CHEWING THE FAT

A Tomato that looks flawed creates a Tart that is pure perfection. The heirloom tomato has arrived. Heirlooms, or “Heritage Tomatoes” if you’re British, are not always the most beautiful on the outside.  But the first slice brings a flood of great tomato flavor. They’re…

Although they may look like Spitzbuben to you… Despite all indications to the contrary, Dorie Greenspan’s cookie recipes are not all that Andrew bakes. But as we recently pointed out, as you’re going through “Dorie’s Cookies”(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2016) and you’ve only gotten to page…

Three Quick Kimchi Vegetables and a Classic Wedge Salad transformed by one of them.

Cooking for One Yields Some Great New Discoveries for Two. Or More. I don’t know about you, but in our house, there are some forbidden ingredients. Olives of any kind. Cabbage when used outside of Cole Slaw. Pickles. Blue Cheese. Cauliflower. And most especially Kimchi,…

Four Fantastic Ways to Celebrate this American Treasure Andrew went back to work this week in Manhattan. No one was gladder to do so.  While I tap away on my keyboard blissfully year in and year out, he was less than enchanted with our endless…

Astonishingly, Baked Potatoes are trending in the heat of Summer. Almost every day, I check to see what’s hot on Chewing The Fat.  This week, I discovered that the most popular recipe on the entire site was “The Perfect Baked Potato”. With 4160 pageviews just…

2 Recipes that just can’t wait for the weekend. Normally, we post our Baking recipes later in the week. This is on the assumption that people have more time to bake on the weekend.  We’re breaking the rules because everyone who has tasted one of…

Melissa Clark’s latest book “Dinner in French” (Clarkson Potter 2020) is a winner. The latest in a long line of books created by The New York Times’ Melissa Clark, “Dinner in French” is surprisingly weeknight-friendly. Veteran Francophile Clark, who spent her childhood summers in France,…

Breakfast for Dinner or Just Breakfast, you choose. This wonderful dish is a fantastic take on a Chorizo hash, in which the fresh sausage is paired with onions, garlic, and potatoes. There’s a hint of pickled onion, a tablespoon or so of cheese and the…

America’s Cookie Goddess creates the perfect nibbles for Cocktail Hour Dorie Greenspan must be considered the Goddess of Cookies.  The baking guru claims to have woken, more than once, in the middle of the night to bake a cookie she dreamed about. At least that’s…

A great salad for a weekend lunch or a light supper one night next week. Asparagus is at its peak and radishes are almost gone from the farm stands here. So this week I was on the hunt for recipes that would make the most…

Of all the foods we miss, simple Mexican food is high on our list. We are spoiled in the city living just a block from a Tacqueria that turns out Mexican favorites so good and so inexpensive, I seldom bother making them at home.  But…

Rao’s, the Iconic Italian Restaurant in East Harlem, is Working To Keep New York’s Partnership Schools Open and Thriving. Fifteen years ago, Frank Pellegrino Sr. of Rao’s Restaurant helped save a nearby small elementary school in Harlem – Mt. Carmel-Holy Rosary – from the brink…

A No Recipe Recipe yields a Chowder so good, I had to share the recipe I made with it. Once a week, Sam Sifton of the New York Times publishes what he calls a “No Recipe Recipe”. There is no set of ingredients or steps…