All posts tagged: Food

6 Things I Learned Tracking the First Jobs of Famous Folk

By Lauren Young

Photo (Stocksy.com) Everyone gets a start in the working world somewhere. So, as the Money editor at Reuters, I thought it would be interesting to use the monthly jobs report released by the U.S. Department of Labor as a springboard talk to notable people about their very first gigs. (For non-financial types, the jobs report is by far the most closely watched economic gauge of the U.S. economy’s health.) After all, no matter how famous or powerful they have become, all of us remember the first moment of bringing home the bacon. Here is what I’ve learned from editing three years’ worth of first job stories: 1. Many people got their start delivering newspapers It sounds so old-timey, but the list includes MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, baseball legend Ron Darling and financial wizard Warren Buffett. However, so far no one has mentioned being chased by a dog. 2. Many more of them worked in restaurants Fredrik Eklund of Million Dollar Listing New York, Olympic gold medalist Carmelita Jeter, football star Damien Woody, Wheel of Fortune’s Vanna …

TueNight 10: Whitney Johnson

By TueNight Crew

Whitney Johnson is a business coach, bestselling author, and twice honored as one of the world’s top 50 most influential management thinkers. She’s also a co-founder of Forty Women Over 40 to Watch. (We love that, natch). Right now she’s busily prepping to launch a new book, Build An A-Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve. It’s amazing she has any downtime — but she makes a point to find it, whether hiking up Camelback mountain during a recent conference in Phoenix, or spending time with her family before hitting Florida, Boston, and Las Vegas for more speaking engagements. “Things are a whirlwind right now, but that’s what happens when you launch a book,” she tells TueNight. “It’s quite thrilling!” During our last event, she shared a touching story about her own insights after her brother’s passing which you can read below. But first, here’s Whitney‘s TueNight 10: 1. On the nightstand: The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and a bottle of water. 2. Can’t stop/won’t stop: Mexican food, especially Red Iguana in Salt Lake City. 3. Jam of the minute: Headspace app. 4. Thing I …

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Baked Goods and Bad Trips

By Alice Bradley

Last June was our 16th anniversary, so Scott and I spent a weekend at this funky hotel in the Catskills. Every room is themed at this place. I chose a space-themed room. It was appropriately far out. Before we left, Scott mentioned that one of his coworkers, a fellow video editor, had gifted us an edible. A pot cookie, in other words. (I feel like I’m a million years old when I say “pot cookie” but I don’t feel like I’ve earned the right to say “edible.”) He apparently was a frequent user (and baker, I guess) of such things, and thought we’d have fun with it. Sure, I said! Pot’s fun! Couple of important details: First, I smoked pot plenty in my twenties, but not really since. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but it’s … changed a little, in the past twenty-odd years. I learned this a couple of years ago, when I shared a one-hitter with a friend and spent the next few hours paranoid and hyper, my face in a jumbo bag of Cheetos. Number …

10 Foods to Comfort You (Pizza and Booze, Not So Much)

By Alexandra Jamieson

Here’s the truth: we are all emotional eaters. Emotions show up in the body, and your very wise body is asking for help to get calm. Here’s a quick list of ways you can support your body in feeling strong and calm again. 1. Water: Stay hydrated. Your brain works better and your nervous system is more calm when you’re hydrated. 2. Chamomile Tea: It’s calming for muscle spasms and the entire nervous system. Drink all day and before bed. 3. Sweet Potatoes: The sweet, dense flavor and texture are calming for upset stomach without the blood-sugar destroying effects of refined sweeteners. Roast up a dozen and store the extra in the fridge. Use leftovers for sweet potato pudding (recipe). 4. Coconut Butter: Like peanut butter, but from coconuts. Sweet, high in healthy fats that are soothing and satiating for the stomach, coconut butter and oil are helpful for thyroid and overall hormone production. 5. Kale, Bok Choy, Collards (ok, any leafy greens): Leafy greens are rich in folate, which helps your body produce mood-regulating neurotransmitters, including serotonin and dopamine. Also …

