06/04/13 • MARINATED SUMMER VEGETABLES From the June, 2013 Bon Appétit It’s funny, but as much as I like eating vegetables (I do, I really do!) when it comes to selecting recipes for this site they’re just about the last thing I want to make. For one thing, my preferred method of preparation typically involves little more than steam, fresh lemon juice, and a lot of butter, which doesn’t exactly make for the most usef

05/28/13 • CHICKEN CUTLETS WITH TOMATOES From the June/July, 2013 Fine Cooking There’s nothing like the anticipation of big events in your life (and the arrival of your 5th decade!) to spur change, which I suppose explains why Alfredo and I have recently made some alterations to our way of doing things—specifically in the realm of food. This isn’t the first time we’ve made such tweaks but it is the only occasion I ca

05/14/13 • PASTA PRIMAVERA Adapted from Canal House Cooking, Vol. no. 3 (winter and spring) Repeat a phrase often enough and it’s bound to lose something of its original meaning. Such is the case with pasta primavera, a dish that originated to celebrate and spotlight spring’s early glories, but that today has come to mean pretty much any pasta dish featuring pretty much any vegetable, regardless of seasonality. Of co

05/07/13 • GLUTEN-FREE GRIDDLE CAKES From the May, 2013 Bon Appétit When I was a kid one of the few things my dad cooked was pancakes, an event that tended to happen on Sunday mornings, but infrequently enough that it was still cause for excitement. As with a lot of men of his generation, making pancakes (along with barbecuing) was one of the few cooking tasks that fell within his domain, which makes me wonder what t

04/30/13 • BRAISED LAMB SHANKS From the Jan., 2013 Bon Appetit In its idealized state eating good food for me is not just about carving out a quiet space in which to savor something I love, but also a time to enjoy the company of friends, or myself, or even that TV series I can’t wait to tune into each week. I say idealized because while that frame of quietude may be the goal, as often as not I find myself wolfing so

04/16/13 • VIETNAMESE PANCAKES From the March, 2013 Food and Wine The arrival of warmer weather—or even the promise of it—invariably starts me yearning for the sort of spicy, exotic food I might encounter on a far-flung adventure somewhere. Most of the time it’s an urge I satisfy with a visit to a favorite Indian or Korean restaurant (I have a serious weakness for kimchee), though increasingly I’m experimenting with

04/09/13 • GARLICKY FRIED CHICKEN (& 100th POSTING!) Adapted from the Sept., 2005 Gourmet It felt like something special was in order for this, my 100th posting, and as luck would have it, the date aligned with another important milestone: the fortieth birthday of our good friend Dennis. I’ve mentioned Dennis often over the past few years, both because Alfredo and I spend so much of our time with him, and because

03/29/13 • CREAM SCONES From the April/May, 2013 Fine Cooking Ninety-nine postings ago—back when I first started this blog to be precise—I’d often define my vision for the site by jokingly telling friends the one thing it would never include: a scone recipe. (I know; hilarious.) At the time I genuinely felt like scones were overplayed in the U.S. (I still do, actually), which wouldn’t have mattered much except for th

03/21/13 • ITALIAN VEGETABLE STEW Adapted from the March, 2013 Bon Appétit Last month I attended a friend’s birthday dinner, and seated to both my left and my right were vegetarians. Ten years ago I could count on one hand the number of people I knew who had eliminated meat from their diet, and now I was surrounded by them! Of course, the same scenario could just as easily have occurred in the ’90s. But the chances o

03/14/13 • FIG AND OLIVE TAPENADE Adapted from the March, 2013 Food and Wine I’m not really one to complain about the weather. I grew up in Philadelphia, so winters that are cold, damp, and gray strike me as being part of the natural rhythm of things—the bargain you make for those warmer, sunnier months. This is actually a source of some conflict between Alfredo and me. As a child of Miami’s sunshine he tends to take