I rode across the Manhattan Bridge four times on Saturday. I’ve always confined my biking to Brooklyn, its less-trafficked bike lanes and provincial Prospect Park loop; in Manhattan, I’d usually rather be a straphanger or a pedestrian–but four years into riding here, I’m fully obsessed with my bike to the point where I can confront my […]
meatless monday
Heirloom Tomato Pizza-Stuffed Zucchini Boats
The pinnacle of summer arrives when you can make dinner from the farmers’ market. I don’t mean dinner’s side dish or the base of your peach crisp. I mean dinner from start to finish. You need two criteria met: a well-equipped farmstand, the kind that sells local bread and some cheese; and the arrival of heirloom […]
Grilled Halloumi & Pattypan Squash Salad
We spent the weekend out of the city, at our friends’ Kate and Sam’s place in the Hudson Valley. We crunched on cicadas as we walked, played poolside backgammon, and feasted on the Montreal bagels Kate and Sam store in their freezer. (If you haven’t had one, they’re sweeter and smaller than New York City […]
Middle Eastern Carrot Tacos
The night I learned to make cous cous from scratch, I fell in love with a carrot salad. The grains of fluffy, fresh cous cous were the best cous cous I’d ever had, but the carrot salad that the team from NY Shuk served us alongside the slow-roasted lamb shoulder stole the show for me. I […]
The New Most Important Meal of the Day
You guys, I solved lunch. I recently wrote about my occasional breakfast ruts. Truth is, I’ve been in a lunch rut for my entire life. I hate lunch, always have. While I know I should choose something light and low on carbs in order to minimize the post-lunch stupor I experience, it’s much more fun, […]
Vegetarian Matzoh Ball Soup
In New York, Jewish food has saturated our culture. Bagels and smoked salmon are important weekend brunch elements. Chicken soup is Penicillin for all. Mile End‘s comfort food is a phenomenon city-wide. Last week, a friend of mine who teaches undergraduates told me a Nigerian student in his class had used the word schmaltzy–meaning excessively […]
Broccoli & Parmesan Israeli Couscous
In truth, I believe you can never eat too much pasta. Lately, though, I’ve been thinking about pasta as a side, the accompaniment rather than the main course. One easy way I do this is to think of “pasta with vegetables” as “vegetables with pasta,” changing the proportions so my final dish isn’t totally carb […]
Curry-Stuffed Delicata Squash
Hi, Manhattan. I’ve been avoiding the borough since before Hurricane Sandy hit, but today I boarded the 3 train and rode right back in from Brooklyn. On the surface, our city is back. Read between the lines and you’ll see that the recovery has not been equal. To be honest, what to do next is […]
Alphabet Soup
Don’t look now, but my last two recipes reveal a nostalgic bent. A month out from the wedding, I’m pining for childhood, from moping through violin lessons to squabbling with my sister. That’s not weird, right? Today, I’m adding another post to this I-want-to-be-a-kid archive: Alphabet Soup. I made this most childish of soups for […]
Southwestern Orzo Salad
Until one weekend away with friends four years ago, I had no idea that dried Southwestern spices like cumin and coriander and chili powder had much use in raw things like salads and stuff. We always put cumin on chicken for tacos and chili powder in chili (obviously). But in salads, they were not my […]