7 Steps to Making a Successful Toast

By Neil Kramer

(Photo: Ira Lee Nesbit/Pixabay) It is an American tragedy, a weakness of our education system. We teach our children multiplication and division, a smattering of reading skills and how to use a condom, but never the ancient skill of the proper toast. Americans become tongue-tied when raising their glass at a colleague’s retirement dinner, a nephew’s graduation or a friend’s wedding. So let’s make 2017 the year we learn to make a toast. Of all the toasts in the toasting genre, the wedding toast is the most dangerous. It requires a bard’s wit and a magician’s sleight of hand. A wedding toast must be humorous and serious, spontaneous and heartfelt. It must celebrate our culture’s most sacred bond, marriage, with the most ephemeral of human emotions, love. Here is a handy guide to the steps of making a proper toast, using my own wedding from fifteen years ago as an example. Step 1: Establish the premise. As in any good story, from a dirty joke to David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, there is always a basic …

Easy Recipes for Fancy Toast (Yes, Including Avocado)

By Nichole Baldino

(Photo courtesy Nichole Baldino) There’s really no easier meal than toast. All you need is a piece of bread and a toaster, right? Technically yes, but it can, and should, be so much more than just a piece of bread. Toast toppings are just about endless, and whether you prefer a sweet or savory breakfast there’s a way for everyone to enjoy it. You can pretty much top a slice of toast with anything you have in your fridge already, it’s the combination of ingredients that may be new to you. Nothing complicated, nothing too fancy, no extra frills needed. You can prepare the rest of the ingredients in the time the bread is toasting for a five minute breakfast that’s easy, healthy and delicious. Remember though, toast doesn’t only have to be for breakfast. These make great snacks and even a light lunch with something extra on the side. Feed more than yourself with a “Toast Bar” and lay out multiple topping options for everyone to create their favorite combination. Let’s toast to toast!! …

Grief and Gratitude: Knowing Nannie Was Worth the Pain of Losing Her

By Heather Graham

Heather in the kitchen (of course!) with her Nannie. (Photo courtesy Heather Graham) In early 2007, we sat around my Aunt Mary’s dining room table talking about ways we could celebrate my grandmother’s birthday. Nannie was turning 80, and though she referred to her contemporaries around town as “the old folks,” she in no way considered herself one of them. She’d still have been driving (like a bat outta hell) if her last hip surgery for a degenerative condition hadn’t significantly weakened her pedal-pushing leg. Las Vegas came up. We sipped coffee—my aunt, my mom, my cousin Erica, Nannie and I—as we imagined a glitzy adventure littered with Elvis impersonators, convertible Caddies, big winnings, free booze and overflowing buffets. We envisioned ourselves road-tripping cross-country to party in Vegas. The things we’d do, the people we’d meet. It was even suggested that Wilhelmina might come out of retirement—Wilhelmina being my grandmother’s vagina. Come November, just 45 days before anyone could assess the fire hazard of shoving 80 candles on a cake, my grandmother left this life. …

How a Single Can of Pumpkin Followed Me for Years

By Madeleine Deliee

It started innocently enough: one simple can of pumpkin. I had graduated from college a few months earlier, put all my worldly possessions in the back of a truck and moved to Chicago to start Grown-Up Life. This Grown-Up Life involved moving in with my boyfriend and two housemates. Each weekday I’d get dressed in one of two mix-and-match Gap suits each morning to go to my temp job du jour. I was playing the part, and I was not giving a stellar performance; there was a constant possibility that my understudy might be called upon in the hopes that she’d pull this off better. Our housemates were old hands at this maturity thing — they were already planning their wedding and saving for a house. They shopped at Budget Grocery, and since they seemed to have adulthood down cold, I figured it must be the responsible place to shop. I have no idea what else I bought, but it was autumn so pumpkin was everywhere. I spotted the can and thought, “Adults do things like baking! If …

Pumpkin Pie Cookies for Those Who Want to Eat a Whole Pumpkin Pie

By Nichole Baldino

I’m a firm believer in cooking things from scratch, except when it comes to baking. Boxed cake mix is my best friend, as are those break-and-bake cookies and pop-open cinnamon rolls. I am, however, always looking for new ways to make my pre-made baking look fabulous and homemade. (Because no one has to know my secrets!) Autumn is my favorite time to experiment with baking. It’s cooling down just enough that you want to warm your house up by turning on the oven, and everybody is talking about their love of pumpkin — pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin pasta and, of course, pumpkin pie. These Pumpkin Pie Cookies are just the right portion of pie to pop one or two in your mouth (if you can stop there!) and feel satisfied. They pack a whole lot of flavor in a little bite AND look super fancy while being incredibly easy to make. Just cut, fill and bake. Make a batch for your Friendsgiving dinner or gift a dozen to your kid’s teachers. These mini …

