Brunch-mas

Towards the end of December, people scatter to celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, and other holidays with family. Before that happened, we decided to gather our foodie friends for one more feast… which we called Brunch-mas. In the spirit of enjoying each other’s company as much as the food, Colin invited us all to cook our dishes…

Bombay Frankie Company Restaurant Review

As you know, I’ve been documenting my quest to work my way through Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. Of course, I eat at places not on his list as well, and occasionally I post about one of those places if it is exceptionally good or a particularly fun/interesting experience. The Bombay Frankie Company turned…

Bavette Cacio e Pepe

Cookbook Club – The Mozza Cookbook For November’s Cookbook Club, we used The Mozza Cookbook: Recipes from Los Angeles’s Favorite Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria by Nancy Silverton, Matt Molina, Carolynn Carreno, and Mario Batali. I made the Bavette Cacio e Pepe. You can share in our full at-home restaurant experience on my Cookbook Club site….

Sunday Supper II

Fall has come round again, so it seemed like the perfect time for another Sunday Supper of heartwarming food with friends. It brings me so much joy to have a community of friends who enjoy cooking and eating together as much as I do. We started with apples dipped in caramel sauce. The apples were…

Tahini Cookies

Cookbook Club – Jerusalem For October’s Cookbook Club, we used Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. I made the Tahini Cookies. You can see our explorations of all the colorful cuisine of their hometown on my Cookbook Club site. For now – my dish! I recently heard an interview with Yotam Ottolenghi where he…

Tuna Time

My friend went fishing and caught a 30 pound tuna, which we were lucky enough to reap the rewards of when he asked a group of us to come over and help him consume the gorgeous fish. Of course we were happy to oblige. Tuna The tuna was naturally the star of the show. This…

Crawfish at the Cabin

My Swedish friends invited me up to their cabin for a Kraftskiva celebration. What, you may be wondering, is Kraftskiva? It’s a crawfish party, where everyone wears bibs and silly hats, eats massive amounts of crawfish, and drinks aquavit and beer while singing Swedish drinking songs. So pretty much the BEST PARTY EVER. While the…

Green Papaya Chanpuru

Cookbook Club – Sam Choy’s Polynesian Kitchen To take advantage of the remaining summer weather, we decided to do our September Cookbook Club event at the beach, and chose the thematically appropriate Sam Choy’s Polynesian Kitchen as our cookbook. I made the Green Papaya Chanpuru. You can see the whole beach bonfire feast on my Cookbook…

Ahhh Comfort Food

My friend Heather threw a comfort food dinner party, which meant lots of dips and spreads, mac n cheese, grilled meats, and s’mores… it generally involved a lot of eating with your hands. And eventually progressed to sipping wine by her amazing fire pit. Sign me up! Dips and Spreads We started with an array…

Braised Belgian Endives

Cookbook Club – BelgianFoodie.com For August’s Cookbook Club, we decided to do a blog instead of a cookbook. But not just a blog by some random stranger on the internet – we did BelgianFoodie.com, the blog of one of our very own Cookbook Club members… Brad! I made the Braised Belgian Endives. You can check…

Eating the Big Apple

Last year I visited a friend in New York for a few days. A couple weeks prior to the trip, he texted me to ask what I wanted to do while I was there. I sent him back a long list of eateries I wanted to check out. His response – “So I get that…

Indian Independence Day

Every year my friend Seena throws an Indian Independence Day party. I feel so lucky to be invited, as it is in my opinion the best party of the year. Seena goes all out, asking everyone to wear Indian dress, giving bindis to all of the women, having a henna artist give tattoos throughout the…