Hey everyone,

In case you missed the breaking news report, Craig got me these gorgeous new plates for Christmanukkah. (If we’re being factually accurate, I got them for myself via a Bloomingdale’s sale and then told Craig that they were his Christmas gift to me. Teehee.) But how to first put them to use? Are they every day plates? They most certainly are not. They’re dinner party plates. So bring on the guests!

Our friends Jason and Jeremy came to join us as our friend Jonathan arrived to stay a few nights. What did I cook on such a festive occasion?

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Hey everyone,

We’re rapidly approaching the end of the year and every critic in every category — books, music, figure skating — is writing their “best of the year” lists and now it’s my turn. Normally I do “The Top Five Things I Cooked This Year” and “The Top Five Things That I Ate (at Restaurants) This Year” but that’s a little boring and overly reductive.

So this year, I’m making it a little more interesting by assigning awards in specific categories. You’ll see what I mean. So without further ado here are The Best Things that I Cooked and Ate in 2024!

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Let’s start with my favorite category, that being pasta. 🍝

The Best Pasta That I Cooked at Home: Jimmy Nardello Pepper Pesto Pasta.

As someone who cooks pasta all the time, it takes a lot to astonish me when it comes to a giant pot of pasta. But this one, based on a recipe from the SF Chronicle, dazzled me and my dinner guests with its smoky, sweet, creamy combination. It’s going to become a new summer staple. (Sorry, you have to wait until summer to make it.)

The Best Pasta That I Ate at a Restaurant: Raviolini with Prawns and Saffron at Torrisi.

Sometimes a picture tells the full story and I feel like this one does the trick. Though the price tag at Torrisi is steep ($36!), this simple bowl of ravioli stuffed with seafood and coated in a briny tomato sauce infused with saffron is worth every penny (especially since we were celebrating my parents’ fiftieth anniversary).

My Best Pasta Substitute: Romano Bean Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes and Olives.

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Buying Romano beans at the farmer’s market, I didn’t intend to make them the main event… but when I started cooking them like a pasta, I realized they could be a pasta: and a much more nutritious one too! So that’s how I came up with this dinner which is still memorable all of these months later.

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Moving on, let’s talk cake.

The Best Cake That I Made at Home: Jessie Sheehan’s Cranberry Buckle.

Maybe it’s fresh on my mind because I just made it, but the tartness of the cranberries up against the sweetness of the cake and then the crumbliness of the crumbs on top? This buckle was worth the extra notch on my actual belt buckle. Clear runner-up: this upside-down banana cake from Melissa Clark.

The Best Cake That I Ate at a Restaurant: The Chocolate Cake at Claud on My Birthday.

The cake at Claud is famous for a reason. It’s just as deep, dark, fudgy as you want, with a shocker of sea salt on top. Close runners-up: the layer cake at Gertrude’s and the chocolate layer cake at Jupiter.

The Best Pie That I Made This Year (and I Made a Lot of Pie): Strawberry-Rhubarb.

I’m married to an apple pie person, but if I had to sum myself up in one pie it would be strawberry-rhubarb. It’s tart, it’s sweet, it’s colorful (just like me!) and what makes it extra great is you can really only make it (with integrity) once a year and that’s in the spring.

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Now let’s move into some broader categories:

The Best Post-Colonoscopy Bite: The Lil’ Shonda at S&P.

Imagine being in a desert made of lime green Jell-o powder and off in the distance you see a glimmering white plate topped with toasted rye bread, thick slices of pastrami, muenster cheese, and “Shonda” sauce (which I think is Russian dressing). That’s how it felt as I wandered bleary-eyed from the doctor’s table to one of New York’s most charming diners in New York to eat the best breakfast sandwich in the city.

Worst Fish Eyeball Pie: Noma.

I can’t believe our Noma odyssey was this year… that feels like an eternity ago. And though I’ve reconciled my experience there — if I hadn’t been food poisoned the night before, I might have enjoyed it? — I’m still shook-eth from this course which was the one that finally sent me packing. I still get nauseous looking at this picture.

The Best Meal in Copenhagen: Kodbyens Fiskebar.

If that fish eye were looking through a telescope, at the other end it would’ve seen a restaurant that was every bit Noma’s opposite: casual, welcoming, fun. I loved every moment of our meal at Kodbyens Fiskebar, the only thing I don’t like about it is trying to get a slash through the “o” of Kødbyens.

Best Tacos in Mexico City: Expendio de Maiz Sin Nombre.

This place that Susan Spungen sent us to in Mexico City was so sublime, I don’t think I’ll ever eat a better taco (even though that’s a picture of a quesadilla).

Best Friend Who Turned Fifty and Invited His Friends to Mexico to Celebrate: Chris DuFault.

Best Meal That Chris Took Us To That I Didn’t Write About Because My Pictures Came out Too Dark: Criollo. It was so good!

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Favorite New Plates: The Ones Craig Just Got Me for Christmanukkah. (They’re Vista Allegre… we got them on sale at Bloomingdales. I love them so much.)

Best Souvenir Plate: This One That I Bought in Oaxaca.

The Best Ice Cream to Eat from the Tub with Your Dog: Jenni’s Brambleberry Crisp.

The Most Elaborate Meal That I Cooked This Year: Lamb Shanks Rogan Josh with Ajwain Pancakes

New Favorite NY Restaurant: Café Kestrel.

Other New Favorite NY Restaurant: Sailor.

Favorite New Fancy NY Restaurant: L’Veau d’Or.

Old Favorite NY Restaurant That We Still Love Going To: Bar Bete.

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Best Celebratory Cauliflower: The whole roasted one that I ate with my agent Jenni Ferrari-Adler at abcV after selling my novel.

The Best Burger That Lived Up the Hype: The one at Red Hook Tavern.

The Best Food on a Stick: The S’mores Ice Cream Bar That I Ate in Vancouver.

