09 Nov 2012 5 Comments
in Food, Humor, Recipes Tags: 2012 elections, bananas, Barack Obama, bread pudding, dessert, dulce de leche, Nutella, recipes, rum
Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. And I find this is often true in the kitchen — especially if one is going to a dinner party and needs to make something in a hurry.
The makings of a dessert
Election night: English friend Patricia down the street was having a disco birthday election bash which we, in the whirl of activity that is our lives, had forgotten about until our iCalendar gave us a cheerful little alert that same afternoon. More
06 Nov 2012 16 Comments
in Food, Humor, Observations Tags: Arles, bacon, food, fougasse, Malibu, popcorn, porkcorn, Topanga Vintage Market
My friend and fellow elementary school dad, Thad, approached one morning asking a favor. Some Topanga folk had started a monthly antique fair at a nearby mall recently, and the school had a fundraising bake sale table at the event. Would I consider baking something for the table? Of course, I said.
Porkcorn, ready for sale
A short time later, I received an email from the woman in charge of the fundraising table, thanking me for being a part of their “healthy bake sale.” More
02 Nov 2012 11 Comments
in Humor, Observations, Recipes Tags: food, Japanese cooking, macadamia nuts, potato chips, recipes, salmon, sashimi, snacks, Trader Joe's
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I have a relatively new habit: Macadamia nuts.
I’ve always loved these salty, buttery treats. But in the past limited my consumption to trips to Hawaii, or to the one or two canisters I would bring home from one of those visits — those usually saved for cooking. But I’m a snacker, and looking for a healthier alternative to salty potato chips, I thought I’d purchase a bag of the Australian dry roasted macs at Trader Joes. Surely the $8+ price tag would keep me from developing a habit, I thought. More
30 Oct 2012 Leave a comment
in Beverages, Observations, Recipes Tags: Bodeguita del Medio, Casa San Matias Pueblo Viejo Anejo, Cazadores, Familia Camarenas, Jalisco, Maestro, margaritas, Patrón, tequila, Vallarta Market
Long a beer and wine (and sometimes saké) man, I’ve recently taken to tequila.
I’ve always drank tequila, in the form of a margarita or the occasional shot. But it wasn’t until I was well beyond my freewheeling 20s that I discovered good tequila — sipping tequila. More
26 Oct 2012 7 Comments
in Observations, Recipes Tags: cooking, food, hunger, Italian, José Andrés, NRDC, penne
Contemplating a quarter loaf of severely stale ciabatta bread in my kitchen this morning, I was reminded of a staggering statistic I read recently. “The NRDC report said Americans discard 40 percent of the food supply every year.”
All that stale bread & an overripe tomato can be
As a person with a gut-level aversion to throwing anything edible away, this figure was unimaginable — especially given the hunger not only around the world, but in our own country. Another statistic: “In 2010, 17.2 million households, 14.5 percent of households (approximately one in seven), were food insecure, the highest number ever recorded in the United States.” Children were “food insecure” (i.e. hungry) in 10% of households. All of which brings up a fairly obvious question:
How is it that 15% of America is hungry, when we are throwing away 40% of our food? More
skinny girls & mayonnaise 