It’s just barely March. The temperature is rising, the snow is melting, and all along the sidewalks, the Christmas trees are appearing once again. Frozen under snowbanks all season long, the detritus of winter is emerging. After one of the hardest winters on record, the trash is what’s left over. In my fridge, leftovers abound […]

When my Mamma was growing up, almost no one cooked with olive oil. When I was growing up, no one baked with lard. Our family’s transition from butter to margarine and back again was repeated millions of times across the country in the 1980s and 90s, when studies on the adverse effects of trans fats […]

As part of my comfort-chic food philosophy, I love the challenge of uplifting childhood favorites and forgotten veggies to star status. Since I’ve been counting down my foodie faves from 2010 and predicting 2011’s upcoming culinary trends, I’d like to revisit one of winter’s most venerable and most deplored (depending upon the age of who […]

The holidays have come and gone, and jolly ol’ Saint Nick has already made his way up your walk-ups, through your fire escapes, and dodged your doormen to drop his pressies and make it back to the North Pole in time for New Year’s. I hope you all got what you wished for and kept […]

It’s no news that I try to eat the foods that are freshest as the seasons change, and in New York City, eating seasonally makes for delicious treats to look forward to throughout the year: tomatoes in summer, ramps in spring, and squash of all kinds when the leaves start to turn crimson in fall. […]