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Here’s Why Brunch Is the Absolute Worst

By Tamar Anitai

Brunch is cancelled until further notice. (Photo: Mac Premo/TueNight) What I’m about to say may sound indelicate, impolitic or even impure, but here goes: fuck brunch. Brunch is the absolute worst. If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, brunch is the least important, most overhyped, overblown and overindulgent meal of all time. It combines two of my least favorite things (sitting too close to other New Yorkers and paying too much for eggs) into one undeservingly grandiose food event. Brunch doesn’t need the foolhardy pomp and circumstance and gratuitous excess of a Monster Truck rally. It’s just a plate of eggs, y’all. Let’s all calm down. Now, don’t go befouling your boy shorts. Just know that I truly believe that brunch is for sucker emcees and basics. It’s easily the biggest racket of the post-industrial modern age (next to thigh-firming creams — might as well rub a half-dozen hot glazed Krispie Kremes all over your legs because same/same.) Why spend $18 on two eggs when you know how many eggs $18 will …

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My Half-Baked Life and the Pastry Job That Saved Me

By Lani Halliday

Lani Halliday of @BrutusBakeshop (Photo courtesy of Eater.com) Last summer, two coworkers and I left our jobs running a hip and lauded bakery in Brooklyn to start our own catering and cakes company. The plan had come together organically: We shared mutual affections, bonded over grueling workdays and were all possessed by a deep desire to pull ourselves out from under the never-ending task of producing someone else’s dream to ride high on our own vision. We conspired over margaritas how we together would take over the world — or at least the New York Slow Food scene. The “plan” lasted a solid two months and eventually fell apart when a project shaped distinctly like something bigger than we could chew, coupled with an epic no-sleep, Adderall-fueled prep session flushed out our deeper natures. We pulled it off and the client was thrilled, but I was deemed both too soft and too harsh to enter into a long-term relationship with. The other partners pushed me out. My ego was left battered, but — oh god …

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Eating My Way Through the World

By Courtney Colwell

A Hong Kong street vendor. (Photo: Stocksy.com) When I travel, food is a focus. Friends who travel with me know that I leave all cultural points of interest to their choosing, but I take charge of the meals. Restaurants are booked in advance of hotels, and there may well be multiple lunches and “snacks” in order to squeeze additional samples into the itinerary. I don’t visit countries as much as eat my way through them. And it’s not just because I love food – I love the experience of it. Many stories begin with the hunt for a local specialty or with a hidden gem stumbled upon unexpectedly. I’ve crossed busy, signal-free intersections of Ho Chi Minh City with motorcycles passing close enough for me to touch the three or more passengers – all in search of the “best” pho. I’ve haunted side alleys and street vendors in Uruguay on a quest for the perfect Chivito, a sublime sandwich of thinly sliced beef with cheese, tomatoes, fried egg and bacon. That alone was worth the …

Bad Street Food Nearly Killed Me Until Celine Dion Saved My Life

By Sara Gilliam

So this is how I die: assassination by brunch. Murder by poop. Wrung dry yet drenched in sweat. Alone. Cheek pressed against the cool tile floor. Whoever finds me won’t know who I am. I carry no identification. At the moment, I’m not even wearing pants. I miss my parents. I don’t want to die here. I want to hug my best friend. I want to see Nebraska again. I want to have sex again. (But maybe not in Nebraska.) Hours pass. I try to stand but can’t. With my fingertip, I seek my pulse. Still alive. I check my watch and calculate the hours until my bus leaves. The bus that will take me to a city, to an airport. Home. I am not going to make it, I tell myself. I’m not sure I’ll even make it out of this room. This is how I die. And then she comes to me. Hazy at first, a swirl of colors before my eyes. Soon enough, I can make out her angular face, the little …

Food and Sex: Should We Give In To Our Cravings?

