into the heart of Texas. But until last weekend, it had never really captured the fancy of me, this New York-New Jersey girl with no Southern roots to speak of. Until, that is, I went to Texas.

Mascarpone Ice Cream (and “Deconstructed Tiramisu”)

Once upon a time, I thought that ice cream "flavors" were just flavoring added to plain, perhaps vanilla, ice cream. "Chocolate" was dabbed in from a vial labeled so along with some fudge-colored dye, and "Strawberry" got its juice in much the same way, save for a few streaks of seeded fruit in some versions of the ice cream. Of course there were the chocolate chips and chopped nuts of Rocky Roads and other stuff-studded ice creams, but the bases would be flavored all the same. It's funny how even in naiveté, you get some things right.

Sundried Tomato Pesto

Keepin' things simple this week. I can't argue with the freshness that a deep green basil pesto gives everything, but its intense red twin of sundried tomato is pretty sublime, too. A spoonful of this stuff is like sweetened condensed tomato; a drop of it in your risotto while it's cooking is like not really needing to reach for stock instead of water. Spread on bread or baked on pizza it'll make your mouth tingle. A drizzle will make any bowl of soup shine. There is such a thing as too much flavor, and that can come easily if you don't watch it with sundried tomato pesto.

Lemony Egg Salad with Basil and Capers

I will preface this by saying that I really wanted this recipe to be lemon and dill egg salad, but I couldn't find any dill today. Stuff happens. Anyway, when I was chatting with Kate McDonough of The City Cook just before our stint on the Brian Lehrer Show last Friday, she mentioned that among the cheap lunch ideas some of her acquaintances were getting back in the habit of making was egg salad. We agreed that, even though egg salad is unarguably at the bottom rung of the cold sandwich salads, a lot of people seemed to hold it dear. Like peanut butter and jelly, perhaps, the kind of food people love to eat when no one is looking. For better or for worse, this was never the case with me. But I suddenly remembered my former roommate's fondness for making egg salad sandwiches every month or so, due to unstoppable cravings.

It’s CSA Signing-Up Time!

Though it may not look like it after yesterday's snowstorm, spring is right around the corner. And, more local produce is just a few weeks from sprouting through the soil. If you want to experience the seasonal harvest from an intimate perspective (i.e. eat peas in June, blueberries in July), then a great way to do so if you don't have your own garden is to join a CSA. What's that? Community Supported Agriculture, essentially buying a share of a local farm to ensure both their survival, and your constant supply of healthy, earth-friendly and fresh produce.