‘How-to’ Archives
How To Make Trailer Trash Eggs Benedict (Recipe!)
Eggs Benedict with Hot Dogs. I'm not joking. (My photo, with a Canon Rebel XS + kit lens + PS) I was cooking up breakfast one Saturday morning for my better half when the urge hit me. You know. The urge. That crazy little idea in your head. Yeah, I thought. Yeah, I'm a cooking badass. I'm going to make EGGS BENEDICT. You don't understand how exciting this idea was. I had never [...]
How to convince people that your liberal arts degree is useful
I'll never forget a conversation I had with an American expat. We happened to be at a faux-exclusive club in Shanghai with shark tanks and a glittering, ghostly clientele. It was a clear night, save for the fuzz of smog that filtered the 24th floor view through the violet gauze of pollution. He asked where I went to school. I was a rising junior at Harvard at the time; he had graduated [...]
What to do with stale cake
My readers really know a lot more about food and cooking than I do. They prove this again and again with invaluable advice on what to cook, where to eat, what to order, and where to grocery shop. There's an enormous amount of humbling that goes into being a food blogger, and I'm the first to admit that I'm a novice in many ways. Which is why I'm starting to collecting the wisdom of the [...]
How to read a recipe
This afternoon, curled up on a chair at the Harvard COOP, I read through recipes calling for purple perilla and banana leaves. (Shaw's would definitely not stock those.) I inhaled instructions on making chantilly cream and fig sauce, preparing risotto ahead of time, and the expensive, three-page-long process of replicating Barbara Lynch's signature prune-stuffed gnocchi with foie gras appetizer. [...]
How to make and eat biscotti
Here is a template for an ideal morning: Wake up early, exercise. Shower, put on a dress and heels. Apply lip gloss, even though it'll come off on the coffee lid. Brush your hair by running your fingers through it. (You don't own a comb.) Stop at a coffee shop (it can be Starbucks, but better pastries are to be had elsewhere). Buy black drip coffee and biscotti - just one. Get your own [...]
13 Idiot-Proof Honey Recipes
These micro-recipes I penned were originally published on GoodEater.org (which has since undergone a facelift). They're the kind of recipes that are most useful for kitchen-retarded, time-strapped people like me - minimal equipment, dining-hall-able ingredients - more conceptual starting points than formulas. If you're a Bostonian looking for a local variety of honey to try, I highly [...]
The Foie Gras Diet, or, 7 Rules for Food Enthusiasts
Here's one eater's guidelines to making sure that you look as good as the food you are eating. Also, I don't follow these all of the time. I mindlessly eat Cheetos like the best of them. Just, hopefully, less often. If you have suggestions, feel free to add them in the comments. I tried to keep this list of insights lean. Har. 1) If someone hands you foie gras, eat it. Never feel guilty [...]
How to pick a date restaurant: advice from food writer MC Slim JB
I thought I would highlight a comment from my fav Boston food writer (for the Phoenix and STUFF) MC Slim JB. I wrote a semi-serious post on how to choose a date restaurant where I warned men not to take me to Bertucci's. He adds a few good points: My advice on this score includes: don’t pick someplace expensive (looks like you’re trying too hard), do pick a place that makes really good [...]
How to pick a date restaurant
The question I get asked most often is: "Where should I take my romantic interest on a date?" When you ask me this, I secretly congratulate you on "dating." The media often presents a rather skewed vision of college life, with claims of "rainbow parties" in middle school (I thought rainbows were the things that came after rainstorms) and incessant "hookup culture." I'm not convinced [...]
How to photograph food in a restaurant
So your torched dover sole with a cola reduction and parsnip foam comes to the table, what do you do? Whip out your digital camera to prove the rest of the blogosphere how incredibly cultured you are for eating such a bizarre looking, sounding, and tasting dish, of course! (Bordieu, eat your heart out. Or you know, pigs tails are very popular too.) I am not a professional photographer by any [...]
How to be a foodie, and look good in your underwear too
I feel like this entry will be of interest to some people. Basically: 1) Exercise everyday. Every. Single. Day. (Ok, so I actually exercise 5-6 times a week. 4, if it's a really bad week.) 2) Be blessed with good genes. 3) See number 1 again. If you're curious, I usually run about 30-40 min on the treadmill at 6.5ish these days. The best motivation for me to keep going is a new [...]
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