For the fourth time in as many years, I'm going to spend the last weekend of June packing up boxes, carrying heavy couches down stairwells, and figuring out whether the odd Ikea piece of furniture is really worth the effort of moving. I already cooked my last meal on the well worn stove (had to be the shrimp etouffee ), and will now be living on bagels and sandwiches. This time next wee...
I thought I knew everything there was to know about salsa. Tomatoes, garlic, onions, jalapenos, lime juice, salt. Chop, mix, serve. It’s an enormous pain, but the alternative (jarred salsa) just doesn’t compare. Taking the time to chop is a noble pursuit.
That was until Blake visited last weekend. What he threw together in a matter of minutes turned blood red and clung to every chip l...
Before this point in my life--some 24 years in--I’d never willingly eaten cauliflower. Sure, it'd been sneaked into some of my dishes. But I know for a fact that it has not played an integral role in any dish I’ve ever made. A quick scan of our directory reveals only 1 mention of its name, and that was for a curried cauliflower dish that we didn’t even cook! One of Blake’s form...
A glistening can of Busch doesn’t excite many culinary possibilities in my mind. Had we not been tempted by fate, that sad can of piss-beer probably would have sat undisturbed in the fridge for a long, long time. But the events were right for a breakthrough. I feel safe in saying that this little can of beer fulfilled its highest culinary possibility.
It was the last thing I expected to...
Before beginning even the most basic of recipes, I usually consult a few dozen cookbooks and online sources to make sure I’m not missing some essential technique I’d skipped the previous dozen or so times I made the meal. It's a compulsory action, one that drives other people nuts, and very often myself. But I just want to make absolutely positively sure that I'm doing something that r...
So, I’d been eating too much meat. After days of centering every single meal around some big cut, I realized it was time for a little break. There aren’t too many times in my life that I can honestly say this, but what I wanted was zucchini. And for those in need of a zucchini recipe, there really is only one place to go: Chocolate and Zucchini .
This adoring blog is in no need of mo...
"That's it?" you might be saying. But yes. This is a recipe for broccoli. Well, roasted broccoli. I did salt that beef lurking around out of focus in the background for hours, submerge it in lukewarm water for another hour, and sear it at high heat. But the broccoli was better. Even the stems were great. Long relegated to second class citizens to the beautiful florets up top, whe...
A couple months ago I was eating at Otto , which is the place to bring friends who are visiting: a bit touristy, but very affordable; good to great food that’s easy to share; and most importantly, they have olive oil gelato , which floors just about everyone who tries it. One thing we always do is order lots of the $4 vegetable dishes, like tiny radishes with anchovy-mustard sauce, o...
It's the food I never really think about, yet can't help but order. While everyone else is thinking about fries or onion rings, whenever I hit a diner for some reason the one thing I want is coleslaw. Maybe it just has the appearance of being a vegetable dish in a fried food haven, but it seems a cool retreat for all the hot food.
The problem with coleslaw is that it can often feel like t...
Sometimes all you can hope for at the end of a long day is a little bit of harmony. Whether through yoga, walking your dog, or blasting Bona Drag , you find it and somehow the day washes away. Often I find this harmony by cooking (sometimes with the Morrissey at the same time)--a chance to relax, create, and then have something delicious to show for it. I have a recipe that, while dec...