Favorite Go-To Weeknight Dinner: Miso-Salmon Rice Bowl with Cucumber Salad.

Best Ingredient That I’d Never Cooked with Before: Chestnuts.

Okay, I could keep going and going but it feels right to stop with chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

Thanks for making this year such a fun one to write about… excited to share more in 2025!

Your pal,

Adam

Hey everyone,

It’s that time of year: the time where I share my reviews of all of the books that I read over the past 365 days. This year, instead of using Goodreads, I kept a secret Book Journal on my computer that I’m copying and pasting into this newsletter. Since I have my own novel coming out in May, I figured I should be a bit more discreet about my book reviews and share them only with my beloved readers, that being you.

I read a ton of books this year. My favorites, off the top of my head, were: The Bee Sting, Cassandra at the Wedding, True Grit, All Fours, and James. What do they have in common? Well they’re all funny, though they each grapple with some pretty heavy stuff. I think that’s my sweet spot. There’s one book that I read a hundred pages of and gave up on and that’s Herzog by Saul Bellow… more on that below. Okay, let’s dive in.

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Hey everyone,

I’m not a normal person. That’s what I realized yesterday when I decided to be really laid back and cutesy and casual and just make peanut butter and jelly for lunch.

Of course, the bread had to come from the farmer’s market: a sourdough Pullman loaf from ACQ Bread, which I cut thickly and toasted in my toaster. The peanut butter was from The Meat Hook, a high-end butcher in my neighborhood that has a very curated pantry. The raspberry jam came from the CSA.

By the time I got to making the sandwiches, I realized they’d be prettier open-faced. And also that if they were open-faced, they should have some variety: so for one I slathered on peanut butter and dolloped the jelly in the middle. For the other, I sliced an apple very thinly, drizzled with honey, and sprinkled with Maldon sea salt.

Is the stuff bestselling food newsletters are made of? I’m not sure. But as you can see, I take food very seriously. Even food that’s not meant to be serious.

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In a similar vein, I take my restaurant meals very seriously too. Which is why I feel like I’ve discovered gold in finding a dreamy new Chinese restaurant in the theater district: Sky Pavillion.

We went there with our pals Mark and Diana before seeing Audra McDonald in GYPSY (an iconic performance: get your tickets now!). Finding a genuinely good place to eat in the theater district is a huge accomplishment; and the food at Sky Pavillion is extraordinarily delicious (and spicy) Szechuan cuisine.

We loved everything that we ate, but highlights were the potted tofu (the dish on the bottom) which came lots of chilies and peanuts on top; the spicy chicken with fried dough on the right; the cumin lamb up top; and the dry sautéed string beans on the left. I want to buy more theater tickets just so we can go back.

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Last night we had some friends over and I made my usual spicy spatchcocked chicken with salsa verde:

Only instead of serving with couscous, I decided to make Smitten Kitchen’s Broccoli Rubble Farro Salad.

It’s a really brilliant recipe. You take broccoli, you boil it for two minutes, then you chop it up and sauté it with lots of garlic, chili flakes, and lemon zest before stirring into cooked farro and adding Pecorino cheese.

I made it because I still had leftover broccoli from my CSA, but I also wanted to put some veggies on the plate. The only tricky part was the farro that I bought was really hard (I don’t think it was pearled) so it took almost an hour of boiling to become tender and even then, it was still pretty al dente. So when it comes to farro: buyer beware.

For dessert I made an apple pie, because it’s just the right thing to do in December.

Also I’m really into pie-making this year because even though I’ve done it a ton of times now, I still find it a challenge to get it just right. In this particular case, I didn’t roll out the bottom dough enough; but I corrected by rolling the top dough thinner and creating a seal with lots of pinching and folding and crimping.

Remember my motto: even an imperfect apple pie is still an apple pie.

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Hey, let’s look at some links:

• The Most Popular Recipes of 2024 (NYT);

• The Best Cookbooks of 2024 according to Celia Stack (KCRW);

• A Bourbon, blueberry, and bitter cocktail (The Guardian);

• If this Dick Van Dyke video doesn’t bring a tear to your eye, I can’t help you (Kottke.org).

That’s all for today, folks! Oh check out my pantry pasta with miso and fish sauce on Instagram:

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See you back here on Thursday….

Your pal,

Adam

Hey everyone,

Boy, when I signed up for a CSA (Farm to People) I had no idea how taken up my life would be with vegetables. I cooked so many vegetables this week that I actually made myself sick. My body was like: “What is all this healthful stuff you’re putting into me? Please, for the love of God, make me a cake!”

I didn’t make a cake, I made a buckle. But more on that in a second.

Let me tell you what I did with all these veggies that showed up on my doorstep on Monday….

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Hey everyone,

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

As you can see above, I had a very full plate this year. If you’re new here, a little background: my family lives in Boca Raton, Florida, and though I’ve cooked Thanksgiving dinner for them in the past (in 2007, to be specific), we now all agree that “it’s just easier” (my mom’s favorite quote) to go to their golf club buffet.

Here’s the family all gathered before ascending the stairs to the all-you-can-eat shrimp next to the Thanksgiving ice sculpture:

To tell the truth, there’s something nice about having all of that Thanksgiving food made for you… especially made for me, since I cook almost every other day of the year. And I don’t feel particularly compelled to put my personal spin on a turkey breast or gravy.

(That said, I did float the idea of cooking dinner here in Brooklyn next year. We’ll see!)

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But that’s not the headline of this post… you’re here for a gift guide and I’ve got one for you: on video.

