photo by Tim Ireland

I like to cook. I like to learn about new dishes and how they’re made, and try to cook them. I don’t always do a good job of it, and I haven’t had any formal culinary training.

From September 2006-September 2008, I went AWOL from eating restaurant, take-out, or street stand food throughout the five boroughs of New York City. While becoming an office brown-bag (actually, reusable tote) queen and eating pretty much only food prepared by myself, I tried to explore other avenues of “not eating out” — diving into dumpsters, foraging for edible weeds, cooking for communal dinners and supper clubs, and throwing or participating in amateur cook-offs and events.

This is [still] a blog about not eating out in New York. You can read more about why I started it all here, and each month I post a new “Reason of the Month” for not eating out. I sometimes profile prolific people with a passion for home cooking and spotlight local markets and farms. In 2009, I co-founded the supper club The Hapa Kitchen, which sources local food for East-West interpretations at monthly dinner events.

The recipes on this blog are all original and have been tested in my kitchen here in Brooklyn. The ones you’ll see are only those which are, in my opinion, good enough to make one not miss eating out (save for the occasional disaster). Hey, they’ve kept me going this long. There are plenty of vegetarian entries, though I myself eat — and cook — just about everything, from tripe to sea cucumber, and try to do so seasonally, locally, sustainably, cost-efficiently and healthily while I’m at it.

Write to me at cathy[at]noteatingoutinny.com

I also write a green-focused blog at The Huffington Post. For more pics of food and other randomness, see my Flickr photostream.

“None can be an impartial or wise observer of human life but from the vantage point of what we should call voluntary poverty.”

–Henry David Thoreau, Walden