New for 2007 here on Dangerously Enthusiastic: Welcome to The Saucy Report, a monthly jaunt through the neighborhoods of New York as seen through my eyes. Every month, I’ll explore a different group of neighborhoods, and share pictures, links, reviews and even mini-soundtracks to bring the experience to you no matter where you live. This month, we start in the LES. Continue reading
Posted in Best Of, Eating or Cooking
Tagged best, chinatown, food, lowereastside, lowereastsidemuseum, manhattan, neilstrauss, nolita, nyc, recipes, soho, wandering
It’s 7:30 on Christmas Eve. Grandma and I have already made the Christmas cookies. She watched over me earlier in the week as I lightly rolled the date balls, still warm from the oven, in a thin layer of confectioner’s sugar on the counter top.
The almond crescent cookies took me a few Christmases to master, but on this particular year I had gotten the hang of shaping them without handling them too much. If you heat the dough up with your fingers too often, the dough hardens and the cookies become both hard and brittle. Continue reading
Posted in Eating or Cooking
Tagged baking, cookies, cooking, Family, holidays, photoblogs, recipes
If you do not like pork because you’re one of those people who has “texture issues,” or because a piece of pork truly traumatized you at some point in your life, you can skip this one.
On the other hand, if you don’t like pork because every time your mom made you pork chops growing up, they turned out like black bricks of death and you had to smother them in ketchup just to make it to dessert, well then this is for you. My friend “Jennamafer” falls into this latter group and came to my place for dinner a couple weeks ago. When I told her what I was making, she said, “I don’t like pork.” Now she likey. Continue reading
I awoke Sunday morning to a lovely predicament. I hadn’t yet given any thought as to what dish I would bring to my dear friend’s wedding shower that afternoon.
Now, I’m not going to lie to you or make any attempt to be humble here. I f-ing rock in the kitchen. I am the person you look forward to having at your parties because you know I’m going to bring something unexpected and awesome. Usually, I start planning a mini-feast the second I open an invitation. Continue reading
Posted in Eating or Cooking
This is just a quick hit of things that have been turning me on or giving me a bit of amusement lately.
I am thisclose to being diagnosed with a clinical obsession with food and cooking. Obsessed. In a previous professional incarnation, I was a restaurant critic for a major newspaper. It gives me great joy to walk into restaurants I now frequent and see reviews I’ve written framed on the wall.
In addition to watching more food-related TV than is reasonable or healthy, I read about food, cooking equipment and techniques voraciously. I adore Alton Brown and the Iron Chef. I consider Giada de Laurentiis a personal friend. I own “Cupboard Love” (a “dictionary of culinary curiousities”) by Mark Morton, “How to Peel a Peach,” by Perla Meyers, a few of the “Best Food Writing” annual anthologies and subscribe to Gourmet Magazine. Continue reading
Posted in Eating or Cooking
Tagged cookbooks, food, foodnetwork, glutenfree, hobbies, music, pandora, recipes, recommendations
Dangerously Enthusiastic 