Blog

  • I’ll Stick with the Spring Chicken

    Much has been made about the idea of “aging” chocolate chip cookie dough. A NYT article highlighting this very thing swept the web a few years back, and this practice has since become the new trend in the world of chocolate chip cookies.  I made their sited Jacques Torres recipe, even using the prescribed cake […]

  • Nulli Secundus

    Chocolate chip cookies, like fried chicken, are another of those foods that everyone makes, but are hard to make consistently well.  Even when I measure the flour by weight, I don’t think I’ve made the same cookie twice.  In 10 years of professional baking, during which time I baked the same recipe again and again, […]

  • Cabbage: The Other Red Meat

    Cabbage is a modest vegetable with a long history of keeping people fed.  China, India and Russia are its top producers, though Russians are off the charts in their 44-pound per-person consumption of this vegetable.  (Americans consume only about 8-1/2 pounds per person.)  In the U.S. men apparently eat 25% more cabbage than women do, […]

  • Ground Chuck

    I just watched this movie for the first time.  I found myself quite taken with Rocky Balboa as a young man in generic grey sweats and Chuck Taylors.   Using sides of beef as a punching bag is an interesting training tactic.  Gives a whole new meaning to the term “ground chuck.”

  • A Treatise

    It would be fair to say that I have strong opinions about sandwiches. These opinions have their origins in my youth, when my lunches were spent blissfully eating peanut butter and jelly with Mike-Sells potato chips wedged between the slices of bread.  This was perfect happiness and a fine reward to having completed another morning […]

  • Lessons Learned

    Because the last six weeks or so have been largely consumed with work, I’ve had little opportunity for either inspiration or writing. The fact that I’ve been absent from my new blog has been weighing on me, so I am here to say hello and give you what I’ve got from the last six weeks […]

  • My Sister’s Quiche

    Over the Christmas holiday I spent time with my family in both Ohio and Michigan.  Those among you who are football fans will recognize the potential conflict of interest here.  As a native Buckeye, I actually resent Ohio State’s ubiquity and typically root for Michigan.  I may be tried for treason after making this information […]

  • A vegetable soup for post-holiday fortification

    Although at first glance it may not appear this way, this is a soup for everybody, suitable for the most health-conscious folks but delicious enough that even your kids will eat it.  Chock-full of vegetables, it’s also a great soup for using up odds and ends in your refrigerator.  The carrots, celery and onion provide […]

  • Buckeyes

    It’s not clear to me how well-known these treats are outside of Ohio, but I am doing my part to spread the word.  Given that Ohio State University has one of the premier football teams in the country, it’s rather ironic to think that their mascot is this humble little nut.  I like to think […]