Sassy Radish

Hi friends, sorry for being quiet this week – I’m in San Francisco for work and it’s been one busy but super fun week! Last week, in the kitchen, I’ve had a somewhat disappointing recipe testing results. Things were fine, but were they notable enough to tell you about here? Not particularly. There’s one recipe, for example, a cake, I’ve been working on, and this one will take awhile, because I know exactly what I want to wind up with, and there will be lots more recipe testing to do. I’ve dug my heels and decided I’ll work on it as long as it takes (weeks! months! years, if I must!) but I’ll get there and won’t stop testing it until I do.

As trips to San Francisco tend to go, eating here has been fantastic. I highly recommend all three restaurants I tried with my colleagues: Prospect, Ame, and La Mar – were all absolutely amazing. And the conference I’ve been helping out with, was chock-full of great content. My favorite speaker was Anne Wojcicki, one of the founders of this incredible company, 23andMe, a personal genetic testing kit that anyone can buy for $99. I’m pretty sure that I am the last person to learn about personal genetic testing kits – I mean, it seems quite obvious now that I think about it – but I was riveted to Ms. Wojcicki’s presentation. Not only will the kit show you potential health risks embedded in your DNA, but part of what made me so engaged in her presentation was this message: if we all pool our genetic data together, we can learn so much more about not just one another, but how to help one another in helping to solve many diseases. This coming together bit, that we are all better off collectively together, sharing information, than being on our own – the power of that message – hit me like a tidal wave. It only reinforced what I’ve been thinking of and believing in for so long, but the presentation itself, Wojcicki’s passion, were incredibly powerful. I highly recommend everyone checking out the company.

Despite waking up before sunrise and going to be relatively late, I managed to pull these links together for you because there were some awesome things to read. I hope you like them and I hope you all have a lovely weekend ahead! I’m traveling most of the day today, so will be a bit off line. Also, for folks waiting for the results of the giveaway last week, I will get the results this weekend. Cheers!

Continue reading friday link love.

Happy Friday, folks. This weekend couldn’t come soon enough. Too much transpired over the last seven day – too much!

Last weekend I found out that my former boss and good friend (a young woman) was given a grave diagnosis of ovarian cancer. She was to have surgery on Monday and to start aggressive chemotherapy right away for six months. For the rest of the weekend, I was in a fog. I couldn’t make sense of it: she was so young – and the cancer was, supposedly, incredibly aggressive. She wasn’t even in the age group where this is a threat. This was someone I knew very well, worked closely with for four years, and remained friends with long after our company let most people go. She and her husband came to our wedding. I’ve babysat her dogs, played with her baby daughter, sat on her living room rug while we’d catch up on life. Like most cancer cases, nothing made sense. Black was white; white was black – the world flipped over onto itself. I was so angry this happened.

That same day, after we decided to walk home from Tribeca to Brooklyn Heights, we saw the would-be Brooklyn Bridge jumper, who, thankfully, didn’t jump in the end. But to be on the bridge surrounded by so many onlookers, seeing his tiny silhouette and the police on top of the bridge, talking, pleading – was chilling. The sound of the helicopters cutting through the air; the FBI agent who bumped into us, armed and grave. And the irony of timing: one of those perfect, crisp spring days with bright blue skies and not a cloud up above, and there was this charge in the air, like something bad was going to happen. We left before the police talked the man down. If he was going to jump, we didn’t want to see it. We took the subway home that day.

On Monday afternoon, while picking up some fruit at a nearby store, I saw a woman, a nanny, get hit by a car, while trying to cross a confusing intersection. In a millisecond, she opted to push the stroller out of the way so that the baby didn’t get hurt. But she got hit and was taken away in an ambulance after the little girl’s mother arrived.

That same night, I learned that my friend who had surgery, was cancer free and wouldn’t need chemo. When the surgeons went in, they discovered a very rare case of a benign tumor which they removed. And when her husband called me to tell the good news, “Are you sitting down?” he said before he told me. I thought to myself, “Something awful. I must sit down,” And I did. But instead of something awful, the news turned out to be amazing – a miracle. I was out to dinner with some girlfriends at the time in one of those Manhattan restaurants where everyone is way cooler than you. Standing in the middle of a busy room, I started to cry: it was, in all sense, the very best possible news. Servers and partons buzzed around me, giving me furtive looks – when strangers cry in front of us, best to just ignore it. But I didn’t care: my friend was alive and well and had another amazing shot in life. I cried happy tears.

When I saw my friend the very next day, while she was still recovering from full-body anesthesia, we celebrated instead! We celebrated another chance at life, and remembering what is truly, really important. And so, with that in mind, I hope your weekend is filled with joy and goodness. Take the time to make note of what’s truly important.

Here are this week’s links!

Continue reading friday link love.

Happy Friday, everyone! Even though we’ve only returned from our vacation a week ago, Jamaica seems so far away now. We want to go back! Some interesting links this week – I skipped some of the more obvious news items because I figured given the events of the last two weeks of so, folks are keeping up with some more high profile stories. I hope you find these interesting and engaging, and as always, wishing you all a wonderful weekend ahead!

