Surviving the Holidays
One day my kindergarten teacher put some clay out for us to play with. I was thrilled until some boys started flinging it at each other. I crept outside to hide by the milk machine. The milk machine stood just outside the classroom door. It was tall and cool and…
Marble Pound Cake
The past week saw your hostess dealing with rodents in kitchen (that screaming you heard? it was me), and a near automobile accident. The other driver–who was at fault–attempted to confront me. (That screaming you heard? It was me.) This driver, who was backing out of a parking lot…
Recipe failures and other disasters
The IK has been woefully quiet of late, and not for lack of interest. It’s at times like this that I recall David Lebovitz, who writes of having a 40-post backlog. This must be a source of confidence, virtual money in the bank, as it were. (It’s also a fine way…
Recipe Failures
Hi–it’s been a while. Sorry for that. The above is a banana blossom. Either you’re totally familiar with these or you’ve never seen one in your life. Until recently, I fell into the latter camp. Banana blossoms are beautiful, so of course I wanted to try cooking with one. To…
Pasta, peas, and proscuitto
Never has writing about food felt more futile, privileged, or frankly ridiculous. Having said that, capitulate and the bad guys win. We don’t want that. Here are some ways to help: The American Civil Liberties Union Moveon.org raicestexas.org National Immigrant Justice Center/Immigrantjustice.org Amnesty International — Pasta, peas, and prosciutto began…
After Anthony (Macau-Style Pork Burgers)
Anthony Bourdain’s recipes were so deeply enmeshed in my kitchen life that I gave them little thought, which is to say I took them, and their author, for granted. I don’t apologize for that. It didn’t make me feel any better when I heard the news. — Macau-Style Pork Burgers…
Mexican-Style Ground Beef
Mexican-style ground beef–a terrible title for an excellent dish–came about by accident. So many recipes do around here. After a recipe fail, a plumbing mishap, and the last-minute cancellation of oral surgery, dinnertime had the temerity to roll around. Your hostess was on prep duty. Of course. The IK currently…
The Wacky Cake: Not My Grandmother’s Bundt
Bill LeBlond, editorial director of Chronicle Books, once told a crowd at a cookbook proposal seminar that if he had to read one more book proposal from people who learned about cooking at their grandmothers’ knee, he would throw up. Dianne Jacob, Will Write For Food I spent a lot…
(Fake) Thai Drunken Noodles
Why Fake Thai Drunken Noodles? Well, I’ve never been to Thailand. (And how I long to go.) And it must be sadly admitted that, much as I passionately love Asian food, I am a Eastern European Jew, through and through. (In the past two weeks, we’ve had some rain…which led…
Miniature Chocolate Cakes
Years ago, while writing an article on holiday cookies, I consulted The Martha Stewart Living Christmas Cookbook. Stewart assume a readership whose kitchens are stocked like a Sur Le Table outlet: cake pans in every possible size and shape, pizza stones, candy thermometers, pastry bags, sugar combs, a willing staff ready to…