Take it away, Instagram (click the picture to watch):

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If you want it all in a clickable list, I’ve got that for you too (a lot of these are currently on sale for Cyber Monday):

• a chef’s knife with a red handle from Made In (my go-to knife)

• a Chef’s Choice knife sharpener (I use this all the time)

• a chef’s knife and a cutting board from Frederick’s and Mae

• a marble mortar and pestle from Whisk NYC

• Mason Cash Mixing Bowls on sale at Macy’s (these are the same ones they use on The Great British Baking Show)

• a magnum plus pepper mill from Unicorn Mills

• a spatula from Lamson Cutlery (currently out of stock, but may be available elsewhere)

• a big bucket of Maldon Sea Salt

• tinned fish from Fish Wife (perfect smelly stocking stuffer)

• a baguette candle from John Derian

• Via Monodori Balsamic (available on various sites)

Hope that gives you some inspiration.

And don’t forget, you can get 50% off my newsletter if you sign up right now. That means getting me in your inbox twice a week instead of just once:

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After Thanksgiving in Boca, we took the Brightline — a high speed train — up to Orlando, a terrific alternative to driving. We were there in just two and a half hours.

We were there to visit our friends Michael and John, who relocated there from L.A. two years ago. Here they are in their lovely new home (we ate their delicious homemade Thanksgiving leftovers, a second Thanksgiving for us).

On Saturday, John shepherded us to EPCOT where were first in line (because of the virtual cue which John woke up at 7 AM to join… thanks John!) for the new Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind roller coaster.

Now if you know anything about me, I hate roller coasters. Specifically: I hate that lurching, droppy, nauseating feelings they induce. Because I’m married to a roller coaster enthusiast, I’ve learned to make peace with the Disney classics like Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain.

This one, however, terrified me because it goes backwards and spins around. But because John went to all of that trouble, and because Disney spent an estimated $500 million on the ride, I felt like I had to just suck it up and go on.

I may be smiling in this pic, but holy crap did this make me feel horrible! Imagine sitting on a tea cup spinning round and round that’s set on a roller coaster track and you’ll get the idea. Just when I was getting my bearings, the seat would swivel in a new direction. At some point we were circumnavigating the moon and I was writing my last will and testament in my head.

Suffice it to say: I’m proud of myself for going on, but to quote my girlfriend in high school after I made her a mix tape featuring songs from A Chorus Line: “This just isn’t for me.”

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We did find a really fun place for a very necessary stiff drink in EPCOT, later in the afternoon. Apparently Neil Patrick Harris’s favorite spot is the tequila bar inside the Mexico pavilion and hanging out here with John and Craig proved to be a highlight of the day.

The drinks were very sweet and the tortilla chips tasted weird, but this was EPCOT and the alcohol helped calm me down after my roller coaster trauma. I also braved the Tron ride at the Magic Kingdom (death on a stick!) and the new Splash Mountain, which featured a story about a chef who turns into a frog.

That image of Craig with his hands up and me screaming my head off is the best encapsulation of our relationship I’ve ever seen.

Now that we’re back, I’m excited: I just signed up for a Farm to People delivery box that’s coming today. Should be a great way to get fresh produce in the winter.

One thing I cooked before I left were David Chang’s Momofuku Ssam Bar Brussels Sprouts. Here’s a video I made about it:

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They’re Craig’s favorite and a surprising way to cook a winter vegetable.

Hey, let’s look at some links:

• Tolstoy’s Recipe for Mac and Cheese (Lit Hub);

• Helen Rosner’s terrific holiday gift guide (The New Yorker);

• Christine Muhlke’s holiday gift guide (this is where I learned about Farm to Table) (XTine);

• I’m featured in this Cup of Jo Holiday Gift Guide for Dads… thanks Joanna! (Cup of Jo).

That’s all for today, folks!

See you paid subscribers back here on Thursday….

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Your pal,

Adam

Hey everyone,

We just had the loveliest weekend visiting our friends Mark and Diana and their three kiddos Pheobe, Gabe, and Teddy. It’s Mark’s birthday on Tuesday and normally he sings the Thanksgiving blues — as in: everyone is gone for Thanksgiving and not there to celebrate his birthday — but this time around we did the celebrating early.

Diana cooked up an absolute storm. Before I get to that, though, I want to offer you a little gift!

Since Black Friday is rapidly approaching, and since I won’t be doing a Thursday newsletter this week (pretty sure that Thursday is Thanksgiving!), I wanted to offer you a spectacular deal: 50% off my newsletter for the next year.

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This offer is good for one week. Unfortunately, it’s not available for those who are already paid subscribers. But if you want to get my newsletter twice a week (Mondays are free, Thursdays are not), and have access to my full archives, there’s no better time to become a paid subscriber.

Here are real quotes from actual readers:

Okay, enough self-promotion. If you’d like to grab the deal before it’s gone, click this button:

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Back to Diana-promotion!

When we arrived on Friday, Diana was cooking up a scrumptious citrus salmon dinner a la Alison Roman.

She made an incredible beet salad from Chez Panisse:

And for dessert, an upside-down pineapple cake from Ad Hoc at Home:

If you’re like: “Wow, that’s a lot of cooking!” we’re just getting started.

On Saturday morning, Diana put out a gorgeous bowl of fruit (mangos, blueberries, blackberries), yogurt, and granola:

For lunch, Craig and Mark bought empanadas from the farmer’s market and Diana made Bar Tartine’s Chicory Salad with Anchovy Dressing:

And then she really got to work cooking Mark’s birthday dinner. The main event was Carla Lalli Music’s hands-off pork and beans:

This was an absolute masterpiece: the pork shoulder fat infuses black-eyed peas; then you blend half of them and get a creamy sauce.

There was a wintery salad that came from my blog (Diana’s is much prettier)!

It was so juicy and crunchy: celery, apples, fennel… plus raisins and parsley and nuts. A winning combination.

Here are Mark’s NYU film school friends (including Craig) and their spouses all gathered around the table:

For Mark’s birthday dessert, there was a sunken Black forest cake from Smitten Kitchen:

How’s that for a weekend of cooking? If we’d stayed at the Ritz in Paris, we wouldn’t have eaten better.