By Alexandra Jamieson

Taste. Lick. Suck. Bite. This thing we do, every day, all day long, is a driving desire in life. We work for it, think about it, crave things to consume. The innocent act of eating can sound so lustful. And, eating food is, at its core, incredibly sexual. Birds and bees pollinate flowers, the sexual organs of fruiting trees and plants, and we eat the results of these unions. In fact, eating is the most intimate thing we do with other people…in public. We humans are pleasure-seeking machines. And there isn’t a dang thing wrong with that. We take nourishment into our bodies at every meal, just as we take another person into us when we have sex. (Or enter into another, or just rub against each other like furtive bees on the hunt for more pollen.) We humans are pleasure-seeking machines. And there isn’t a dang thing wrong with that. But we often experience debilitating perfectionism, guilt, shame, heavy judgment and downright fear around food and our cravings for it, our bodies, desires for …

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Margit’s Note: Take a Bite

By Margit Detweiler

Digging in. (Photo: Stocksy.com) The word “Foodie” is super annoying, right? You imagine a person obsessed with the cultivation of cuisine — how it looks, smells, is plated, is grown, is sourced, is, of course, chronicled for social media. A foodie doesn’t eat to live; a foodie lives to eat… that avocado toast donut mash-up. (It’s a real thing.) Credit for the term is hotly debated, but most cite Gael Greene as first to coin the term in a 1980 New York Magazine article. She writes of a character who “slips into the small Art Deco dining room of Restaurant d’Olympe … to graze cheeks with her devotees, serious foodies.” Since then, the word has spawned three million Instagram accounts and a smattering of Portlandia episodes. Is there room for a much less discerning foodie? I’ve been known to entertain that day old slice of pizza or the questionable street cart egg sandwich. I was in Philly this past weekend, and whenever in my hometown, I must acquire a hoagie. A Wawa shortie to be …

8 Seriously Cool Subscription Services to Give This Year

By Lauren Oster

(Graphic: Helen Jane Hearn/TueNight) In 2015, as Facebook algorithms remind us to ping each other with birthday e-cards and Amazon gets closer to making deliveries by drone, the idea of gifting someone a jelly of the month — an anything of the month — feels quaintly retro. Strike that: It feels right. Send your favorite humans some good-old-fashioned, curated-and-dispatched-by-real-people, recurring snail-mail love. (It doesn’t have to be jelly.) 1. Vinyl Me, Please The “best damn record club today” kicks off your recipient’s new bespoke music library with one of their special-edition color LPs (think Wilco’s AM in swirling marigold, or a limited-edition clear pressing of Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear). Each month thereafter, they’ll send a new album, a 12”x12” art print inspired by the album and a custom cocktail recipe pairing. Starts at $99 for 3 months + 1 bonus album, vinylmeplease.com   2. One Story Your favorite bookworm might now prefer an e-reader to full-sized tomes — I get it, I nearly dislocated my shoulder trying to read War and Peace on the subway …

10 Hostess Gifts They’ll Actually Want to Use

By Helen Jane Hearn

(Graphic: Helen Jane Hearn/TueNight) Our household throws a lot of parties. And although I’ve never expected a hostess gift for our efforts, it’s always lovely to receive something thoughtful. Host gifts are tricky gifting — you don’t want to clutter up someone’s home, but you also don’t want to be the odd guest out who arrives empty-handed. With those caveats in mind, I’ve pulled together my dream list of host gifts — all for less than $50. 1. Linen Dish Towels I love receiving gifts that are a luxurious upgrade to life’s regular, cruddy routines. These natural linen hand towels are the luxurious upgrade you didn’t know your dishes wanted. $32, Etsy.com 2. Footed Aeirum Upgrade your host’s desktop with this adorably footed container for some sweet little plants. Moss, lichens and Tillandsia will change as they grow, or you can add an air plant (starting at $14) for even more magic. $32, floragrubb.com 3. Multi-function Cake Stand Responsible for bringing a dessert? Leave behind this multipurpose cake stand, which also becomes a chip-and-dip platter, …

