Thanks DJ, for sharing your mom’s recipe for squash rolls. DJ writes in an email that his mom makes these every Thanksgiving: “Oh and they don’t really end up tasting like squash, which is a major plus because they’re made from freezer squash, which is a cheap replacement for syrup of ipecac if you don’t have any handy.” Had to look that one up too–syrup of ipecac is a gag-inducing serum. Thanks!
Only until recently, during a trip to California, did I become aware that French Dip wasn’t something you dunk potato chips and veggies in, or that it wasn’t invented in France. There, it was a sandwich. Here, I decide to make one. The recipe that Ben’s mom provided for this was so tasty that I wonder why this side of the country hasn’t been so quick to catch on. I can just see the single-serving cups of au jus at … Read More
A co-worker of mine went apple picking and left me with a bag of crisp, juicy tart ones that seemed just right for baking. If there’s any dessert a (American) person should know how to make, it’s apple pie, and that’s something I’ve picked up in my days.
For my first Here’s Lookin’ at You Cook profile I had the lucky opportunity of dining with the multi-talented actor, writer, and home chef Bob McClure. You might recognize him from the critically acclaimed online TV show, The Burg, but you might be even more interested in his critically acclaimed family-owned pickle line, McClure’s Pickles. The kitchen of the well lived-in Williamsburg apartment that Bob shares with a roommate has all the tell-tale signs of tinkering: food processors and blenders … Read More
Not only do I not know how to make desserts, but tonight I’m faced with the task of making dessert for a vegan friend of mine, who’s having me over for dinner with her boyfriend. I did some brief scouring of vegan dessert recipes online and decided pretty early on that instead of all that substituting eggs and milk business, I was going to make something involving coconut milk, and probably Thai. I’d originally thought of Chinese dim sum coconut … Read More
This stir fry is just a really light, simple dish that you can make with any combination of ingredients. I would normally use chopped scallions instead of a sliced yellow onion, but I didn’t have any left. The sweetness of the regular onion, though, made up for a dash of sugar in the seasoning I may have added. I kept the flavors toned down because asparagus has such a fragile, light flavor–it was almost too simple that I’d wished I’d had a fresh … Read More
I meant to mention this cute article that was in the NY Times a week or so ago called “In Search of Grocery Gems.” In it, the author Julia Moskin discourses on a full cart-sized selection of packaged food products, finding most of them to be unsatisfactory, unhealthy, but a few of them, “gems.” Moskin does an admirable job of filtering out items with high fructose corn syrup and dismissing them–some surprising culprits including most of the cracker shelf. The items that she applauds, however, such … Read More
My friends Richard and Sam are my only local friends whose apartment has an actual yard with grass, a pretty spacious one, too. So naturally, they host barbecues all summer long. The last one I went to I was so busy preparing not one but two trays of homemade dumplings–veggie ones and pork–that I ended up getting there late, tired, and in the middle of a hot July, not even hungry. This weekend, I brought to their place the least … Read More
The name of the dish implies a little heat, so it might be a fun experiment to add some chopped, jarred jalepenos in the stuffing. But for now, here’s the recipe that I stick to wholeheartedly, one that never fails.