Thank you, Diana, for a gorgeous weekend of eating! And happy birthday, Mark!

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In case you think I was useless in all of this, I brought Ottolenghi’s pecan and chocolate chip cookies which I just made a video about on Instagram (recipe’s in the caption):

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Another video I posted is the risi e bisi that I made the night before we left. Rice and peas can’t really stand up to Diana’s creations, but it’s a nice quick dinner:

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Hey, let’s look at some links:

• Helen Rosner’s annual holiday gift guide (The New Yorker);

• Really curious about Ruth Reichl’s sour cream apple pie (La Briffe);

• A Members-Only Café for Dogs is Now Open… my gift to Winston? (Eater NY).

That’s all for this week, folks!

Hope you have terrific Thanksgivings. If you want to keep tabs on me, give me a follow on Instagram: I’ll be updating from a Florida buffet.

Until next time….

Your pal,

Adam

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Hey everyone,

The last time that I made meatballs — which wasn’t too long ago — I made giant meatballs. In a weird way, they were almost hamburger meatballs: in that each guest got a big blob of ground beef held together with a variety of flavoring agents and instead of a bun, there was polenta.

This time I wanted to make more casual, everyday meatballs. I turned to an Instagram post by Kenji where he laid it all out….

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Hey everyone,

Can we take a moment to admire the crust in that picture above? I made that with my very own fingers. It’s the fourth pie I’ve made in the past month: there was the chocolate chess pie, the regular chess pie, a chocolate Bourbon pecan pie (more on that in a sec), and now this cook-the-apples-first apple pie inspired by Erin Jeanne McDowell. Here’s a video:

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Yes, I finally succumbed to the pie wizardry of Erin McDowell (I’ve had her pie book for a while!) and this technique of cooking down the apples before you put them in the pie is pretty genius.

It’s also pretty time-consuming and dishes-dirtying. As I say in the video, this is not the pie that you want to make if you’re hosting Thanksgiving this year. This IS the pie to make, however, if you’re asked to bring dessert and you want to knock people’s socks off.

There are two main ideas behind this pie: #1 (and the most important) is that by cooking the apples first, they shrink in the pot and therefore when you cool them and pack them into your pie crust, that space between the top crust and the apples doesn’t get an air pocket… you’ll have one apple-packed, dense piece of apple pie; and #2 (and I found this pretty interesting) by cooking some of the liquid out and starting that process of thickening with flour you create the base of what becomes an almost apple caramel that coats the apples at the end.

Would I make this pie every time I make an apple pie? Probably not. It’s a special occasion kind of thing. But wow did this make the house smell good. And when we finally cut into it and lifted a slice, it was as packed with apples as anything I’ve ever seen and tasted like pure heaven.

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Speaking of apples, I had a bunch of VIP food guests over the other night, including Cup of Jo’s Joanna Goddard and her lovely new boyfriend (just revealed in her newsletter!) Freddie, plus Eric Kim, his lovely fiancé Paolo, and Dinner: A Love Story’s Jenny Rosenstrach and her delightful husband Andy.

What did I make this distinguished crowd?

The answer: pork shoulder braised in apple cider per Molly Stevens’s brilliant recipe. Let’s go to the tape:

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I’d actually just watched an America’s Test Kitchen where Julia seasoned a pork loin with crushed coriander and cloves, so I added that to the meat (just a pinch of cloves) to shake things up a little.

Otherwise, the dish was a perfect fall meal. And I used Jenny’s recipe for making the polenta a day ahead and then baking it in the oven.

In fact, I made the whole meal ahead so I could go see a matinee of Maybe Happy Ending starring Darren Cris at 2 PM five hours before people came over. (I absolutely loved it. Highly recommend!) How’s that for dinner party chutzpah?

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For dessert, I made Melissa Clark’s chocolate Bourbon pecan pie:

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I use the same pie crust recipe every time — it’s the one that I have written out by hand on my fridge (but I have it memorized): 2 1/2 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 2 sticks of cold butter cubed, and 3/4ths a cup of ice water (usually more).

The pre-baking — which helps you avoid a soggy bottom — is made easier by using foil and pie weights, really jamming the foil between the crimps so they hold. (A great Jessie Sheehan trick.)

The finished pie was nice and boozy (I may have added a little extra hooch) and enhanced with fresh whipped cream into which I have also added a little extra Bourbon.

Finally, I went on Saturday night with my friend Chris to dinner at Ernesto’s on the LES.

It’s a Basque restaurant and everything that we ate was excellent, especially the house-made potato chips with Iberico ham (above) and the Hemingway “bikini,” a sort of panini with shrimp, sausage, and topped with honey:

It’s always nice to go to dinner with a professional food model.

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Hey, let’s look at some links! But first let’s look at Winston:

• How Healthy Are Sweet Potatoes? (NYT);

• Rude customers at Alinea (Eater Chicago);

• How to turn old bagged salad into a nutritious soup (The Guardian).

That’s all for today, folks!

See you back here on Monday….

Your pal,

Adam

P.S. If you haven’t already, pre-order my novel!

Hey everyone,

My book cover is here! As many of you may remember, I wrote a novel called FOOD PERSON that I sold to Knopf back in March. The cover’s been in the works for a while and this week I finally have permission to share it. I’m over the moon with the design by Janet Hansen: it captures the spirit of the book 100%.

