Putting the Peppermate pepper mill through its paces with some cacio e pepe.

Note: Peppermate sent me a Peppermate pepper mill for my review, but all opinions are my own. Truth be told, I don’t have great luck with pepper mills. The pepper mill we received as a wedding gift broke within a year of using it, and since then we’ve largely relied on grinding black pepper with…

Why Catalan sofregit (aka Catalan sofrito) is the flavor base you need in your fridge and your freezer.

After posting about a recipe that won’t be viable again until next April at the earliest, I felt it was important to share one that would be viable to make, especially if you have a garden with lots of tomatoes coming in and you’re looking for a new way to use them all up. In…

Giada De Laurentiis’ pepperoncini shrimp.

With Halloween long over and November in full swing, it seems like everyone I know is either thinking about “stuffing season” or is already breaking out the holiday décor. Honestly, if you’re in the latter camp, I can’t say I blame you–it’s been a tough last two years, and if seeing some twinkly lights or…

Salmon-avocado ceviche, inspired by Rafael Palomino’s Viva la Vida.

Most weeks, usually on Wednesdays, I download the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast and take a walk across the harbor to Whole Foods in order to pick up fish in order to make either a ceviche, a tiradito, or some similar dish where the fish would likely only be cooked in some acid….

Air fryer Catalonian-style chicken wings with allioli.

Even though it’s been nearly seven years(!) since we last were in Caldes d’Estrac and eating at El Taller, I still think about their signature roasted meats served with a ramekin of allioli made completely from scratch. (By that I mean they made the emulsion only using some garlic, salt, lemon juice, and olive oil…

A Basque pintxo crawl at home featuring gently-caramelized piquillo peppers.

If we can’t travel right now, a small comfort is that it’s possible to travel to our favorite places, at least for a little while, through our kitchens. Our weekend in San Sebastian back in September of 2018 was a magical one, filled with so much food, discovery, and txakoli, and bringing back those memories…

Pantry cooking with Stephanie Izard: chilled sweet onion soup.

Probably the biggest score I made when doing a stocking-up grocery trip two Fridays ago was to get six pounds of frozen shrimp for the price of two, thanks to the Teet’s buy one, get two special. We polished off the first bag that Sunday, and then I decided to use another pound this week…

La cuina de Catalunya: La Alcoba Azul and their pa amb allioli.

For all of the planning that I did for our trip via my various maps of fun, I didn’t try to limit myself to only the places that were on the list. And I’m glad I didn’t, because otherwise I would have missed out on a really great find that was so good, we ended…

Notes on pasta-making, or: what’s been keeping me in the kitchen lately.

If you aren’t following Kara Brown’s Fancy Pasta Bitch blog, you absolutely must—she was one of my favorite writers at Jezebel, and now she’s a staff writer on the Black-ish spinoff Grownish on Freeform*. She took up pasta making as a new hobby to cope with that man and his heinous administration and started blogging…

Israeli salad and Israeli salad water martini from Zahav.

One of the things I always lament about getting cookbooks in the fall and then later in winter during the holidays is that inevitably I’m going to find a whole host of recipes that sound amazing but I must wait to make them until better weather arrives. While flipping through Zahav back during Christmas I…