12 Gifts for Aspiring Bartenders & Drink Lovers

By Brian Quinn

(Graphic: Helen Jane Hearn/TueNight) Craft cocktails have skyrocketed in popularity over the last decade, moving some to try their hand at making these drinks at home for gatherings or for themselves; avoiding the $15 per drink cost. For those who want to revive the lost art of home hospitality and entertaining, or for those who just love the art of drinks, here’s a list of gifts that any expert or novice would love. 1. Tovolo Sphere Ice Molds  Ice is one of the most important things for bartenders to consider. If a stirred drink calls for a cube of ice or someone requests a whiskey on the rocks, a good bartender will reach for one solid hunk of clear ice both for appearance and to provide the slowest dilution rate possible — no one wants a watered down drink. Though bartenders in Japan will hand carve these spheres, these silicone molds are the easiest way to make them at home. $10, amazon.com 2. Cocktail Kit with Canvas and Leather Tote For those who love to travel …

I Have A Lot of Bad Habits…But I’m Working On It

By Alice Bradley

I am an amassment of bad habits, all of them clinging together to crudely resemble a human female. I am a lady-shaped jumble composed of candy corn, terrible excuses, kitty-cat videos and wine. I’m nothing but bad habits, baby. I may be exaggerating a little bit. That’s another bad habit of mine. All right, look: I may have a number of bad habits, but I’m not all that different from anyone else. I’m pretty sure we share a bunch of these. Are any of us really getting enough sleep? Are we exercising as much as we should? Come, now. There may be a few virtuous types out there, the ones who win ultramarathons or help the poor while also following a gluten-free, sugar-free, cruelty-free diet, but I avoid those people. They’re not much fun at parties. I think. I actually avoid parties, too. The thing about most bad habits is that they tend to be fun and therefore hard to get rid of. Conversely, good habits are less fun, which makes them extraordinarily easy to …

Can We Please Stop Talking About Kale Now?

By Tamar Anitai

I’m here with a simple request: Can people who talk about kale please stop talking about kale? Don’t get me wrong. I like kale. I buy it. I eat it. I’ve bookmarked kale juice recipes, emailed them to myself, printed them out, and then immediately hated myself for doing that. Because if my teenaged Taco-Bell-loving-self could step into a time machine and visit me now, she’d shame-slap the shit out of me for being the type of stereotypical Brooklynite who cops to juicing kale. But at least — at LEAST —  I can safely say I’m NOT the kind of person who talks about kale. I don’t care if that sounds like reverse snobbism. Because this whole kale situation is completely and utterly out of control, and it’s time someone said something. If you fawn and gush and coo ad nauseam over kale like it’s your twin sister’s newborn or an adorable kitten, you’re most certainly an asshole. If you steer a conversation that was nowhere near the vicinity of kale toward kale, you need to check yourself and …

We’re Hungry For: Deviled Eggs

By Helen Jane Hearn

You have extra hard boiled eggs right about now, I can tell. Let’s make a delicious snack. Helen Jane’s Deviled Eggs Ingredients 6 hard boiled eggs 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 tablespoon dijon mustard 1/2 teaspoon salt 4 slices bacon 1 tablespoon minced parsley Directions 1. Cut the 4 slices of bacon into tiny, bacon bit sized pieces and brown in a pan. When cooked through and crispy, drain on paper towels. Taste three bacon bits because you deserve it. 2. Peel hard boiled eggs and slice them the long way, narrow top to bottom. 3. Pop the yellow yolks into a medium bowl and mash firmly until the consistency of damp yellow sulphury sand. Add mayonnaise, mustard and salt and stir through. 4. Also to your bowl, add 3/4 of your bacon bits and 3/4 of your minced parsley. Stir through. 5. Put mixture into a large plastic bag and snip off a corner, piping the mixture back into the empty holes of the hard boiled egg where the yolks used to be. 6. Sprinkle …

Takeout Takedown: Saying Goodbye to Delivered Food

By Amy S. Choi

(Photo: Nancy Gonzalez/TueNight) I am giving up takeout. This is not about health. This is not about calories. This is not about honing my kitchen skills (they are great, thankyouverymuch). This is not about family time. This is not about putting a pause on my all-out consumerism. This is about money. According to my AmEx statement, last month my husband, Gabriel, and I spent $590.88 on restaurants. Since we didn’t go out for a date night in November — too much holiday and work travel, plus the cost of a babysitter, plus really, cozying up at home when the kid is asleep is a pretty blissful date — I know that that $590.88 is pure takeout. Wait a minute. The great sushi place on the corner doesn’t take AmEx. Neither does my neighborhood Thai, or burrito joint. Crap. My Visa takeout bill: $351.56. So, last month, we spent $942.44 on takeout. This is not included the random cash spent for a coffee or bodega snack here or there. Let’s just pretend that money wasn’t spent. …

