Carrots get a bad rap. Though delicious and nutritious, their omnipresence and bright color often lumps them into the category of “childhood snack”. Raw carrots are the territory of preschool sandwich baggies; though obviously, carrots for adults do exist–I just don’t see them on menus as often as I might like. I’m trying to change [...]

There are four little words that send my culinary thinking cap into a frenzy. “How can I use…” is a simple statement that begs to be explored with more sentiment. Whether it’s something widely recognized like spring’s first wild ramps, or something kooky like caped gooseberries, when I spot fresh produce at the farmers’ market [...]

January 20th, 2011

Market Report: Brussels Sprouts

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 [...]

After 87 and sunny in Puerto Rico, and 50 and frigid in The Buff, I returned to New York this week to feel Fall in all her crisp-cool, golden-glowy glory. And damn did she feel good! I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, “My favorite season is fall. I’m a New Yorker; it’s [...]

September 10th, 2010

Market Report: Shishito Peppers

To honor the passing of summer, last week Erin and her man invited me and Mr. Mixologist to their new apartment for a summer’s sunset double date. As we watched the stars twinkle and the mosquitoes buzz around our “Off” sprayed arms and legs from their wooded, rooftop perch, we munched on one of my [...]

Still bouncing off my summer buzz of everything USA—Team USA, 4th of July, vacas to Vermont, Newport and Colorado, and a recent bike ride over the bridge and into Billyburg for spectacular soul food at Pies ‘n’ Thighs—I decided to co-host a polka-dot themed girl’s night with my Tribe. Using Nini’s apartment and my fervor [...]

I may be a chef and a foodie, but one of my favorite meals has always been bread and butter. Though I was not a finicky child, on those nights that our family ate “grown up food” I would be allowed, assuming I’d at least tried my meal and finished enough of the vegetables, to [...]

May 3rd, 2010

Market Report: Rampage

It seems like only a few days ago that I noticed the first crocus buds poking up from the earth of sidewalk plots. Thin spears of daffodils followed, and by Easter, New Yorkers lucky enough to boast gardens were awash with hyacinths and narcissus. And then, quietly and suddenly, the trees exploded into a riot [...]

March 22nd, 2010

Market Report: Lala Land

As poets, gardeners and schoolchildren know, spring is a time of awakening and release. Snow melts, coats are shed and newly manicured toes start appearing on the street. It is relief, a literal breath of fresh air through the first opened window of the year, a lifting of the mantle of darkness that enveloped us [...]

March 17th, 2010

Champignon, je t’aime

I was walking down Broadway in the historic rain that threatened my birthday celebrations last weekend, when I was suddenly filled with an urge for mushrooms on toast. Enjoyed sometime in my past, the taste of this dish was strong in my mouth, dense, savory and pungent, but the memory itself evaded me. Baffled but [...]

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