A year ago today, I took my heart in my hands and wrote the first post of this little blog of mine. While the idea of you going back and reading my first posts kind of makes me wants to stick small pins in my eye, it’s pretty thrilling to still be here one year…

Despite the best intentions, the closest I came to cooking in Maine was pouring myself a bowl of cereal. So I’ve got little to report, food-wise, besides some tales of delicious cinnamon-scented blueberry pie, lobster rolls gobbled up while overlooking the ocean, and a home-cooked amalgam of two Bourdain steak recipes yesterday in Providence that…

What a week it’s been. Books were read, new swimsuits were purchased, berries were picked, families were bonded, mosquitos attacked, a wedding was attended, much suntanning occurred, and it all happened far too fast. I’m a lucky girl to have such an idyllic haven in Italy. Saying goodbye is absolutely wretched. In an attempt to…

I have absolutely nothing to tell you about cooking-wise, because I spent the entire weekend devouring this book. It is the best thing I’ve read all year, and, people, I read for a living. Bill Buford, the former fiction editor for The New Yorker, worked as an unpaid grunt in Mario Batali’s kitchen at Babbo…

Despite the incessant rain over New York City, last night's dinner called for something light and colorful and nutritious: a counterbalance to a weekend of baked beans and chocolate, and the perfect dinner-for-one. The recipe comes from the chef at Jer-ne in Marina del Rey and was printed in an LA Times article about the…

To those of you who have a waning interest in my childhood and how it came to be that I spent much time in Germany with my mother and yet also a large amount of time in Massachusetts with my father, let me tell you that it's far too complicated and long-winded to explain on…

Would you like to know what disaster looks like? This is what disaster looks like. Those shredded bits of feta and herbs were meant to bake up into crispy brown rounds to be nibbled on with a glass of wine as an appetizer at an easy Sunday dinner last night in Queens. Instead, I found…

Or, How To Screw Up a Muffin While Being a Scatterbrain and Still Have It Taste Good. Last Thanksgiving, I apparently had a death wish and made three pies for our Thanksgiving gathering. It was enough to make my head explode, what with all the delicate pastry and oven usage orchestration and innacurate cooking times…

When it comes to Mark Bittman's recipes, I'm beginning to feel like that girl (you know) whose boyfriend is just not that in to her. At first Mark was just this really cute guy, you know? With an adorable nickname and lots of friends and whatever. Then I got to know him a little better…

If you’re near a computer with high-speed Internet on Saturday afternoon (or evening, depending on where you live), tune in to Tom Douglas‘s radio show on 710 KIRO Seattle to hear an interview I did with Tom and his friend Thierry last week. Their show is on from 4pm to 8pm, Pacific time. My segment…