Cheesy bread, Brazilian-style

26 April 2012

Occasionally friends pass along a new-to-me recipe that I’m eager to try. Then the recipe sits in my email in-box as if I’m saving it for a rainy day. Yesterday, it rained. So at last I pulled out a recipe for pão de queijo, a cheesy Brazilian bread made with tapioca starch and Parmesan. I [...]

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Beer Jam Correction for The Preservation Kitchen

17 April 2012

It happens. No matter how many people take a look at a manuscript before it’s sent to the printer, something will be missed. Sometimes it’s an extra comma. Other times, as in the case with the beer jam recipe from the cookbook The Preservation Kitchen, it’s a crucial line of instruction: When to add the [...]

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Jammin’

2 April 2012

This is quite a week. For starters, The Preservation Kitchen is out! Order it here or here. Even better, order it early and often, in true Chicago style. The Recipe Club offers this sneak-peak of the book. Paul Virant, my co-writer, is cooking recipes from the book at special dinners this week at his restaurants [...]

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I read it for the recipes

29 March 2012

Remember when cookbooks were collections of recipes? Today, as writers, cooks, and publishers march to the drumbeat of digital books, apps, video demonstrations, and narrative, it can feel quaint to pick up a book that tries to be nothing more than a collection of ideas about what to cook. I am guilty of adding to [...]

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About this ghostwriting business

20 March 2012

Spring is here, and with it the 2012 spring cookbook season. Which means The Preservation Kitchen, a book I co-wrote with Paul Virant, is this close to hitting bookstore shelves. (April 3rd, to be exact.) There’s been more buzz lately than usual about cookbooks, or who actually writes them, thanks to Julia Moskin’s NY Times [...]

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In praise of corned beef and cabbage

15 March 2012

Every Irish-American family has at least one good St. Patrick’s Day story. Ours involves green beer, green teeth, and a banner at a wake that said, “Good luck Casey!” (Casey, may he rest in peace, needed a lot more than luck in that story.) Even so, enjoying St. Patrick’s Day has nothing to do with [...]

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Uno de pilón en Sayulita, Mexico

8 March 2012

When my sister told the family that she wanted her wedding to take place in Mexico, none of us could quite believe it. My clearest memory of my sister in Mexico was years ago when our family visited cousins in Morelos, a state just outside El DF, Mexico City. Before going to bed, our aunt [...]

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Put a prune on it

13 February 2012

After puttering through the advertisements from this year’s Super Bowl, one thing remained clear: American ads are a snore. Especially compared to this simple, sporty ad from our Kiwi friends.

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Au revoir to all that, Chicago

8 February 2012

I remember my first winter in Chicago clearly. You see, I moved here one day in late December several years ago. Coming from California, I didn’t have the cold-weather jacket-gloves-scarf-hat routine down. I didn’t own appropriate footwear.  And yet I wanted to be sure I could walk to wherever I needed to go. My flimsy, [...]

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Have spices, will travel

2 February 2012

I can’t remember where I bought this Indian spice tray. It could have been while traveling through Kerala, visiting Vik’s Chaat Corner in Berkeley, or browsing in a shop along Devon Avenue in Chicago. I’m fairly certain that these spice trays are easy to find in all three locations. The reason I bring the spice [...]

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