Here’s the summary of the story from my publisher:

“Isabella Pasternack is a food person. She revels in the beauty of a perfectly cooked egg, she daydreams about her first meal at Chez Panisse, and every inch of her tiny apartment teems with cookbooks, from Prune to Cooking by Hand to Roast Chicken and Other Stories. What Isabella is not, unfortunately, is a gainfully employed person. In the wake of a disastrous live-streamed soufflé demonstration, Isabella is summarily fired from her job at a digital food magazine and must quickly find a way to keep herself in buckwheat and anchovy paste. When offered the opportunity to ghostwrite a cookbook for Molly Babcock, the once-beloved television actress now mired in scandal, Isabella warily accepts. Unfortunately, Molly quickly proves herself to be a nightmare collaborator: hungover, flakey, shallow, and—worst of all—indifferent to food. But between Molly’s bizarre late-night texts, goofy confessions, and impromptu road trips, Isabella reluctantly begins to see Molly’s charms. Can Isabella corral Molly out of the gossip rags and into the kitchen? Can she find the key to Molly’s heart and stomach? Or will Isabella’s devotion to her culinary idols and Molly’s monstrous ego send the entire cookbook—and both of their careers—up in flames?

A mouth-watering, hilarious debut peppered with insider food world detail—the real writers behind celebrity chef cookbooks, the hot restaurants that run on the backs of their sous-chefs, the secret to perfect blinis á la Russe—Adam Roberts’ Food Person is a literary soufflé—a deceptively light, deliciously rich, showstopping confection.”

Are you sold yet?

Good! Then do the smart thing and pre-order your copy by clicking this button:

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I’m so excited for you to read it!

Your favorite food person,

Adam

Hey everyone,

Craig’s in L.A. right now. It’s actually a funny story: many of you probably know that he directed and co-wrote the movie The Skeleton Twins. He received a Google alert the other day that the Vulture Festival was doing a ten-year Skeleton Twins reunion with Bill Hader and Kristin Wiig… only nobody told him! Lol. That’s Hollywood for you. So he’s there to attend and if you live in L.A. and get tickets, be sure to say hi.

Flying solo, I’ve been keeping busy meeting up with friends and cooking lots and lots. After breakfast with my friend Diana on Friday at Café Chelsea (tres chic), we went to the farmer’s market and I bought a beautiful Kuri squash that weighed more than a bowling bowl.

On Saturday, I had some friends over (two who are vegetarians) so I decided to make this Twice-Cooked Squash Recipe from Bon Appetit. The cool technique, and one that I’ll probably use again, is that you just stab the squash all over, put it on a foil-lined cookie sheet, and bake in the oven for three hours.

The rest of the recipe involves cutting it open, pulling out the seeds, then scooping the flesh into a bowl and mixing it with butter and Parmesan. Only: instead of using softened butter, like the recipe tells you, I used melted butter. Let’s go to the tape:

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As you can see, I put the filling into the torn squash skin and baked it and it all went splat in the oven.

Frankly, when it came out it looked like a tray of orange barf. And people were coming over within minutes! So I did the only thing I could think to do: I sprinkled on a bunch of chopped parsley and some pickled red chilies. And if it weren’t for me profusely apologizing and talking about how much it looked like throw-up, I think everyone would’ve actually enjoyed it! It’s a lesson I’m always telling other people but didn’t follow myself: don’t talk badly about your food at a dinner party or it ruins it for everyone….

The barley salad I served along side (also part of the same recipe) was in fact a winner, with scallions, dried cherries (my touch), and toasted pepitas.

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For dessert, I made a buttermilk pie using Samantha Seneviratne’s recipe.

Isn’t she pretty?

Fact is, I had some issues here too. (Maybe I’m still shaky after the election.) I blind-baked the crust only I took the pie weights out too soon and the crust shrank a bit too much…

Being the pre-med person that I was in college (yes I took biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics), I did some surgery and lifted the most sunken part and it was high enough to hold the filling. Let’s look at the video:

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I also screwed up the filling, using 3 eggs and 2 egg yolks instead of 3 egg yolks and 2 eggs. I’m really off my game! Though it’s really good for my brand as the “amateur” gourmet.

Anyway, the buttermilk pie was delicious. Simple and custardy and beautifully caramelized.

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On that same trip to the farmer’s market with Diana, I bought some salad at Campo Rosso — the stand with “greens chefs go crazy for.”

To turn it into lunch yesterday, I made a quick dressing with Dijon, white wine vinegar, olive oil, and Parmesan. I tossed the lettuces with it, plus a sliced pear and some toasted walnuts. As a final gesture, I added some leftover barley salad from the dinner party.

Look how pretty it looks on my peacock plate.

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Finally, I went last night with my friends John (of New Bake City) and Glenn to Field Guide in Williamsburg, a new restaurant from a chef at Eleven Madison Park.

All of the food was lovely. We started with a paté, a little gem salad with duck prosciutto, and butternut squash medallions in a clam sauce.

For our entrees, John and I both had the chicken with a sourdough stuffing and Glenn had the steak.

Everything was expertly presented, though my chicken came with yogurt, granola, and cherry jam and felt more like a breakfast parfait with a chicken next to it than a cohesive dish? Wow, look at me, I’m just like Gail Simmons on Top Chef!

That’s all for today, folks.

[Sadly I didn’t collect many links last week… I was reading too much news.]

Until next time….

Your pal,

Adam

Hey everyone,

It felt kind of glib to write a food newsletter in the wake of the election, but as my fellow food newsletter writers sent theirs out, I actually found them comforting. It was a reminder that life still goes on.

Yesterday I posted this cacio e pepe recipe on Instagram and instead of people being like “how nice of you to share your favorite comfort food recipe in such stressful times” they were like “ewwww, you call that cacio e pepe? That’s pepper butter water!”

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Hey everyone,

Are you feeling antsy about tomorrow? Do you want a big cooking project to keep you sane while the election results are slowly rolling in? Let me introduce you to the vegetarian chili that I made this weekend. Here’s a video to start things off:

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This recipe is inspired by this very strange one that I saw them make on Cook’s Country (part of my PBS cooking-show watching ritual). Actually, I just realized it was on America’s Test Kitchen — it’s confusing because they’re all the same hosts, though on A.T.K. Julia now has bangs.

Anyway, what makes it so strange is that it has SOY SAUCE in it. And pearl barley. And dried porcini mushrooms.

