From the category archives:

Food Writing

The Heartbreak of Cookbook Overwhelm

February 1, 2010

Tired of being overwhelmed by endless cookbook titles? Take heart: pro cookbook connoisseur Samantha Tackeff guides us through the new cookbook jungle. Let her advise you on the good versus the pointless.

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Goodbye, Gourmet. I’ll Miss You.

October 5, 2009

Is Gourmet magazine closing? Sadly, Conde Nast has decided to close the most historic of American food magazines, Gourmet, while leaving Bon Appetit still in print. Here is a public expression of sadness and outrage at this travesty to culinary literature.

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NPR.org: Freezer Jam – A Baby Step To Canning

September 23, 2009

I’m pleased to announce that my most recent article is up on NPR.org for Kitchen Window Online – Freezer Jam: A Baby Step To Canning. Do you want to know more about canning and preserving fruit? Let me show you how to make freezer jam.

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Guest Post on A Life of Spice – Beef Stew with Coconut

September 18, 2009

This week I’m a guest blogger on Monica Bhide’s blog, where I make the fabulous Beef Stewed in Coconut recipe from her newest cookbook, Modern Spice.

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Kitchen Knives, Part 3: Specialized Knives & Cutlery

June 12, 2009

There are many cool knives you can buy – cleavers, santokus, sushi and cheese knives all have important functions. Here’s a primer on what they’re made for.

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Kitchen Knives, Part 2: Which Knife Do You Need?

June 10, 2009

In a world of countless kinds of kitchen knives, you really only need three.

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Just Call Me Princess Peach

June 5, 2009

There’s only one part of the year that I love more than green garlic season, and that’s stone fruit season. Peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots, apriums – they all cause me to shiver deep down inside as their sweet juices play over my tongue, waking tastebuds that lay dormant from September to June.
Peach Fuzz Love
This week [...]

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Avoiding Airport and Airline Food

May 13, 2009

Eating healthy while flying is a major pain in the arse, but with a little thought, if doesn’t have to be diet warfare.

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How to Un-Season Your Cast Iron Skillet

April 29, 2009

One night last week I made the huge mistake of putting wine in my cast iron skillet. Now, I’m not cookware-ninny… I know my stuff pretty well. And the entire time that I was lifting the wine bottle from my counter, removing the cork, and pouring Sauvignon Blanc into the pan, this little [...]

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You Are What You Eat

April 22, 2009

Many of you don’t know much about my weird medical past, but suffice it to say that I went through a two year period where my health took such a nosedive that I consider myself lucky to be here. I won’t go into details but the end result is that I had to radically [...]

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How to Make Paella: An Anxious Rant

April 13, 2009

Paella recipes are easy to follow, and if you’ve got a paella pan, you can learn to make this Spanish dish, complete with soccarat.

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No Knead Bread

April 3, 2009

Making no knead bread is a skill that’s been handed down for generations, with families keeping their secret recipes from everyone but their most trusted heirs. But thanks to Mary Jane Butters, you too can make your own farm fresh bread just like your great-grandma probably did a hundred years ago. And guess [...]

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March 2009 LoveToKnow Link Roundup

March 23, 2009

I do a lot of food writing these days, but I spend a lot of my time writing for a great website called LoveToKnow. I thought that I should link some of my articles here, since they run the gamut from cooking to diet and nutrition. If you like them, please forward them [...]

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Cooking with a Cazuela

February 25, 2009

Hey everyone,
I’ve been super busy this week with some major projects, but I wanted to let you know that my new article is up on NPR Online: Travels With My Cazuela. The article is about cooking in clay cookware, and how you can bring the vibrance of another country to your home in lieu [...]

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Top 10 Ways to Not Get Bored with Your Food

January 30, 2009

Looking for ways to keep from getting bored with your food? Here are some tips to keep your culinary life alive.

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Cookbook Review: The River Cottage Meat Book

December 24, 2008

While I’ve been trying to not indulge my little cookbook problem, I recently picked up The River Cottage Meat Book by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I’d seen the book around, but not being a big meat eater, I was always a little put off by the cover. Recently, though, my in-laws butchered an extra cow [...]

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Jeannette Ferrary – Out of the Kitchen: Adventures of a Food Writer

November 26, 2008

I first discovered Jeannette Ferrary’s writing when I stumbled upon her short essay, Aesop’s Fable for Food Writers. I’ve since followed her work through the pages of Gourmet and Via, and just last week I was excited to learn that she teaches writing classes just ten minutes from my house at the UC Berkeley [...]

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