Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 150

How To Paint Your Kitchen

This is the story of how two dunderheads, one who'd never painted a room before, the other who'd only painted a wall, spent a full Saturday (from 11 am to 1 am) painting a bedroom and a kitchen. For the purposes of this post, we will focus on the kitchen; a task that might seem daunting at first, but one that, as will be evidenced by the pictures, is well worth the effort.

The dunderheads in question are me, your Amateur Gourmet, and my friend Rob Meyer who's not a dunderhead a...

Kitchen Colors

We move to our new apartment a week from today (ahhh!!!), and this weekend my friend and new neighbor Rob and I are going to paint the new kitchen. The question: what color should we paint it!? Craig and I are leaning towards orange--check out this gallery of orange kitchens on Apartment Therapy--but I'm very curious to hear what you think. So what say you, readers: what color would you have your Amateur Gourmet paint his kitchen? The more specific, the better.

[Note: click the title of thi...

Roasted Chickpeas

Let me say right off the bat: this is not a great recipe.

It has the potential to be a great recipe--I really wanted it to be a great recipe--but as it stands right now, it's in need of some serious tweaking. And that tweaking may just be the simple addition of a Tablespoon of olive oil, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Last week, I hosted what will probably prove to be our last Park Slope dinner party. It was just a few close friends, nothing super fancy (I made an endive...

Creamed Mushrooms on Toast

When I'm home alone and making dinner for myself, my standards change dramatically. If Craig's there (and he usually is), I know he has certain expectations about what constitutes a dinner. That's fair, because most people do. But alone? My standards go out the window and I just improvise a meal with whatever I have on hand. And the other night, while Craig was in London showing his movie at the Raindance Film Festival, I happened to have the following on hand: mushrooms, thyme, cream and b...

What's Good?

The waitress, who we loved, responded to our request for a pasta suggestion with enthusiasm. "Get the ravioli," she said. "It's amazing."

I was with my mom last night at the new A Voce in the Time Warner Center, and our waitress was solicitious, funny and helpful. And when we asked for her advice, she gave it with zeal and genuine enthusiasm. But it was only when we were eating the ravioli, which she so heartily recommended, that I began to question the wisdom of asking the server's...

I'm A Peanut

Yes that's me up there in this month's delicious new banner--another masterwork from Lindy--having baked The Great Pumpkin into a Great Pumpkin pie. (If you can't see it, clear your cache and reload the site.) Thanks, of course, to the uber-talented Lindy and the ever-helpful Justin for making the site look great, as always.

Locanda Verde

My parents and I often get into a quibbling match over the Italian food that they like and the Italian food that I like. The Italian food that they like is the food found at what's typically called "a red sauce joint" with dishes every American who's been to EPCOT or an Olive Garden can rattle off: Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Scarpiello, Shrimp Scampi (a tautological phrase since scampi means shrimp), and so on. I'm not against this food--sometimes, I really enjoy it--but my parents LOVE...

The Burger at Lure Fishbar

For years, I've walked past Lure Fishbar in SoHo. You can't miss it, really: there are portholes for windows and the restaurant, which is below ground, is styled like a yacht.

I can't say I was dying to eat there, but then word on the street was that their burger was one of the best below 14th street. That's what William Tigertt claimed on Eater, and then Adam Kuban echoed it on A Hamburger Today: "This burger really is all that Mr. Tigertt describes."

Now I'll echo Adam: this ...

Orecchiette with Broccoli & Pancetta

Here's something for you to cook this weekend, something from the archives. It comes from The River Cafe Cookbook, a book I no longer own, but no matter. It's an easy enough recipe, I have it memorized. So easy: I can squeeze it all into this paragraph. Boil a pot of water, add salt. In a large skillet, add cubed pancetta--about two big slices worth. Add a splash of olive oil, raise the heat and let the pancetta start to brown. When it's getting closer to brown than not-brown, add broccoli ...

How To Make a Chocolate Souffle

One of the highlights of making our Amateur Gourmet show for Food2.com, was the day we got to visit the kitchen of Le Bernardin--one of the nation's, if not the world's, great restaurants--to learn how to make a chocolate souffle from revered pastry chef (and blogger!) Michael Laiskonis. What follows is the video we made, with step-by-step instructions that result in a chocolatey souffle that's as ethereal as it is delicious. Hope you enjoy! [For the full typed-out recipe, click here.]

Pre...