12/06/12 • POPOVERS WITH A PLUS Adapted from the Dec., 2012 Bon Appétit Many years ago, when I was around 3 or 4 years old, my parents decorated the eating area in our house with a hilarious poster of a smiling, middle-aged Asian guy holding a sandwich he’d presumably just taken a bite out of. Above his head were the words, “You don’t have to be Jewish,” and below it the phrase’s now famous kicker: “to love Levy’s re

11/29/12 • BANANA BREAD UNBOUND Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Although this posting is nominally about banana bread, in a larger sense it’s also about cravings, since that’s the category for me in which this particular item falls. Of course, we all have certain foods we find ourselves yearning for from time-to-time, it’s just that some of us (arrow pointed to self here) seem to have more cravings than others—a

11/23/12 • OATMEAL, ACCELERATED Adapted from the Sept./Oct., 2012 Cook’s Illustrated I’m going to keep this posting brief since between the enormous meal you’ve likely just consumed, the multitude of leftovers now residing in your fridge, and all the cooking you’ve had to do to get here, this probably isn’t the ideal moment for diving into some long-winded evaluation of a new recipe—no matter how stellar the results.

11/15/12 • PATÉ TO THE HIGHEST POWER! Adapted from the Nov., 2003 Gourmet Since this is a posting in which the star ingredient is none other than chicken livers, I should probably start by acknowledging one important detail: I’m not much of a liver lover. In fact, “not much” is putting it mildly—it would be more accurate to say I have a powerful aversion to the stuff. As someone who’s always been happy to eat pretty

11/08/12 • CRACKING THE PESTO CEILING Adapted from the Oct., 2012 Bon Appétit In the days leading up to last week’s big event, otherwise known as Hurricane Sandy, my big concern was the sort of food I’d need on hand once the storm blew in. Unsure whether the power would stay on, I doubled my money (or rather my outlay of it), filling the fridge with things like milk, cheese, eggs, and chicken parts, and the cupboards

10/25/12 • COMFORT FOOD, CUBAN-STYLE Adapted from the April, 2012 Saveur Many years ago, early on in my relationship with Alfredo, he took me to eat at an inexpensive Cuban restaurant on 8th Avenue—a narrow, brightly lit place called Havana Chelsea. This was to be my big introduction to Cuban cooking, the cuisine Alfredo had grown up eating, and it was something I was looking forward to. What I hadn’t anticipated, ho

10/18/12 • D.I.Y. DEEP-DISH PIZZA Adapted from Lidia’s Italy in America, by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Tania Bastianich Manuali (Knopf) One of my earliest memories is of throwing a tantrum so epic that despite reasoning, pleading, and finally multiple angry warnings, my mom had no choice but to haul me out of the West Philadelphia swim club where we were spending our Sunday afternoon and drag me home. The reason

10/11/12 • DEVILISH EGG SALAD Adapted from the May, 2012 Bon Appétit As a kid any number of things could make an appearance in my lunchbox that would immediately cause me to slam it shut, or propel me to the nearest trash can (lest any of my classmates catch sight of the offending item and start their humiliating chorus of Ewwwwwwwww!s). Among these reactive items: liverwurst, Brie and onions on a baguette (my mom wa

10/04/12 • PERFECT PLUM TORTE Adapted from the Sept., 1997 Gourmet Several months ago, back when the AC was set to “high” each day and the sun was still out when I’d tuck into dinner, I stumbled across this recipe for a plum and hazelnut torte. It’s a dessert with a decidedly fall flavor, in large part because it calls for Empress plums—which are only available in the very early autumn—but also because it just looks

09/27/12 • WEEKNIGHT CHICKEN WINNER From the August, 2012 Bon Appetit (click here to view the recipe) When the August issue of Bon Appetit arrived in my mailbox several months ago I did what I always do when one of the new cooking magazines arrives—I immediately ripped into it to see if there was anything that spoke to me. Usually this is a fast flip-through, followed by a more thorough examination when time allows.