Dinner with Kirsten

Whenever I make Asian food I end up thinking, “Why didn’t I get take-out?” I used to satisfy my Chinese food cravings with a Styrofoam box of Almond Chicken and an egg roll. (Hello, I’m from Nebraska!) Then I started dating Geoff, a Hong Kong native who lived in Japan and grew up in […]

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I’m a bit of a risotto snob. Reality television cooking shows have fostered this arrogant “I know what risotto should be like” attitude, but I can’t seem to help it. When a congealed scoop of risotto was served to me at the Pearl Room last weekend, I could imagine a red-faced Chef Ramsey (from FOX’s […]

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I’m always looking for a new way to jazz up a mostly-store-bought pasta meal. While shopping the Upper West Side gourmet markets this weekend (Fairway and Zabar’s), I picked up fresh spinach ravioli and a killer Lidia Bastianich brand marinara sauce. But is it really a meal without meat? On impulse, I bought some ground […]

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Working as a culinary intern at the Hotel Villa Real (in Madrid, Spain), one of my many tedious tasks was to clean mushrooms—boxes and boxes of beautiful exotic-looking mushrooms. I didn’t know what kind they were and I can’t tell you now. (My Spanish language skills are mediocre on a good day.) Four years […]

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So. . . this is how you start a food blog. . .
Why dinner with Kirsten? Believe me, if I woke up every morning with time on my hands I would cook pancakes and cupcakes all day long. But the reality is that I work 9:00 to 5:30—I eat Trader Joe’s Oatmeal or Kashi Cereal […]

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