But where I took my own path less traveled was that I decided not to use canned beans and to cook dried beans in THREE SEPARATE POTS with mirepoix + a poblano chili.

Why did I do such a crazy thing? Because I was afeared that using canned beans would just be blah and that cooking the dried beans separately would produce incredible textures and flavors — because I’d be infusing the beans with all that extra bean cooking liquid. And you know what? It paid off.

There were some issues, of course. For starters: I ran out of room in my big giant pot once I added toasted ancho chilies blended with two cans of tomatoes and chilies in Adobo (I doubled the recipe). I had to ladle a bunch out into a separate pot to make this manageable.

But once it cooked down? It had sooooo much flavor. The porcini gives it umami, the toasted dried chilies gives it a fruitiness, the chilies in Adobo give it great heat, and the poblanos give it freshness. I served it up with all kinds of toppings: scallions, onions, cilantro, sour cream, cheddar cheese.

Look at these happy chili eaters:

If you want to make it, I put the recipe in the Instagram video caption or you can find the America’s Test Kitchen version here. You can decide if you want to cook the beans individually but I say it’s worth it.

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For dessert last night, I made a chocolate chess pie using Virginia Willis’s recipe on Martha Stewart’s site.

What is a chess pie?

Apparently it gets its name from Southerner’s saying “it’s jess pie” (like “just pie”) and in a way, that makes sense, because it’s a pretty humble creation… this one had an all-butter crust that I proudly shaped and pre-baked myself.

The filling was eggs, sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, buttermilk (a key ingredient), and melted chocolate and butter.

(Notice my new Mason Cash mixing bowl… I wanted to be just like the Great British Baking Show bakers!)

The resulting pie was decadent and flaky and had a great caramelized flavor from the dark brown crust. Of course I had to serve it with homemade whipped cream:

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On Saturday morning, I whipped up ricotta pancakes (using Genevieve Ko’s recipe) with Meat Hook sausages and a pear compote that I made by sautéing peeled, cored, and sliced pears in butter with brown sugar and cinnamon.

A very brown breakfast, but that’s what made it so good.

And speaking of breakfast, we had breakfast yesterday with our pals Dorie and Damir at Inga’s Bar in Brooklyn Heights:

Their egg sandwich with maple sausage was far out. And their banana bread was insanely good — griddled and warm with chocolate in it and tons of whipped cream on top.

Hey let’s look at some links:

• Patricia Wells is auctioning off her personal collection of kitchen items… pretty incredible and fun to click through (My French Country Home);

• Martha Stewart gives her Netflix doc a “scalding” review (NYT);

• Analyzing Nora Ephron (NYT).

That’s all for today, folks!

Try to stay sane tomorrow…

Your pal,

Adam

Hey everyone,

Are you still recovering from Halloween? We went to a party last night and I had one too many Aperol spritzes; trying to cure it with Advil, a chocolate croissant, and coffee.

In the meanwhile, let me tell you about my day yesterday. I met my pal Diana for lunch at S&P which has one of the best breakfast sandwiches in the city.

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Hey everyone,

I had one of my big cooking Sundays yesterday. It’s always nice to know you’re having friends over on Sunday night because it gives you an excuse to play around in the kitchen all day — otherwise, I’d just be laying on the couch watching PBS Cooking Shows. Actually, speaking of cooking shows, how much do we love Nelly on The Great British Baking Show?

She’s my favorite (though I was rooting for the gay farmer). Who’s your fave this season?

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Back to cooking.

Yesterday I hosted our friends Kip and Patrick their friend from Brazil Ciao and our friend Lucie.

I decided to make meatballs and polenta only I took a big leap and made GIANT MEATBALLS.

Why giant meatballs? Why not?!

I used a mixture of recipes and mixed together 1 1/2 pounds of ground pork and 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef, plus bread that I soaked in milk, plus 1 cup of Parmesan, plus — and this is the wild part — RICOTTA.

This worked out to about 1/2 pound of meat per person. I’d give you the specific recipe but I can’t say it was better than any other recipe; it was just sort of improvised except the meatballs were huge. The hardest part was frying the meatballs and keeping them in round shapes. They ended up looking a big like pyramids or torpedos.

Served on cheesy, buttery polenta with a big ladleful of meat-infused tomato sauce on top? They were a huge hit. (I’ll make a video of the process tomorrow and put it on Insta.)

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Speaking of videos on Insta, here’s a video I just posted about Dario Cecchini’s Olive Oil Cake with Whole Oranges, Pine Nuts, and Rosemary.

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The funny thing about this video is that I thought I was posting something new but apparently I made a similar video in November last year. That must mean I really like this cake! (I put the recipe in the caption.)

The main difference between the two videos (and the two cakes) is that this time I didn’t sprinkle 1/4 cup of granulated sugar on top — it looked too sandy last time. This time I only did two tablespoons and I think the cake came out perfect.

I may have a little nibble right now!

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Remember how in my last newsletter (or two newsletters ago) I made challah French toast with homemade challah? Well I froze a bunch of that challah and this weekend I made it again, only this time it came out better.

What’s the diff? I used a non-stick skillet this time (I used cast iron last time). The non-stick was a better choice because as the crust formed, I could lift and look and see how it was doing without tearing the bread. Or maybe the slices were smaller and didn’t crowd the pan as much.

The point is I just wanted to post that picture of that really sexy challah French toast.

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And just in case you think this newsletter doesn’t have enough carbs, on Friday night we checked out a lovely little pizza spot called Aromi on Court Street.

The pizza was great — light and airy — and the atmosphere was vibrant and cozy. It’s right across the street from a new gay bar in our hood called Loafer’s (as in “light in the loafers”) that we were checking out. Drinks at Loafer’s and pizza at Aromi? Now that’s my kind of Friday night.

