Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 125

The Question of Char

Craig's sister Kristin, a food-enthusiast, came to visit last week and sampled her way through some of New York's most celebrated pizza (well, its most celebrated pizza within or around Bleecker Street.) And so she sampled Joe's on 6th Ave. and Bleecker Street Pizza on 7th Ave. (her favorite) and, on Tuesday night, she joined Craig and me for pizza at John's, our regular go-to good-old-fashioned coal-oven pizza joint.

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What Food Writers, Critics, Editors, Bloggers & Chefs Want This Holiday Season (A Twitter-Curated Round-Up)

This morning I was going to write my 2010 Gift Guide--I did one last year--but then I thought: "Ya know, my colleagues David and Pim have already done such a good job with theirs, do I really have that much more to add?" Defeated, I turned to Twitter and, scrolling around, I had an idea. What if I polled all the food writers, critics, editors, bloggers and chefs that I follow on there as to what THEY want this holiday season? Wouldn't that be interesting and more useful than anything I could come up with? So I asked a bunch of food folks, "What food-related gift did you put on your wish list this year?" Check out the responses below.

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Easy Pumpkin Bread

For as long as I've been cooking, I've been making the pumpkin bread you see in the above photo. (Proof: see this old post from 2004.) It's one of the easiest recipes I know--dump a bunch of stuff into a bowl, stir it together, and bake it--and the rewards are rich: the scent of cinnamon and nutmeg will waft softly from the oven as you do the dishes and because the recipe makes two loaves, you can freeze one of them to enjoy later on in the month. The only tricky ingredient you'll need to find is a can of pumpkin and that's not tricky at all.

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Eating Rudolph

I think Lindy Groening, my banner illustrator (see her previous work here), deserves a standing ovation for this month's macabre Christmas celebration. It's a claymation me! And thanks to Raphael Brion making it happen in a technological sense. Happy Holidays.

The "It Gets Better" Book

I just received an amazing e-mail from Dan Savage asking me if he could publish my "It Gets Better" post in the official "It Gets Better" book which'll be published by Penguin in 2011. Of course I said "yes" and I'm beyond honored; apparently the book will also feature essays from David Sedaris, Michael Cunningham and President Obama. To read my original post, you can do so here.

One Chicken, Two Dinners (Roast Chicken with Parsnips & Potatoes / A Chicken Burrito) + Stock

When I was writing my first book, I had a chapter called "Stretch a Chicken" in which I was going to try to stretch one chicken over as many meals as I could. That chapter never materialized but last week I found myself stretching a chicken without really thinking about it. I made two dinners and froze the carcass for chicken stock. Both dinners were excellent and, because I used the same chicken, relatively cheap. Here's what I did.

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Last Night's Piglet Party

Just want to do a quick post to say how much fun I had emceeing last night's Food52 Piglet Party. Highlights for me: Gabrielle Hamilton (one of my all-time favorite chefs and food writers) & Christopher Hirsheimer (the legendary food photographer) loudly chiming in from the floor during Frank Bruni's panel discussion about "food porn"; funny hijinks during the raffle (Merrill pulled a ticket and when she called the number her husband had the winning ticket; the crowd wasn't having it; then when I called the next ticket, my agent won!); talking to Gabrielle Hamilton afterwards I told her how much I loved her post in the Canal House cookbook. "My post?" "Ha, sorry, your essay...I'm a blogger so I think everything's a post." Thanks again to Amanda, Merrill & Charlotte for having me and for those who missed it, here are some great pictures on Metromix.

Revelations of the Kitchen Freezer (Or: Hot Homemade Cookies, Biscuits & Dinner Rolls Whenever You Want Them)

Sometimes we think we know things, but we don't really know them.

For example: for a long time I've known that you can put unbaked cookies, biscuits and/or dinner rolls in the freezer, instead of the oven, and that after letting them freeze on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets, you can put them in Ziplock bags and conserve them for later use. Even though I knew that, I didn't really know that; if I'd really known that, I would've realized, in all caps: "HOLY CRAP! I CAN HAVE HOT HOMEMADE COOKIES, BISCUITS AND/OR DINNER ROLLS WHENEVER I WANT THEM!" And even though I knew it as a fact, I hadn't lived it; but now that I've lived it--I've been there and smelled the hot biscuits--I can share with you what I saw at the top of the mountain, the revelations of the kitchen freezer.

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Very Last Minute Thanksgiving Recipes: Butterhorns, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Port Wine Cranberry Sauce & Food Processor Apple Pie

There are crafty food bloggers out there (one might call them "smart" food bloggers, or "food bloggers who actually know what they're doing") who see a holiday coming and WHAM BLAM they have 1,000 holiday recipes posted weeks ahead of time so by the time the holiday rolls around you're saturated with great holiday content. As you may have noticed (except for this post) I'm not such a "smart" food blogger. I did all my Thanksgiving post cooking so last minute that now it's a day before the big holiday and here I am sharing with you a bunch of recipes that are probably coming 48 hours too late. But for those of you who are last minute planners (and I hope there are at least SOME of you), perhaps this will come as some sort of Thanksgiving lifeline? And even if not, these recipes are delicious even when it's not Thanksgiving. So come with me and look at these Thanksgiving recipes, even if they're a little tardy.

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A Walk to Chinatown (Lunch at Sheng Wang)

I recently read an interview with my favorite food writer, Calvin Trillin, in which he said that when guests come to town, he walks them from Greenwich Village (where he lives) to Chinatown. Since I live in Greenwich Village, and since Saturday was beautiful and Craig was busy editing, I decided to follow Trillin's lead and to walk to Chinatown myself. Granted, I had a leg up on the Trillin walk to Chinatown because once, as part of The New Yorker Festival, I attended Calvin Trillin's "Come Hungry" tour (an event that sells out faster than you can blink) in which he leads hungry New Yorker readers on a walk from--you guessed it--Greenwich Village to Chinatown. So this was a walk I felt confident taking.

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