The Chef's Last Diet

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Crazy, Stupid Driving

Crazy, stupid driving; we’re all guilty of it. Everyone has strong opinions about what’s good driving, especially other peoples’ driving. Most of us think we’re good drivers, yet the world is filled with lousy drivers, so as Meg Ryan put it in When Harry Met Sally, you do the math. Some of those lousy drivers are just assholes, some are trying to do too many things at once, and some seem like…

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Inauguration Day Dinner

Disclaimer: this is not a political post Although for some people Inauguration Day was a fine one, for me it was stressful. If you know me at all you’re aware that I deal with stress by cooking, yes, eating too, but cooking is what soothes me far better than eating. When I cook or bake I focus and stay attentive to the task at hand. I let the things troubling me fall away as I bend to more…

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Party Dress

This is not my party dress, but it’s the closest one I found. I was planning my first ever New Year’s eve party to ring in 1982 and needed the perfect party dress. A dress that would make me feel pretty, grown up and like the perfect hostess.  I didn’t know what I was looking for when I set off to shop. As soon as I saw it I knew.  It  reminded me of Mary Tyler Moore. I’d grown up watching her on…

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Meatless Monday Recipe Two-fer

Meatless Monday Recipe Two-fer

Looking for a meatless Monday recipe? Well today I’ve got a two for one deal. I’m often surprised by which of my posts on Instagram, FB, or Twitter get the most requests for recipes please. I don’t mean the most likes, but specifically asking for a recipe. Two such items from the last weeks are broccoli-cheddar soup, and slow-cooker Brussels sprouts. Oddly, neither of these dishes was…

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Say Cheese (C'est Fromage)

Say Cheese (C’est Fromage)

On Saturday I posed a question on my Facebook page: “What is your favorite cheese?” To my surprise, I was inundated with replies, not surprisingly there were many more nominees than there were nominators. I too have a hard time choosing just one, and as I read each reply, found myself saying “Oh, yes, I forgot that one, I love it too.” Whether you are a cheese eater or not, cheese is a wondrous…

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Adobo Chicken; This Couldn't Be Easier!

Adobo Chicken; This Couldn’t Be Easier!

Adobo chicken comes in two varieties, there is Mexican Adobo chicken, which sounds really good, but is another post, and Filipino Adobo chicken which is so easy and so wonderful. The first time I made it I was heading to a July fourth picnic and I saw this recipe for Adobo Cornish hens in Gourmet Magazine, it sounded perfect, and it was.  It was a big hit, and I was hooked. This dish became my…

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I Need a Drink!

I Need a Drink!

Many years ago I was out for dinner with a friend, at a diner of all places, and the minute we sat down she fairly collapsed in on herself, and looked up at me and said “I need a drink”! OK, I don’t judge, have a drink, we could have gone to a bar instead of a diner, but hey, whatever—you need a drink? Have one, I need a burger, or a Reuben, or some onion rings…  I have never, even at the lowest…

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Sometimes I Have a Good Idea

Sometimes I Have a Good Idea

A lot of the cooking I do is based on what I have on hand, and not on a recipe, and sometimes I have a good idea, and sometimes things don’t work out at all. I have a friend who confided in me that her belief is that anything she likes will go well with everything else she likes. When she told me this we were on the phone, so I couldn’t look at her to see if she was kidding, and I just had to say…

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I Love You More Than Salt

I Love You More Than Salt

Once upon a time there lived  a king with three daughters. He asked each of his his daughters to tell him how much they loved him. The eldest said “Father, I love you more than the sun and the moon.” And the king was happy. The second daughter said “Father, I love  you more than the stars and the sky.” This also pleased the king. The youngest daughter said “Father, I love you more than a pinch…

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Not My Bubbie's Matzo Balls

Not My Bubbie’s Matzo Balls

Every Jewish person I know has a strong opinion about what makes a good matzo ball, and a story about the worst ones they ever had. I love, love, love matzo balls, and it’s time to make them! (Quite honestly, I make them other times of year for no more compelling reason than I want some.) I’m sure there are plenty of non-Jews reading this, and thinking they have some strong feelings about Matzo…

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Can I Have That Recipe?

Can I Have That Recipe?

So often someone comes to my house for dinner, or I go to theirs, and one of us asks, ‘can I have that recipe?’.  Sometimes the recipe is from a cookbook, or website, and then it’s easy, they look it up and either have success or not, but when you give someone a recipe you essentially made-up, either verbally,or you try to remember what you did and write it down for them. Inevitably either way,…

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Chinese Take-Out

There is a certain allure to Chinese take-out. Movies and television shows are filled with images of conference and coffee tables littered with open, stained Chinese take-out food containers. The characters sit among a sea of these containers, digging in with chopsticks, and talking with their mouths full. In fact scenes like this pepper so many movies, they are almost obligatory, heralding some…

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March Ends

As March ends so does a month of kale, quinoa and chicken. Some recipes more successful than others, all fun, and I’m glad to be moving on to April, or am I? After this endless, snowy, dreary, cold, really endless, winter, which I seem to have spent 99% of in my kitchen, cooking and eating, maybe a bit too much, I am giving myself a new challenge. April, in addition to being the start of quarter…

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Chicken Bisteeya

I recall living in Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn, and going to the Middle Eastern restaurants on Atlantic Avenue to have chicken bisteeya. It is a marvelous dish, and one I haven’t made at home before. Though it isn’t difficult, it is time consuming and working with filo dough can be challenging. If you’re not familiar with it, chicken bisteeya’s origins are as a Moroccan pigeon pie, made with…

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Wednesday Woes

I ordinarily post on Wednesdays, but after returning today from a trip to NYC to see  a taping of The Chew, and celebrate Rachel’s birthday I’m just not up to it. That being said, I will post a recipe Thursday that will be well worth waiting for! If you missed Monday’s post, please check out the recipe I posted for French Lentil and Kale Salad, it is truly wonderful, and has been getting rave…

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Getting Ready for Spring

Getting Ready for Spring

I just had to make this French lentil and kale salad, even though winter is hanging on, and it’s not quite salad weather. I have a hard time eating salads when the weather is cold, but once it warms up, I want them again. This interminable winter has me craving both warm weather and things like salads and iced tea. A spring nor’easter is predicted for this week, which is making me sad, I was…

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Mi Pollo Á La Brasa

Mi Pollo Á La Brasa

  Pollo à la brasa is a Peruvian style of rotisserie chicken that you can get all over Washington, D.C. and New York City, but is not very widely available here in Philadelphia. There are two places I found listed, but they are far from me and fairly inconvenient to get to, and two places not too far from me that are much more readily accessible. After doing some research and asking some of my…

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