Happy Friday, friends. This past week I’ve been immersing myself in some new work, which I am finding very interesting, and thoroughly (as in page by page) reading the two cookbooks which I’m finding absolutely incredible and alive: Vegetable Literacy and A Girl and Her Pig. Both are excellent, both have strong, distinct voices. In the case of the former, this isn’t a book you just open, pick out a recipe, and cook from. This is a book where you really benefit from reading Madison’s research on various plants: it’s as much of a gardening/botany lesson as it is a cooking one. This week I finished the first chapter, which is on Umbilliferae: carrots, parsley, thyme, just among a few. When Madison starts explaining vegetables to you by kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, I had to fan myself from getting so excited, I was practically lightheaded. Like I need an opportunity to geek out… I cannot wait for chapter two.

The second book, A Girl and Her Pig, is fresh, irreverent, and full of contagious enthusiasm, and recipes that make me want to forget about work, writing, blogging, laundry, and the rest, and just lock myself away in the kitchen for a few days. Bloomfield gives you a recipe for deviled eggs, but hers must be cold, cold, cold. She has an oatmeal porridge recipe in the book, and before you think to yourself how boring that sounds, consider making it. It’ll be the best porridge you’ve ever had. And how can you not love chapters titled “Meat Without Feet”?

In any case, here are this week’s links! Have a lovely weekend, all!

Continue reading friday link love.

Hi, folks, I believe I owe you some recipes. It’s been awhile and I’m sorry. I’ve had my hands full lately and we took a quick trip to Florida to visit Andrew’s grandmother so there’s been little in the way of experimenting. The weather, too, has been uncoorperative as of late. Officially, it’s spring, but if you didn’t have a calendar, you would’ve thought we were right smack in the middle of winter.

I, too, have been uncooperative with my kitchen. For one, I’ve been poring over new cookbooks and looking for inspiration. Sometimes I need to do just that: step away from looking to put new material out and just cook our old favorites with abandon. And so I’ve been cooking old favorites over and over. Trying a few things too, but not loving them either (I’ve learned, for example that I don’t much like black cod or halibut); so why write about something I found just so so.

Cooking the same things over and over is actually quite revelatory: I always walk away with having learned something new. One of my favorite quotes about cooking is from Judy Rogers’ much beloved Zuni Cafe Cookbook. There, she writes about how cooking the same thing over and over is just the thing to really learn a dish. Repetition begets education.

There’s this very out of season salad that I’ve been making several nights a week (to accompany our dinner), and it’s been fun swapping this for that and just using what’s in the fridge. I figure this is my in-between time, before I get back to the kitchen inspired again. I don’t feel like sharing the new spring frittata, because well, if you’ve made the frittata from this site, you don’t need me to tell you what you can swap out unless I show you a new revolutionary way to do it. I’ll leave it to you to make up your mind on what, if anything, you want in it. I don’t want to put up a “new” recipe when it’s just a blatant variation on a theme. I know, I’m getting into the weeds here and it can get pretty circular with reasoning here. I just want to give my brain a slight break from the constant need to come up with new things. Sometimes I just want to go back to the kitchen and just make some simple pasta.

And it’s not that I’m uninspired per se, but that I’m taking the time to be alone with my thoughts in the kitchen. Not in the context of this site, but in the context of my relationship with the process of cooking. You know, how we felt about our kitchens before blogs came around?

I won’t bore you more. I promise some more recipes soon. Or maybe recipes interspersed with some writing – as I’ve been feeling a bit more that way too. But, here are this week’s links; I hope you like them, and I hope you all have wonderful weekend plans (even if it’s just reading on your couch, which is wonderful too) ahead.

Continue reading friday link love.

Hi from Florida. Andrew and I escaped the frigid temperatures of NYC for a few days to visit Andrew’s grandmother. I’d say it’s been nice to be, mostly, unplugged. I don’t remember last time I did that. Maybe over our minimoon in June. Still, I amassed quite a few links this week and didn’t want to not share them. So here they are. And I hope that wherever you are, you’re keeping warm and cozy, and that your weekends hold comfort and relaxation.

The case against feeding every hungry child.

Getting married later is great for college-educated women. However, the reverse is true for men: getting married earlier seems to be better for their income level. Curious.

Public surprisingly okay with government policies that push healthy eating.

Slaughter of the African elephants. This had me in tears (as well as Andrew). Devastating and I feel like something has to (must) be done.

Brilliant “Shouts & Murmurs”: Rob Portman opens door, GOP follows.

Wisconsin in the news again: a state lawmaker wants to restrict food stamp users to only be able to buy healthy food. Needless to say, this is a sensitive issue as much of the processed food just happens to be cheaper than whole foods (and for the record, I’m not making an argument for processed food, far from it.) It would also be helpful to understand if the economically depressed areas that are more reliant on government food assistance, have fewer grocery stores with whole foods options (aka food deserts).

