I’m intrigued by vegans, but at the same time I think I would weep daily if I could never eat brie again. That said, like any dietary restriction, it does force you to be creative. My love of cooking definitely accelerated when I stopped eating meat and realized the world beyond meat.starch.veg. This recipe is better [...] More »

I know, I know, I keep talking about how hot it is in DC, and then I go and crank up the oven to make pizza.  You don’t feel sorry for me anymore, I understand. My love of pizza transcends the weather, what can I say.  This was an eggplant, red onion and olive pizza.  With [...] More »

This was another item on the FPD (fall dinner party, I’m a dork, what do you want?) menu. Maybe I should back up and let you know the big picture. Dinner was cauliflower gratin, these artichokes, roasted acorn squash stuffed with mushrooms, and for dessert, a pecan pie. High maintenance vegetable alert! Preparing these artichokes just [...] More »

While I feel very virtuous when making barbeque tofu, part of me really wants to sort of mock the sad little white blocks while I am preparing it. Sort of really tell it how I feel, because you know, taking tofu down a peg makes me feel better. My main issue with tofu is that is [...] More »

  Happiness is a warm bowl of soup, to paraphrase Linus. Speaking of Linus, I heard on NPR last week (OH NO. Stop me now. Starting sentences with “I heard on NPR…” ranks right up there with, “One time, in band camp…”).So I’m afraid, due to self-censorship, we’ll never learn what the story was I heard [...] More »

I haven’t found the answer to this eternal question yet: how many irregularly shaped muffins does it take to erase the memory of a really bad day at work? But I am getting closer. After (unsuccessfully) chasing my cat around the living room with an overgrown zucchini– (Me: “Come on Simone, it’s a photo-op! [...] More »

I know. I’m the 700th person to write about garlic scape pesto. I can’t help it! It’s so lovely, and I just discovered it. After staring down the scapes when we got home from the farmer’s market, they still didn’t tell me which end of them to use. A quick taste provided the answer: before [...] More »

There’s no way to sugarcoat the situation: this was not a photogenic dinner. This is the “before cooking” picture, which trust me, was better than the after picture. One of the exciting things about cooking without a recipe is the satisfaction of feeling like you’ve created something.  The obvious peril is that your creation might [...] More »

“10:30am and not a minute later. Do not take ‘no’ for an answer.”  Those would be my wake-me-up instructions to my poor Husband, uttered on an otherwise made-for-sleeping Sunday.  Thanks to BarBri and the NY bar exam for that sleepless morning, and so many others. Sigh. I’m not feeling my usual perky self, but the snow today [...] More »

The weather in Washington lately has been sublime, almost early fall-like. That combined with the fact that the city has begun its annual emptying-out has left this lady one un-salty girl.  Also, I have these new sunglasses that literally make the world look like a nicer place. I am not kidding! Driving over the Delaware [...] More »