Hey let’s look at some links:

• I’ve seen a bunch of Wonders lately and I’m grateful Matt Schneier ordered from there to see whether it’s any good (NY Magazine);

• The 16 Best Cookbooks of Fall 2024 (Eater);

• The 17 Best Bagels in NY Right Now (NYT);

• The Best Bagels in NY… another new list (Eater NY).

That’s all for today, folks!

See you back here on Thursday….

Your pal,

Adam

Hi everyone,

I’m going through a profound restructuring of my brain vis-a-vis social media. There are so many articles lately about people downgrading their smart phones to dumb phones eager to get away from the constant stream of updates, selfies, recipes, hot takes, and election freak-outs.

My new strategy involves a device that we bought with an Apple store credit earlier last year that we rarely use…

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Hey everyone,

My friend Ben Mims once came to stay with me and as a “thank you” gift he brought me a copy of the vintage cookbook How to Cook Like a Jewish Mother. Crazily enough I already had a copy that I found at a vintage shop in Concord, Massachusetts. But having two copies felt right even if, truth be told, I rarely cook like a Jewish mother.

Mostly I cook like an Italian grandmother? Ribollita and ragu are more prominent in my repertoire than blintzes and chopped liver, but all of that changed on Friday night when I inadvertently made a Shabbat dinner not because I was feeling religious but because we both have colds.

Starting with the inevitable chicken soup from scratch. Let’s go to the video:

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It’s a pretty rustic soup recipe — one that I’ve been making for a while (since 2005!) — but it always hits the spot. And it tastes so much fresher than anything you might get from a box or a can.

Even Winston, who didn’t have a cold, wanted some.

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Along with the chicken soup, I tapped into my inner Jake Cohen and made, for my very first time, challah from scratch.

Of course I used Joan Nathan’s recipe (featured in the NYT, though you can find it all over the internet) and found the dough a pleasure to make. Essentially it’s yeast, flour, sugar, oil, water, and eggs. It’s after it rises twice and you cut it in half and then into five balls which you roll into logs that things get tricky.

They were supposed to be about 12-inches long and 1-inch thick, and I got close enough (I do keep a ruler in my kitchen). The braiding was tricky. Even though I watched a Great British Baking Show episode recently where Paul Hollywood demonstrated a neat braid, Joan Nathan’s technique felt like quantum physics:

“Move the outside right strand over 2 strands. Then take the second strand from the left and move it to the far right. Take the outside left strand and move it over 2. Move second strand from the right over to the far left. Start over with the outside right strand.”

This felt less like bread making and more like an IQ test or an audition for Mensa. Thankfully, I got the hang of it and after letting it rise and brushing with egg, I baked it for the requisite 25 minutes and it came out golden and beautiful.

Not bad for my first challah. Next time, I may wrap it around itself and go for a round challah that looks like Princess Leia’s hair. It would be nice to get bigger peaks. I’m guessing in the comments some of you will say “roll those logs thinner” or “go for a tighter braid.” Have at it, Jewish mothers!

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Of course, I couldn’t have all of this challah and not make Challah French Toast the next day.

True the breakfast sausage made with pork wasn’t very Jewish, but the guilt I felt about eating it was.

Challah French Toast is the ultimate treat and when you make the challah yourself, it’s even better.

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Hey let’s look at some links:

• The new color Kindle could be great for cookbooks! (Kottke.org);

• Is bone broth really that good for you? (NYT);

• Sausages, beans, and soups from Nigel Slater (The Guardian).

That’s all for today, folks!

See you back here on Thursday….

Your pal,

Adam

Hey everyone,

I’ve been on a cooking kick this week! That’s partly to due to the fact that on Sunday we both came down with colds — probably a result of all the travel and family time and nonstop activity.

There’s only one thing that you should cook when you have a cold and it starts with “s” and rhymes with “gloop.” On Tuesday night, I found myself with an abundance of honeynut squash (sort of like mini butternut squash) and pears, not to mention carrots, onions, celery, and ginger….

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Hey everyone,

I have a go-to weeknight dinner these days. Step one: cook rice in the rice cooker (I’m into sushi rice lately). Step two: slice some tiny cucumbers, toss them with toasted sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and a bit of chili crisp if you have it. Step three: coat salmon in a mixture of yellow miso, soy sauce, mirin, and honey (Kenji’s recipe is good template, subbing mirin for sake and adding honey)… and here’s where things get tricky.

You can just bake your salmon in a 425 oven until lit hits 140 on a thermometer, but then you don’t get a burnished top. You can broil the salmon, but if it’s a thick filet (like these ones are), it won’t get cooked all the way through.

So here’s what I’ve come up with: I pre-heat the oven to 425. Then I turn on the broiler. I place the miso-marinated salmon on a lined-cookie sheet (I was out of foil, so I used parchment to mixed effect, as you can see)… then I broil as much as possible, to get the top as deep, dark, and golden brown as I can. When it’s just on the verge of burning, I take the temperature… if it still has a way to go, I turn off the broiler, turn the oven back to 425 (which should take zero minutes since you already preheated), and then finish by baking/roasting. It only takes a few minutes more.

The results are lovely: you get the best of both worlds. A crispy, caramelized top and a salmon that’s cooked all the way through. Aren’t you glad you subscribe to this newsletter?

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This weekend, my niece Ella and nephew Jordan came to New York for their very first time.

Meeting Winston was definitely a highlight for them, as was our basement where they each found a pair of googly glasses.

As far as food went, we all met up on Saturday at The Central Park Boathouse, which earned a solid review from Helen Rosner in The New Yorker.

The view at The Boathouse is stunning: you’re overlooking the lake and all the rowboats. It’s maybe one of the best views for brunch in all of NYC?

The food is fine, better than it has to be, as Helen says. I had a perfectly nice shrimp cocktail:

Then I had a salad… or I almost had a salad: while everyone else got their food, mine never came out. I think the waitress must’ve missed my order? When everyone was done, I ate this, which was nice enough (that’s broiled goat cheese on top).

