Author: cia
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When Melissa Clark of The New York Times published this recipe, I read it over and over until I completely understood the process. I needed to make sure that making a crumb cake won’t require a Kitchen Air mixer. I don’t have one because I rarely bake, but the Dr. absolutely loves any type of…
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A month ago, my neighborhood supermarket had a lemon sale. I bought a wholeload but didn’t really know what to do with a lot of them except to preserve them for a future chicken tagine dish. I was already pickling like a maniac, so why not? Ingredients: 4 whole lemons juice of 4 other lemons…
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From the Dr., I learned how to order and drink martinis. When we were at Applewood in Brooklyn last year, he ordered their pearl onion martini. The onion flavor was strong, but it made for a perfect drink after a stressful day at work. Any new obsession costs money, so I infused my own vodka…
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108 East 4th Street between First and Second Avenues 212/228.4885 about $170 for two tasting menus with wine pairings, without tip ♥ ♥ ♥ It’s almost unheard of in New York City to pay $45 for a six-course tasting menu. At Knife + Fork, chef and owner Damien Brassel pulls it off without sacrificing taste…
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I don’t really use a food processor because one of the things I love about cooking is the actual process of getting all the ingredients together and preparing them for the actual cooking. But for this Filipino pickles recipe, or achara, I was thankful that my mother owned one. I chopped the papaya and the…
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I never thought I’d eat the best Reuben sandwich in Princeton, New Jersey. We drank until 4am during the reunion party, so we were naturally hungry after only a few hours’ sleep. We stopped by Olives to look for breakfast but instead we salivated and bought a big lunch. A Reuben sandwich is made of…
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Tony tore a page off his psychiatrist’s copy of Departures magazine before he got kicked out of her office. The page had a steak recipe on it. And after the bloodbath in The Sopranos last night, I could only think of eating a thick rib-eye steak for dinner. After an hour of push-ups, lunges and…
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I love endives in the spring. It may feel like summer in New York City, but the spring vegetables are still available in the market. When I’m in the mood for beef, I can’t help but serve a medium-rare steak with grilled vegetables. It’s too hot to be using the oven for longer than ten…
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All the herbs in this salsa verde, or green sauce, recipe is available in the spring and early summer. Wash them thoroughly and you can make almost two cups. I put mine in a small glass jar my father picked up from Ikea and stored it in the fridge for up to a week. It’s…
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We ran from the NJ Transit train to the Dinky platform in the rain while the bright, white lights flashed against the dark sky. I’ve never seen lightning like that before; never seen them flash one right after the other. For a moment, I wondered where I was. Was this really New Jersey? Cameron and…
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I walked to my desk this morning and a box was waiting. Anna sent me my annual supply of greens from her garden. There were two Ziploc-fulls of arugula and of Japanese mizuna. There was also a bunch of ginger-mint leaves. Chives and Texas tarragon were also included. They were an absolutely nice surprise to…
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This recipe was adapted from one of my favorite cookbooks, The Babbo Cookbook, from one of my favorite chefs, Mario Batali. He used bavette, a thin, ribbon-shaped pasta, but I substituted spaghetti instead because it was all I had handy. He also used jalapeño pesto, but I doubled the amount of red chili flakes from…