31 Jul 2012 12 Comments
in Observations Tags: Chef Boyardee, cooking, food, Gordon Ramsey, Italian cuisine, pasta, pomodoro, ravioli, Skinny Girls
When I was a younger cook, I was more prone to kitchen disasters of either of three varieties — the huge mess, the ill-conceived flavor combination, or the flesh wound. With age, experience and wisdom has come the know-how to avoid most kitchen disasters in any of those categories. But every once in a while, I get broadsided by a new ingredient, tool or technique. And discover that disaster is never far at bay. More
20 Jul 2012 10 Comments
in Observations, Recipes Tags: Campari, cocktails, drinks, Gertrude Stein, Giornataccia, Italian cuisine, Italy, recipes, summer, Venice
“The days were long and the nights were long and the life was good.”
—Gertrude Stein, Fiesole, Italy, Summer 1908
A few weeks ago, drinking and dining with my friends/neighbors/mortal enemies (envy is a terrible thing) Chris and Glennis before they left for a week in Venice, Italy, we got talking about Campari.
Chris was pontificating that Europe had an appreciation for bitter foods and spirits that you don’t see as much in America. That set me to forming theories and pontificating in turn about how bitter as an entire taste realm was absent altogether from American cuisine — we like our sweet (OH, how we like our sweet!) and our salty, we’ll dabble in sour. But bitter is completely unrepresented — replaced, perhaps, by fried. And more salt. More
13 Jul 2012 14 Comments
in Observations, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: Dann Byck, Dodgers, food, Riviera, Russell W. Colgin, Scotch, tequila, whisky, Woodland Hills, writing
My dad was always pushing some drink or other at me as a kid. Less in the interest of corrupting me than fostering a strong cultural foundation, an appreciation of the better things life had to offer.
A father and his son. Mt. Rainier National Park. 1968
“Try this, it’s the finest dark roasted arabica coffee,” he would say. Or, “You’ll never taste a wine this good, my boy…” I developed tastes for both. But not Scotch. That was Dad’s drink. Scotch on the rocks. There was always a Glensomethingorother in his glass, it was always “the best Scotch you’ll ever taste,” and it always tasted the way rubbing alcohol smelled. More
06 Jul 2012 8 Comments
in Observations, Pork, Recipes Tags: happy hour, Inn of the Seventh Ray, Pebbles, pork shoulder, salmon, Skinny Girls, summer, Topanga
A few nights ago, we had our first Skinny Girls & Mayonnaise live event. A happy hour party co-hosted at the children’s clothing store called “Pebbles” owned by our pals, Annie and Vince.
Come On, Be Happy! Hour co-host with polenta, sausage & salsa pomodoro
Now, you may reasonably point out that a children’s clothing store is not the most appropriate place for an alcohol-fueled feast. But actually, it fit in quite nicely with our philosophy about food and lifestyle. More
29 Jun 2012 16 Comments
in Observations Tags: burgers, contest, cooking, ethics, food, Los Angeles Times, meat, New York Times, Pork
Periodically I enter contests. I don’t know why, because I rarely win. (You may still remember my entry to the Los Angeles Times “Best Burger” contest, which I was certain I would win until I discovered it was actually a “Burger with the Most Facebook Likes” popularity contest.) But hope springs eternal.
A couple months ago, my pal and sometime-Skinny-Girls-sidekick Nat sent me a link to a contest in the New York Times. “You should enter this,” he said. It was an essay contest on the ethics of eating meat.
More than an actual desire to win (the prize in this case being not a car or a trip to Hawaii but simply that your essay got published online), I enjoy entering these sorts of contests because it is a good impetus to think and write about things I might not otherwise think and write about. And though I often think and write about an ethical approach to eating meat, I had never gotten down to the actual marrow-bones ethics of it. (Nice recipe for marrow bones here, by the way…) More
skinny girls & mayonnaise 