Tortellini en Brodo

Last Thursday was the Vernal Equinox, the day in the Northern Hemisphere when the night and day are essentially the same length. It is also the official start of spring and my second favorite time of year after fall. But living in Southern California, it’s easy to get a little detached from the seasons—the daffodils, cherry blossoms and tulips started blossoming at the end of February and I’ve returned to wearing flip flops most days—but I find that cooking always keeps me in time with the earth’s clock. Feeling springy, I decided to host “Easter” dinner for a few friends, a slightly surprising turn of events since I’m Jewish. Yet no sooner was the guest list confirmed than I found out I was supposed to work Sunday brunch at the restaurant I’ve been moonlighting at. Rather than cancel I decided to pick a simple menu, prep Saturday and have Neal do a bunch of the cooking while I was at work.

Continue reading

Comments (6)

This past week I had the opportunity to attend the Family of Winemakers tasting in Pasadena. Family Winemakers is an advocacy group for California’s smaller wine producers, protecting their right to make, market and sell their wines. The Southern California tasting is always a great opportunity to discover new wines and to taste some things we carry at K&L, but that are made in such small quantities that it’s hard to get to taste them. Continue reading

Comments (1)

Egg Papardelle with Bagna Cauda, Wilted Radicchio and an Olive Oil-Fried Egg

I’m a culinary masochist. It’s taken me awhile to come to terms with this, but a few recent cooking endeavors have made the truth difficult to avoid. The facts are, perhaps, best exemplified by my new favorite cookbook: Nancy Silverton’s A Twist of the Wrist. Nancy’s book is designed to help home cooks create gourmet meals using the bevy of high-quality pre-packaged ingredients lining the grocer’s shelves. Sounds great, right? Used correctly, these jars, boxes and tins are timesaving complements to Nancy’s delicious, well-thought-out recipes. But in my DIY-addled brain I see Nancy’s timesaving devices as the opportunity to try making other, more time-consuming components from scratch. At my house, a meal from Nancy’s book that’s supposed to take a half an hour suddenly takes three— Continue reading

Comments (5)

Didn’t get a chance to download the Celebrity Italian Table Cookbook yet? Pasta maker Barilla has extended their commitment to donate $1 to America’s Second Harvest through the end of March. Not sure what I’m talking about? Read my original post on the subject, Good Cooking, Good Deeds.

Comments (0)

I’ve been struggling this week. Fighting a cold, a migraine and exhaustion brought on by working an extra job to pay off my credit cards and writing a book proposal with Brooke of Foodwoolf, I must say finding time to blog, let alone rest, has been a bit of a challenge.

But tonight, with leftovers in the fridge, my boyfriend back east for a wedding and the first preseason Red Sox game on the TV, I can sit back and relax with a glass of wine.

Continue reading

Comments (2)

Leah’s Crunchy Granola

The East Coaster in me hates the crunchy granola hippie part of me. It’s true. She thinks that the combination of rolled oats, dried fruit and nuts kissed with honey is silly. And weak. The East Coaster in me thinks I should eat egg on a roll. With Bacon. Every day. And I don’t blame her. By most accounts, a fresh Kaiser roll with fried egg, butter and bacon, dusted with salt and pepper, is a very satisfying way to start the day. It can be easily eaten on-the-go, out of a brown paper bag, and goes great with a light and sweet cup of coffee. But I’ve lived in California too long. I enjoy my leisure too much. In the warm California sun I’ve learned to sit quietly and listen as my teeth grind each cluster, sounding like rocks rolling in a polisher. I like granola out of hand on a hike in the winter green mountains of Los Angeles and served with tangy Greek yogurt and a drizzle of local honey at the breakfast table.But it hasn’t always been that simple. Food has always defined me–the urban intellectual battling the laid-back, outdoorsy mountain girl competing for dominance over my brain and stomach. Continue reading

Comments (7)