A Chef Shares Her Favorite Food Gifts

By Tamara Reynolds

Are you inundated with Gift Guides? Yeah, probably. But are you inundated with gift ideas that follow my golden rule: “Give the gift that you would most like to receive?” Probably not. Well, this is that guide. For the chef, home cook, food aficionado, or just plain eater in your life. I would be completely happy to receive any and/or all of these gifts. So you know they are for real. 1. Spices from La Boite Tucked behind a nondescript storefront way over on Eleventh Avenue in NYC is the magical land of La Boite Epices. Chef, owner, and spice blender Lior Lev Sercarz is an absolute alchemist, and the magic he creates in his beautifully packaged spice blends will blow you away. They make all other spice blends I have ever seen seem amateur. Rub a simple roast chicken with his Vadouvan mix and it becomes crispy, lightly curried skin with a hint of Herbs de Provence. His Ararat No. 35 is a smoky blend of Urfa Pepper, Smoked Paprika, and aromatic Fenugreek. His …

Gifts For the Multi-Cultural-Minded Foodie

By The Mash Up Americans

Mash-Up Americans love food. Really, really, really love food. It’s how we explore and express our identities. It’s how we bring our families and friends together. So what better way to celebrate the Holidays than with a guide from our Mash-Up Kitchen to Yours. Here’s a list of absolute must-haves! 1. Micom Rice Cooker and Warmer Rice is the staple of many cuisines. Also, it’s so delicious and we eat it at every meal. A rice cooker makes perfect rice and needs no tending to. Arroz for all! $139, amazon.com 2. Wei Kitchen Shallot Oil & Amber Vinegar  This wonderful new company is creating artisan Vietnamese-inspired products. They’ve started with the Amber Vinegar & Shallot Oil that Vietnamese-Chinese-Jewish-American Founder Debbie grew up making at home. You know that vinegar that comes when you order bun? Who wouldn’t love to pour that on everything? $32 for a gift set, $10 for a sample pack, weikitchen.com 3. Stainless Steal Spoon (Sudgarak) and Chopsticks It’s just better to eat with the long handled spoon and the stainless steel chopsticks that …

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Chef Dad: How My Husband Won My Heart and My Kids’ Stomachs

By Wendy Goldman Scherer

  On our third date, Andrew cooked me an incredible dinner: leg of lamb, roasted asparagus and crispy potatoes. It was truly impressive. Years later, he told me that he learned to cook because it was a good dating move. I might have felt played, but I like eating well just a tad too much. So, I not only let him cook for me regularly, I married him. Fast forward to when our first son was 3 ½  years old. He went to a preschool friend’s house for a play date and stayed for dinner. (If you’re thinking woo hoo, what a break for Wendy, think again. We had a 1 ½ year old and an infant at home.) I picked Davis, my oldest son, up at about 7:00 pm and, as always, he was full of stories! What a great reporter he was. So, chat, chat, chat… and then, “Mom. Guess what? It was so weird at Daniel’s house.” “Really, what was weird?” (You can only imagine where my thoughts were headed.) “When we …

The TueDo List: Donut Day, BBQ, Tasty Reads + Chef, The Movie

By Laurie White

Looking for some tasty things to do this weekend? Read–and eat–on. Today is National Donut Day! Today, Friday, June 6, is National Doughnut Day, which is a holiday I can fully support. I knew that Krispy Kreme was hooking customers up with a free doughnut to celebrate, because my mom keeps reminding me. Dunkin’ Donuts will also hook you up if you buy a drink, and so will a few other fried dough purveyors across the continent. And if you feel like going doughnut DIY? Stacie Billis from One Hungry Mama did a roundup on Cool Mom Picks of eight easy doughnut recipes that–she swears–you can make at home. She even throws in some pan recommendations so you’ll have the perfect doughnut-making gear. Mid-Atlantic Barbecues It’s a big weekend for barbecue in the Mid-Atlantic region. The 12th Annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party comes to New York City, with several pitmasters from NYC joined by competitors from as far away as Texas and Mississippi. Meanwhile, the Beltway BBQ Showdown hits the Prince George’s County suburbs of Washington, …

