In my first visit to San Francisco last month, I stayed at the lovely Chez JJ hacker house in the Castro, and made one of my favorite new dishes.  More →

The single best thing you can do to your turkey, hands down, is to brine it. That means: immersing it overnight in salt water. None of those “dry brining” half-measures.  More →

And now we come to the pièce de résistance – an entire dinner of blue food. Without a drop of artificial coloring.

(Bear in mind, “blue” is a relative term…)

The main course: gorgonzola mac & cheese. With a vegan mac & cheese option, turned blue via a magic trick.  More →

We recently revised the alcohol policy at the Friends House to allow cooking with alcohol – see, we’re not total puritans – and I’ve been cooking things in wine, butter/olive oil, and lemon ever since. So as the main course for the Green Dinner, it made natural sense to make lima beans, with lime and vermouth.

Except: I switched lima beans for fava beans at the last minute. And I’m so glad I did.  More →

Last night was the Yellow Dinner at the Friends House (full Pride menu here) – I made my beet & fennel soup, with golden beets of course, summer squash with tomatoes and basil, and a Belgian endive salad.

This week’s menu, by the way, has been getting a bit of attention online, and one commenter on this Queerty writeup accidentally provided a perfect description of my style of cooking:

“hippie puritan lesbian sailor food”

I just might have to steal that for my tagline. Anyway, on to the food, starting with the soup:

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Yesterday was the Orange Dinner for my Pride Week menu, and the main dish was highly exciting: cheddar cheese & orange bell pepper strata.

(NSFV photos below)

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It’s Pride Week in Boston, and I thought I’d celebrate with a rainbow-themed menu, each day with its own color.

Here it is (recipes to follow) –   More →

Speaking of burgers: you know how people sometimes grill portobellos and serve them as a sort of all-natural veggieburger? I’ve never eaten one I liked, and I think I know why: because they weren’t marinated beforehand.

I say that because I’m working on a recipe for portobello steaks – basically, marinated and baked portobello caps. And they’re wonderful.

Here’s my work-in-progress recipe:  More →

I’m on a quest to learn how to make veggie burgers that don’t suck (who isn’t?), and I recently came across a recipe that I believe holds the key.

The problem with virtually all homemade veggie burgers is how crumbly they are. Sure, those mushroom barley burgers from Martha Shulman look fantastic, but I bet they fall apart like a Jenga sandwich after two bites. So before focusing on flavor, let’s first establish the basic physical integrity of the patty. “Can be eaten without a spoon” is a necessary condition of burgerhood, don’t you agree?

With that in mind, look at the photo below – it’s the raw mix of a lentil burger recipe I’m working on (adapted from Thrifty Living):

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