• Diana’s Birthday Lunch at Bouchon

    Diana’s Birthday Lunch at Bouchon

    Taking someone out to lunch on their birthday is always a treat because, when you really think about it, you’re taking yourself out to lunch too. So, a few weeks ago, on my friend Diana’s birthday, I told her to meet me at Coffee Commissary on Fairfax at 12 PM on the dot. From there,…

  • FOMIM: Fear of Missing Important Meals (While Traveling)

    FOMIM: Fear of Missing Important Meals (While Traveling)

    It’s a very privileged problem to have, let’s acknowledge that out of the gate. Most people in this world who are worrying about food are worrying about how to get enough on to the table, not how to eat the very best the world has to offer while flitting about. Again, let me be the…

  • How To Host An Indoor Clambake

    How To Host An Indoor Clambake

    My usual dinner party process goes like this: a day or two before a dinner party, I grab a handful of cookbooks off my towering cookbook shelf and casually thumb through them. The goal is not to frantically search for the perfect recipe, it’s to let the perfect recipe come to me. Usually that happens…

  • How Would You Spend 24 Hours in Paris?

    How Would You Spend 24 Hours in Paris?

    You all have been so helpful so far planning my European trip (I can’t believe we leave in two weeks!) and now I have a new challenge for you. My good friends Mark and Diana will be in Paris while I’m in London and I’ve decided to take that chummy old Chunnel to visit them…

  • Tangerine Sour Cream Pound Cake

    Tangerine Sour Cream Pound Cake

    I have a theory that Starbucks has heightened our tolerance for bad, sad pastries. There’ve been moments in my life, at an airport, at a rest stop, where I break down and order a slice of a Starbucks lemon pound cake to go with my coffee. It tastes fine. It’s not bad. It’s sweet, cakey,…

  • Bruschetta with Homemade Ricotta, Roasted Yellow Peppers, and Green Garlic

    Bruschetta with Homemade Ricotta, Roasted Yellow Peppers, and Green Garlic

    So once you have your homemade ricotta, the next question is: what to do with it? Me, I decided to be ultra-spontaneous. Well mostly spontaneous. On Saturday, I bought a nice loaf of bread, made the ricotta, left it overnight in the refrigerator to drain. Then, on Sunday, with dinner guests coming at 5:30, I…

  • Ricotta Worth Making At Home

    Ricotta Worth Making At Home

    Confession: I’ve made ricotta at home before and found the experience underwhelming. True, the process couldn’t be easier, but after dumping a gallon of milk into a pot, adding some lemon juice, turning up the heat, waiting for everything to separate, and straining out the solid stuff in a colander, I wound up with the…

  • Your Edinburgh, London, Munich, and Berlin Tips

    Your Edinburgh, London, Munich, and Berlin Tips

    Wild news: Craig’s movie is screening at the Edinburgh Film Festival in three weeks, then he goes to the Nantucket film festival, and back to Europe for the Munich film festival. The best part? Edinburgh is flying me out too, so I can join him in Munich as long as I make my way back…

  • My New Favorite Summer Dessert: Shaved Ice and Ice Cream and Fruit at Mr. Boba

    My New Favorite Summer Dessert: Shaved Ice and Ice Cream and Fruit at Mr. Boba

    When people enthuse about something they ate, it’s always a good idea to pay attention. For example, two weeks ago I was at Park’s BBQ in Koreatown with our friends Jim and Jess, and also our friends Jimmy and Raef, and as we were fighting over grilled pieces of rib-eye and skirt steak, Jim mentioned…

  • Entranced By Transferware!

    Entranced By Transferware!

    It started innocently enough. I Tweeted a picture of a serving dish from The Hart and the Hunter and asked, “If I want to find a plate like this on E-Bay, what would I search for?” (OK, ending a sentence with a preposition isn’t so innocent, but go with me here.) A few people responded:…