Margit’s Note: Take a Bite

By Margit Detweiler

Chewy, juicy, sour, sweet, spicy, yum. This week we’re smacking our lips, sharing our recipes and unveiling a brand new column — “Tasty Life,” by former Washington Post food columnist and cookbook author, Kim O’Donnel. Kim will be sharing delicious recipes with a dash of life and memories mixed in — the way most of us think about food. Like that chocolate marshmallow ice cream cone that fell to the ground when I was six. A calf (yes, a calf) at Merrymead Farms mooed and scared the bejeezus out of me; I jumped, and splat. Cone down. And yes, I am now quite a-feared of cows; and I covet chocolate marshmallow anything. Adrianna has a less scary, more lovely moment — with squid. For her, the taste and smell of calamari is “like summer and lavender and the Adriatic ocean.” The first bite sends her back to her honeymoon in Croatia. “It tastes like kissing my new husband.” Susan says a bite of an ice cream sandwich soothes. “They stopped me from crying as a kid. My dad snuck …

Food & Health: Women Who Inspire Us

By TueNight Crew

[column size=”one-third”] Naomi Starkman By Kim O’Donnel “She dishes up a daily serving of news and commentary to help the rest of us make sense of how our food is grown, raised and politicized.”… Read about why she inspires us [/column] [column size=”one-third”] Pati Jinich By Letisha Marrero “This Latina mother of three boys had the cojones to switch careers mid-life, pursue her passion doggedly, all the while making people pine for her culinary creations.”… Read about whys she inspires us [/column] [column size=”one-third” last=”true”] Alex Raij By Dori Fern “Her favorite part about being a well-seasoned chef is that she has become a better teacher and mentor to her staff: ‘The older you get, the more you realize you need help.’”… Read about why she inspires us [/column] [column size=”one-third”] Dr. Deborah Cohen By Suzanne Rust “Who stages a dance party before they’re scheduled for a double mastectomy? Dr. Deborah Cohan had the whole operating room laughing and shaking it to Beyoncé’s “Get Me Bodied” before her surgery.”… Read about why she inspires us [/column] [column size=”one-third” last=”true”] Celeste Corcoran …

You’ll Be Amazed You Can Make These DIY Gifts

By Neil Gladstone

If you’re having a tough time finding a distinctive, memorable, and/or cost effective gift this season, you can always rock it DIY style. Thankfully, this is not the kind of DIY that will require standing in a ripe basement for hours on end. Rather, here are five not-too-hard, handmade gifts that will exhibit your personal flair. 1. Cocoa in a Jar Sometimes all you need is a Mason jar and some ingenuity to come up with a heartwarming holiday treat. Grab a handful of ingredients for your favorite cocoa recipe and layer them stylishly. Get the How-To 2. Tile Pendant Necklace Learn how to turn a glass tile into a statement piece with this tile pendant necklace how-to. You can easily pick a featured print from a magazine ad or even scrapbook paper that suggests a friend’s sensibility or celebrates an inside joke. Get the How-To 3. French Press and Coffee Cup Sleeves If you know your way around a sewing machine and want to stitch together something that will remind your recipient of you …

All I Want for Christmas is… Pizza? 5 Gifts for Carb Lovers

By Tamar Anitai

‘Tis the season to celebrate awkward family conversations (“Nope! Still don’t have kids!”), the birth of whichever deity you may believe in, your general mildly pagan ways, and stretchy pajama pants you plan to change into to celebrate the most sacred and holy food group of all: carbs. Just admit to yourself how much you love carbs, whether or not you lie about eating them. It’s a truly freeing experience. Here are five no-carb gifts for the carb lover (i.e. me/ you) on your list. 1. Jeffrey Campbell Pizza Hi-Top Platform Sneakers And you thought there wasn’t a shoe that combined your love for cartoony pizza, the now-ness of the post-modern ’90s revival and your need for added height! In your FACE, I say! $250, Urbanoutfitters.com 2. I Want Abs But I Want Pizza More T-Shirt Aaaaaand therein lies the conundrum, printed perfectly on this tee, that masterfully nails the endless pizza-versus-abs chasm. (Personally, I always go with pizza over abs, because it’s easier. And tastier. And I can wear the t-shirt with pride.) $30, Shopjeen.com 3. …