How do you fair with this transition of seasons? September has always felt like the most clunky month of the year to me. It’s a time when I need to really pay attention to my feet on the ground- walking through the world with purpose because my brain wants to float on up. Also, I’m...Read More

I’m sure there’s an alternate universe where another version of myself is perpetually 28 years old, eating chili cheese fries and Oreo cookies for as many meals as she’d like without consequence. I’m actually not at all sure of this alternate universe but boy am I hopeful. I’m out there somewhere living my best, most...Read More

Other people’s pasta. Making other people’s pasta is not like wearing someone else’s clogs, or using someone else’s hair brush. It’s not about fitting your form into someone else’s, but sometimes it does feel similarly intimate. Like making other people’s pasta teaches you about the comfort places they retreat into in rainstorms (in the world...Read More

It was one of those days that I had spent a majority of my day eating literally everything in sight. I don’t use the word ‘literally’ lightly. I was home, testing recipes and shooting and eating everything that crossed my gaze or found its way into my hands. My cat, Tron is fine. His...Read More

There was a time when I thought only a wizard, or my dad, could whip eggs into that elusive, glossy, tall and fluffy, stark bright meringue white. Meringue aren’t reserved for wizards (or baking dads). We can have our own… as minty and light as air as we’d like them. I would still...Read More

It always felt like my parents were early adopters to the whole health-food kick of the 1980s. If you weren’t around then… or you weren’t old enough to be scarred by tofu-heavy dinners, you might not understand. Health food in the 1980’s was all about tofu and strange rices. That’s my 6 year old self...Read More

I swear… as soon as we wind our clocks forward and tack that extra hour of daylight to our evenings, I’m sure it’s summer. I’m sure it’s time for a new pair of (now age appropriate) jean shorts, time for pink wine and pink sunsets, time for me to start chasing the sound of summer waves...Read More

I’ve been walking around the Los Angeles International Airport (a place that feels like a city unto itself) in a sweatshirt that reads Tacos, Tequila, and Tan Lines. It’s not generally my style to wear clothing with written messages on them, mostly because I don’t want strangers looking at my body long enough to read...Read More

I want you to know that I know that this is aggressive. We’re taking humble Chex Mix and kicking it into high gear… and then we’re naming it after Wayne’s World. (And then we’re buying a gun rack) (That’s a Wayne’s World joke. I don’t own a gun let alone many guns that would necessitate an...Read More

I want you to know that I know that this is aggressive. We’re taking humble Chex Mix and kicking it into high gear… and then we’re naming it after Wayne’s World. (And then we’re buying a gun rack) (That’s a Wayne’s World joke. I don’t own a gun let alone many guns that would necessitate an...Read More

This salad lives in that sweet spot between kitchen laziness and sincere artistic expression. Consider summer salads your opportunity to play around on a plate with vegetables et al.. It’s food art, and really… the more croutons the better. This salad is a play on a layered cob. Romaine lettuce leaves are washed well...Read More

I’ve just now made it home from a few weeks of traveling for Over Easy and lemme tell you what’s in the refrigerator: sriracha that needs to be shaken, chicken stock paste (it’s supposed to be a paste so that’s cool), an empty ceramic egg holder, and a 6-few corn tortillas that must have the...Read More

This salad was born of having absolutely nothing in my refrigerator to eat. At least that’s exactly what it feels like when I open the refrigerator doors and find lettuce, and a hunk of cucumber, almost past strawberries, and a little nugget of feta from a few nights past. Nothing. Nothing. Are there any more...Read More

I grew up in a family of tremendous home bakers, but I’ll tell you what- there’s nothing you could tell 8 year old Joy to sway her from the indisputable fact that the best pies came dangerously hot, in a precisely folded paper container, filled with apple flavoring in a delightfully crisp crust from McDonald’s....Read More

I just bought a car with seat heaters. I don’t know. It’s the middle of summer and I found myself up again the ‘you need to buy a car now’ wall and so I’m working it out, flexing my adult muscles, and troubling every car salesman deeply concerned that I’m approaching car buying without a...Read More

There’s something very deep and satisfying about two sticky fingers at snack time. These are lessons we learn from (flamin hot) Cheetos, (cool ranch) Doritos, and (very spicy) Chicken Wings. Sticky fingers are dedicated for snack-to-mouth interactions, followed by licking. It’s the only way. This sandwich, unapologetically sticky and salty on the outside, is in...Read More