Cuisine. Culture. Commentary.
I’m a big fan of Trader Joe’s demos. All they ever do is take two of their products that aren’t supposed to go together and show you that, yes, they are perfect together. I don’t know who thinks up these combos – probably a stoner stock boy – but they are almost always great and…
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Meatpacking has quite the brunch scene. Every once in a while, it’s great to get dressed up like you’re going to a club and dance on tables in the early afternoon…and then you realize you just spent an entire paycheck and it’s not even dark out. You’ve got quite the dilemma: you want to experience…
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Langoustine is basically baby lobster. Baby lobster comes at baby prices so STOCK UP! A bag of langostino tails at Trader Joe’s costs about $9 and just need to be defrosted. So easy for something so fancy. I could throw lobster in just about anything, but for my first recipe, I wanted to pile it high…
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The words “pizza school” were all I needed to hear to clear my schedule so on Thursday evening I went to the Lower East Side with some co-workers for an evening of pizza making at Pizza a Casa. There, Neil taught us how to make dough, a 60-second sauce, and some fun topping combos. The…
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Cooking with seasonal ingredients takes advantage of when produce is at its best. There’s usually more flavor, it can be more cost efficient, and it just feels more genuine. Each month I’ll cook a dish showcases and in-season ingredient. Leeks seem boring to some people, but I happen to like their mild onion flavor and the…
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A few years ago, truffle oil was all the rage. The world’s passion has since subsided, and I feel like its use is now almost considered a little bougie. I don’t think we should abandon it entirely, we just have to be more conservative. Since I haven’t cooked with it in several years, it was…
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At a recent party I wanted to make a dish that was a play on the phrase “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” so obviously it had to incorporate Ritz crackers. A quick Google search led me to this recipe for Ritz Cracker Toffee Bark. Did everyone know it was this simple to make toffee? It’s just…
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I’ve never roasted grapes, nor did I think it was really even possible. The grapes get soft and wrinkly, and while I don’t look forward to that happening to my skin, it was a nice change of pace for the fruit. Usually when fruit is cooked down like this, the sweetness is amplified, but roasting…
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When my sister-in-law first came to visit New York, she made the required pilgrimage to a bagel shop and was appalled to hear the girl in front of her order a scooped bagel. “SHE’S WASTING THE BEST PART” she hissed at my brother. …And that’s how my sister-in-law had her first run in with the…
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I love that spaghetti squash is the kind of vegetable where you can just mix in all sorts of different toppings. Not many vegetables can say that about themselves! Actually, no vegetable can ever say anything about itself…because they’re vegetables…and vegetables can’t talk…duh. Anyyyway, my latest spaghetti squash side dish is super simple: Scrape out…
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Peaches to Apples 