On October 17, 1814 the streets of London where flooded with beer. Porter to be exact. At around 6pm, a 22-foot-tall monster barrel of beer, containing over two million pints of porter, succumbed to the pressure of the liquid pushing mightily against the large iron hoops. The burst was so loud, a literal explosion, it… Read More
I always a nice girl, polite, maybe a little shy in a way that made me seem unapproachable. Always a go-with-the-flow, don’t-rock-the-boat kind of person, never one to cause a riot. Until you put me in a red swim suit and give me a whistle, then I’m bossy and loud. The summer after high school… Read More
I spent the better part of the last two weeks throwing myself into my second book. Cooking at 1 am, editing photos at dawn, trying to pull sentences out of my weary brain that would actually be ones that you would want to read. Monday at 2 am I finally sent it off to my… Read More
I get a little itchy if I don’t get to cook. The way musicians get when you keep them away from a stage, or an athlete when you take the ball away or how a runner will start to chew on the curtains if he can’t get out on the road. Even on the tail end… Read More
We have caveman like instincts, I have lots. I have this nearly uncontrollable urge to knock over that giant tower of perfectly stacked wine glasses in Crate & Barrel. I walk past, barely glancing at the shimmering tower that’s mocking me from it’s white square pedestal as I clutch my purse tightly and imagine swinging… Read More
I tried to make sausage from scratch once. I went to Lindy & Grundy and had along talk with the gorgeous Sausage Making Queen of Los Angeles, Amelia. Armed with sausage casings, several different types of pork and pork fat to be ground, and tips for success from the pros who instruct the pros, I… Read More
When I get to a new city, I always ask people what breweries they like. People answer this question in one of two ways: how much they like the beer, or how much they like the people. Sometimes, the judgement is clouded by a love for one spilling over into the other, the… Read More
Forget for a second that you’ve ever had coconut. Forget about those terrible candy bars when you were a kid, and the off putting taste of processed coconut flavor. Forget about bad rum and the smell of spring break sunscreen. Try and cleanse your historical culinary palate of any negative coconut memories, because it’s… Read More
If there was any doubt about how much I like self-torture, you can defer to this: I’m writing another cookbook. My first cookbook, The Craft Beer Cookbook took four months and most of my sanity to write. And here I am, doing it again. Maybe it’s the post publisher amnesia, maybe it’s that I… Read More
We need to talk for a second about the anatomy of a taco. It’s pretty simple when you break it down: homemade tortilla, a flavorful protein, and an acid, that’s all. When you make something so simple, you need to make each building block well. Which will start with that tortilla. If there are just… Read More
Don’t roll your eyes at me. I’m not even sorry that I keep making you skewers. I’m in a mood to put meat on sticks these days, and the grill is officially open. I’ve also discovered that filet tips are perfect for getting soaked in beer, stabbed with a metal skewer and thrown on a… Read More
When I was kid Mexican Pizza involved ice burg lettuce and cheap ground beef. Possibly the perfect example of how neither Mexican food or pizza were given proper credit for the potential they had to compete in the Fine Food arena. They were both disregarded as low brow for far too long, but then… Read More
This is an exercise in patience. You can hurry a lot of things but pot roast isn’t one of them. If you aren’t going to take the time to cook it low and slow, you might as well just make something else. Or have take out. The rules of pot roast, the American Grandma’s Saturday… Read More
I’ve spent the past few weeks making my way up the West Coast, traveling from brewery to brewery, enjoying the company of Craft Beer’s finest. A journey much less about scribbling my name inside a few hundred books with a black Sharpie marker than it’s been about connecting to this community I’ve fallen in love… Read More
If you want to watch a culinary sports crowd get rilled up, ask what the “right way to make chili” really is. Just meat? Beans? No beans? Pork, vegetables, beef? Tomatoes? Because if you do it “wrong” you might was well be at Morton’s and ask for ketchup with your steak. Or waltz yourself in… Read More
We could never manage to get ourselves through an entire conversation about cooking with beer without talking about meat. Sure, the magical leavening powers of beer give bread that awesome texture, and after making a chocolate stout cake none of my cakes will ever be sober again, but meat is where it all begins. There… Read More
Falling into the world of craft beer, I lacked a full grasp of the type of people this obsession attracts. Over the years I never cease to be amazed at the warmth and heart that exists in the gatherings of the Craft Beer Enthusiasts, the salt of the earth types that dwell here. It’s hard… Read More
Beer Marinated Flank Steak I’ve always enjoyed lower alcohol beers. Due in no small part to the fact that I can drink more and still be functional, for me, the goal is never to get hammered. After what seems like an eternity of ABV one-upmanship, brewers are also starting to offer fantastically well-crafted beers on the lower end of… Read More