I have made so many disappointing grilled, glazed pork tenderloins. They look so good and yet they never seem to work for me. I have the same relationship with J Crew clothes. Typically what happens is the glaze gets completely charred and never penetrates beyond...
Mediterranean-Style Portobello Burgers
If you want to serve something to the vegetarians in your life that will make the meat eaters drool, Pin this right now. It's an absolute star of a meatless entree that is no way an after-thought or an apology. As I was preparing this, and especially when I sat down...
Double Vanilla Butter Cake
Tis a gift to be simple, which, I know from Wikipedia, was written by Madonna. True story. This cake is culinary proof. It's just eggs, butter, flour, sugar and two kinds of vanilla: extract and bean paste. Cook it all in an 8" pan and eat and serve plain like a...
Sauteed Chicken Cutlets with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Of course we all know that a boneless, skinless chicken breasts are an excellent source of low-fat, healthy protein, but the thought of eating one is about as enticing as doing your taxes. It's very tricky to cook them all the way through without completely drying...
Plump and Tender Shrimp Cocktail
Do you long to be fancy but only in a fleeting way? Like, you'd like to fancy up some parts of your life but not go overboard and start making your bed everyday or anything crazy like that? Then let me say two word s to you: shrimp cocktail. Make it, eat this and...
Lemon Ricotta Pancakes
One of my favorite things in the world are the Lemon Ricotta pancakes at Sarabeth's Kitchen. Unfortunately the closest Sarabeth's to me is the one on the Upper West Side and it's a 12 hour and 45 minute drive. So I have been meaning to try to recreate them at home...
Cheesy Broccoli or Cauliflower Casserole
There's nothing bad about broccoli in a creamy cheese sauce with buttery breadcrumbs on top. Nothing. But it could be better. It's hard to put my finger on what's missing. I think I wanted bigger, more hearty pieces of broccoli when what I ended up with was...
Quick Chickpea and Spinach Stew (or Making a Blender Murderer)
This is so good I'm almost able to forgive it for breaking my blender. And it is the absolute perfect food for January. It will warm you and comfort you and fortify you against any arctic blasts you may have to fight this month. And all while making up for...
The Food Lab
Sometimes the hardest part of all of this is choosing a worthwhile book to review. Why? Well, frankly there's a lot of merde out there. From a cursory Amazon search of 7,663 [actual number not a re-enactment] cookbooks published in the last 90 days the vast...
Ultimate Sugar Cookies
Even though I have a perfectly fine recipe for sugar cookies, I'm always open to try a new one. Because resisting new things makes you old and gives you frown lines and age spots and turkey neck. True story. This one is from the December 2013 issue of Bon Appetit...
Grilled Shrimp and Vegetables with Pearl Couscous
I made this dish a long time ago and then forgot to tell you about it. Forgive me. It has been one of my favorite summer meals for a long time because it's got so much going for it. It's healthy, it's quick, and it's a self-contained complete meal and, let's be...
Sweet Roasted Butternut Squash and Greens Over Bow-Tie Pasta
This scrumptious looking dish came across my facebook feed one day and, completely out of character, I just decided to make it. My dear friend Anne was coming to town to run ihe Hot Chocolate 5K with me and this seemed like the perfect pre-race dinner. It's from The...
Sweet Potato Soup
You know how I get all excited when a recipe turns out to be way more delicious than the ingredients suggest? That happened. It happend when nothing more than 2 lbs of sweet potatoes, a shallot, a little butter, and water for crying out loud, came together. You'd...
Maple Glazed Sour Cream Doughnuts with (or without) Sugared Walnut Streusel
If I may quote myself: "never eat doughnuts you didn't make yourself." Such inspiring words to live by and I wouild certainly live by them myself if this damn place weren't two blocks from my office. Oh, and as if that weren't bad enough this finally opened near my my...
Baked Oatmeal
Originally I made this as written which is in an 8"x8" glass baking dish. I combined and assembled all ingredients the night before and cooked it the next morning and served it to my book group. And forgot to take a pic. Even as I made it in the bigger pan I was...
Definitive Chocolate Layer Cake
I have baked dozens and dozens of birthday cakes over the years. Because they are at the whim of the celebrant they are varied -- carrot cake (not sure why this one is so popular but I come to bake not to judge), strawberry cream, lemon (my own choice....
A+ Salad
I would like to say that I invented this salad but I flat out ripped it off. Because when I eat something delicious in a restaurant my first thought isn't "wow, this is so good I'm just going chew slowly and live in this amazing moment" but rather "can I replicate...
Roasted Carrots
Insanely good. My daughter said "these taste like sweet potato fries" and she was 100% on the nose. This is one instance where a recipe meant for two was not nearly enough. I could have eaten an entire baking sheet of these. And all it is is carrots and a sliced...
Sticky Buns
Please wipe that skeptical look off your face when I tell you that these are not that difficult to make. The dough is much easier to work with than pie dough; it shapes easily and doesn't stick like crazy to the counter. And it doesn't fall helplessly apart when you...
Teriyaki Chicken
I have made the "super size" version of this so I already knew it would be good. And it was; the sauce tastes authentic (as far as I know) and is sweet without being cloying. Using chicken thighs ensures that you will not dry them out. I can see the predicament this...
Easy Skillet Cheese Pizza
I make a lot of pizza. Deep dish, grilled, french bread, "grandma," you name it. But this might be the best yet. The crust, made with bread flour, is a near perfect combination of light with a tiny bit of crunchiness. And although it may sound simple, getting the...
The Complete Cooking for Two Cookbook: Soba Noodles with Roasted Eggplant and Sesame
This was so good I had a hard time making it a single serving dish. I allowed myself a couple more chopstickful’s of it while cleaning up























Mmmmmmwahhh! I added about 1 tsp of lemon to bump the flavors up a bit. Thank you for posting this…