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On Saturday afternoon, we came to my neighborhood — where Ella and Jordan met Winston — and then all walked to Cafe Spaghetti for dinner.

This was an excellent choice for the whole family: we had a nice big table outside on the back patio, there were lots of other kids there, and my parents loved their food. (They shared a linguine vongole and a branzino; I had the orrechiette with broccoli rabe and sausage.)

The best part might’ve been the desserts: cannolis? Check. Tiramisu? Check. The best one is the spumoni: three layers of ice cream in a chocolate shell. Ella gave it her official approval.

Let’s look at some links, shall we?

• Clare de Boer’s cider-roasted apples look absolutely incredible (The Best Bit);

• “The Substance” is one of the best food movies in years (I’m too squeamish to see it) (Eater);

• The Truth About Tuna (NYT);

• Briny, Butter, Summery… Adjectives in the NYT Cooking Section (Reddit; via Kottke.org);

• The Absolute Best Butter for Every Occassion (Forbes);

• Nigel Slater’s Grub Street Diet (Grub Street);

• Kenji’s Restaurant Red Flags (Patreon);

• The trailer for the new Martha Stewart doc:

That’s all for today, folks!

See you back here on Thursday….

Your pal,

Adam

Hey everyone,

Sorry for the radio silence! We left last Friday for Mexico and I forgot to tell you I wouldn’t be doing a newsletter this Monday or Thursday. But here I am, it’s Friday, and I’m ready to tell you all about our amazing trip.

Our close friend Chris Dufault turned fifty on Tuesday and instead of hosting some lame old party at a restaurant (not that there’s anything wrong with that), he invited twenty (or more) of his closest friends on a three-part trip to Mexico starting in Mexico City, moving on to Oaxaca, and finishing in Zipolite. We signed on for parts one and two.

I’d been to Mexico City once before, where we visited the greatest hits (the ones that were still open because it was New Year’s) including Pujol and Contramar. This time we started at a restaurant that our friend Josh called one of his “favorite restaurants in the world”: Lardo, an Italian restaurant with Mexican flair right next to our hotel in Condesa.

Everything that we ate there was delish, but this huitlacoche pizza — that’s Mexican corn fungus pizza — was outrageously good:

Look carefully on the lower left and you’ll see what looks like a piece of corn with a mushroom growing out of it… very cool!

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We stayed at the same hotel this time that we stayed at last time: Condesa DF, a lovely, quirky hotel right in the middle of the Condesa district. Their breakfast buffet (included with your room) is very cute.

We had many terrific meals in Mexico City, but the one that stands out the most was our lunch at Expendio de Maiz Sin Nombre, suggested to me by food writer extraordinaire and Substack superstar Susan Spungen.

Expendio doesn’t take reservations: you show up, they take your number, and give you an approximate wait time. We showed up at one, got told “two hours,” and they called us an hour-and-a-half later. What followed was sort of a Mexican omakase — they brought out course-after-course and would keep going until we told them to stop.

The first course (the lead picture in this post) was a sort of quesadilla made with blue masa, as was the taco that you see above featuring pork and a bevy of other ingredients. This is definitely a “Top Five Taco of My Life” situation. The next one, which had all kinds of vegetables, was a bit more unwieldy but still delicious.

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That night, a large group (the largest group of the trip), went to La Capital restaurant for Chris’s big birthday dinner.

I’d never heard of La Capital, but Chris had gone on a scouting trip to Mexico City to find a restaurant that would accommodate twenty people and still be really good. Turns out it was better than good; it was one of my favorite meals of the trip.

These tuna tostadas were beyond good; the thing that made them extra special were the potato chip-like burnt corn husks on top:

My pollo pastor was dreamy. I’d share a picture, but I need to save room for Oaxaca pics.

Leg Two of the trip, Oaxaca, was extra exciting for me because: (a) I’d never been; (b) I’m fascinated by Oaxacan cuisine.

Our first morning there, we went to Boulenc which should be mandatory for any visitor. Not just because the pastries and coffee are excellent, but because the atmosphere is delightful.

I loved the mug they served my cappuccino in:

Lunch that day was at Tacos del Carmen, a street stand right in the middle of town.

The chile rellenos taco and the chorizo tacos are not to be missed; especially when you watch them made right in front of you.

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My favorite meal of the entire trip, though, took place at Levadura de Olla.

This was the most recommended restaurant and I can see why: the ingredients were all locally grown and indigenous to the region. That tomato salad was unlike any I’d ever had before. And this dish — a mushroom quesadilla in a spicy sauce — was mind-expanding, it was so complex both in texture and flavor.

Here’s a video I made of the entire journey that’ll bring some of this to life:

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I’m getting a notification that this post is too long for email so I’ll cut things off here. Trust me when I say we also ate molé, drank Mezcal, and did all of the things you’re supposed to do in Oaxaca.

To recap, these were my favorite places in Mexico City and Oaxaca:

• Lardo, Agustín Melgar 6, Colonia Condesa, Cuauhtémoc, 06140 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico.

• Expendio de Maiz, Av. Yucatán 84, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico

• Restaurante La Capital, Av Nuevo León 137, Colonia Condesa, Cuauhtémoc, 06140 Ciudad de México, CDMX, Mexico

• Boulenc, C. Porfirio Díaz 207, RUTA INDEPENDENCIA, Centro, 68000 Oaxaca de Juárez, Oax., Mexico

• Tacos del Carmen, Jesús Carranza 110, RUTA INDEPENDENCIA, Centro, 68000 Oaxaca de Juárez, Oax., Mexico

• Levadura de Olla, C. de Manuel García Vigil 304, RUTA INDEPENDENCIA, Centro, 68000 Oaxaca de Juárez, Oax., Mexico

See you back here on Monday where I’ll tell you more about our trip!

Your pal,

Adam