05 Aug 2011 5 Comments
in Observations, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: Anniversary, Best Foods, mayonnaise, one year, Skinny Girls
On August 7, 2010, I launched Skinny Girls & Mayonnaise — exploding out the gate with eight posts on that single day. Four more came the following day. I guess you could say they’d be welling up inside of me for awhile.
It’s been a great year of cooking, philosophizing, marketing, experimenting and writing about it all. And sharing it. More
02 Aug 2011 5 Comments
in Eating Out, Recipes Tags: Fairfax, Jimmy Shaw, Lotería Grill, Loteria, Mexican, Mexico City, Original Farmer's Market, pepitas, plato Botanero, queso fundido, Tim Burton
Los Angeles is one of the world’s top destinations for Mexican food, second only to Mexico City. And in this city of extraordinary Mexican dining from taco trucks to camerones stands to upscale nouvelle restaurants, the very best may be Lotería Grill.
Sunday morning of July 4th weekend. As families converged on the coast from every corner of the Los Angeles basin and beyond to frolic in the Pacific, we went the opposite direction: east. More
29 Jul 2011 4 Comments
in Observations, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: cooking, Dar Maghreb, food, Jili, kitchen, Michael's, Ricky Ricardo, Swanson's, Tatsu
I always enjoy hearing stories of what brought people to their passions for food. My grandfather cooked on a train during the Depression. That’s all I know of that story. Although it provides a good prelude to my own.
The author at 13
My journey into food began, I suppose, as so many do: at my mother’s apron. The house always smelled good, and the kitchen was warm and inviting. More
26 Jul 2011 10 Comments
in Recipes, Sensational Salads Tags: Cruise America, gazpacho, proscuitto, recipes, salad, scallops, summer, tequila, watermelon
One of the best and worst parts of summer is the watermelon. Sure, everyone loves watermelon, and nothing says summer like a cold, sweet slice on a hot afternoon. That’s the good part. The bad part is that even the “mini” ones are larger than a child’s head. And the big ones are the melon equivalent of a Cruise America RV.
By some point into the summer — usually early to mid July — I begin suffering from watermelon fatigue. My kids insist on watermelon, so I buy the smallest one I can find. And then people begin showing up with them. More
22 Jul 2011 7 Comments
in Cooking Tips, Observations, Pork, Recipes Tags: barbecue, brisket, Carmageddon, North Carolina, Pork, pork shoulder, Stubbs, Texas, vinegar, Watermans
My neighbor Chris, a man of noble appetite and impeccable palate, invited us over for a Sunday barbecue. It was the much-hyped, much-feared “Carmageddon” weekend, in which the busiest freeway in the country would be shut down for two days. No one was going anywhere. So the commute 50 or so feet to the Watermans’ house sounded perfect. And I took it as a good omen when I saw Chris out in his pajamas at 8 a.m. that morning, tending to his smoker.
The Man & his smoker, "R2D2"
Chris hails from Florida, close enough to the smoking belt of the Deep South to count. More
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