In case you didn’t see Justin Timberlake (is there anything he can’t do?) and Jimmy Fallon do the History of Rap IV, here you go.

A propos Justin Timberlake, the Atlantic refers to him as our generation’s Sammy Davis Jr. while the New York Times thinks he’s our generation’s Cary Grant. What do you all think: Sammy or Cary? Or someone else?

First Google announced it was killing Reader (huge mistake, I think); and this piece raises another glaring issue for Google: Alerts. Formerly a useful tool, it’s now sluggish at best.

While it’s easy to get all theoretical about the food stamps, here’s a piece that delves into the actual nuts and bolts of how the program affects not only recipients but the businesses as well.

Translating Shakespeare into DNA.

The Lower East Side in the 40′s archival film. Mesmerizing.

For those of you who are devotees of Moleskine notebooks, an excellent piece on what the company sells: identity and culture – not just the notebook itself.

Jacob Lew goes to China, eats humble dumplings, makes a splash with the Chinese press. And all they probably had to do is research Jewish affinity for Chinese food, especially dumplings and they would’ve understood why. :) This, of course, stands in stark contrast to the opulent banquets of the Chinese communist party members.

The average wealthy person gives 1.3% of their income to charity; the average low-income one — 3.2%. Why?

Also, this.

And with that, I’m out. I hope your weekend is slammin’. xo

It’s Friday again, and also, the ides of March. Quick, someone, pull out your Julius Caesar and recite the “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech. And with April right around the corner, we’ve got the prologue to the Canterbury Tales to consider as well. It’s been a fairly frenetic week on my end, but I managed to cull some links that I found to be compelling. I hope you enjoy them, and I sincerely hope that your weekend holds more thrills and excitement than mine: taxes, taxes, taxes (Forrest, our resident feline CPA, is ready to help me though). But, as a treat, we get to see some out of town friends on Sunday, and I cannot wait.

Here are the links. Enjoy. And happy weekend.

Continue reading friday link love.

It’s Friday here again, which means a round of links for your reading pleasure (though some of these links won’t bring you joy). A quick note of housekeeping: I’ve been receiving a slew of email asking me to link to this product or that service on Friday’s Link Love. Please email me, by all means, and if it’s appropriate, I’ll help in any way I can, but Friday’s links aren’t to promote a good or a service, generally speaking. It’s more a collection of things I’ve been reading through the week, that I’ve wanted to share with you all.

And without further ado… the links…

Continue reading friday link love.

Here’s what a typical morning here is like these days.

6:30 AM wake up. Look at the clock, realize it’s very early still but finally, alas, it’s light out. Decide to get up and go to the gym and get back in time to have breakfast with Andrew only to realize your phone is at 15% power and will not make it through the workout.

Turn over and try to fall asleep. Realize you’re too anxious to sleep. That suddenly there is a tidal wave of all these to do’s in your head, the fact that you don’t have any meetings or “set” work to do, that you have no idea where you next paycheck is coming from, that you just put a check in the mail for rent neither you nor your husband can afford.

Toss and turn until the cat wanders over for his morning cuddle. Cuddle with the cat for ten minutes. His purrs only moderately calm you down, but mostly, what you feel is jealousy. Jealousy that you can’t ever feel this inner calm and bliss. You think to yourself, I’d do anything to feel this way if only for a day, but you know it’s not going to happen.

Check your phone once more; no new emails, no new job offers, no new job listings. The phone is now at 14%. Scratch the cat’s chin and hear him purr. Look over to your left where you husband is sleeping. Notice how he is the world’s most peaceful-looking sleeper.

Check the Instagram feed, see what dinner/cocktail/dessert everyone’s had last night. Look at cute sleeping children photos, wonder how parents do it all. Notice the phone is now at 13%. Go to Twitter, check the feed. Find a few interesting articles, but because you hate reading them on your phone, email them to yourself. Notice the phone is now at 12%. Go to Facebook and see everyone’s updates. Realize that you’re finding Facebook to be more and more of a bore, and it’s not that you don’t care about your friends updates, but that somehow Facebook has become a virtual world you don’t really feel like inhabiting. You want, simultaneously, peace and quiet and catch up with everyone, and I mean everyone, in person.

Continue reading it’s all in your head.

You, people!! Such great tips and techniques! I didn’t doubt you had it in you, but I was blown away by the sheer depth and breadth of the different tips everyone had to offer. I loved, loved, reading all of them – thank you all so much for sharing it with all of us here. I’m collating the highlights below, in case you aren’t into reading all 262 comments.

The winner, Julie, was commenter 174. Julie, can you please email me your full contact info (my email is on the About page), and I will have the America’s Test Kitchen folks send you the book right away.

And now, some of the tips highlighted here. Sorry if I didn’t mention your tip – there were so many great ones and I just tried to get a general gist here.

Continue reading “the science of good cooking” giveaway winner and kitchen tips highlights.