Jet lag is a bitch. Two nights in a row not being able to go to sleep before two or three AM and then needing to be at work is a total pain in the ass, especially coming off the heels of a week long conference where you got used to being up until two AM west coast time. Why do you care? Because I'm tired. And when I'm tired it means something simple I can make with my eyes closed in 30 minutes including doing the prep and the dishes. It ...

Sometimes I wonder if someone out there really is listening to me. While I was out in San Francisco, Fall finally hit New York City. Five weeks late is better than never. It's cold enough that I finally took the air conditioner out of the window and the landlord has the heat on. Which means I can really start cooking in earnest again. (It's so much easier for me to cook when I can just open a window to cool off. I sweat a lot when I'm hot.) I finally took my ...

There should hopefully be better quality photos up here now. Julie and I finally got a digital camera while we were out in San Francisco. You can see all the photos from this blog in my Gute Essen Flickr pool.

Sorry folks! I'm in San Francisco right now for a conference so there's just no cooking going on. But I have had some awesome food. Steaks, burritos, crabs, In-N-Out Burger, oysters -- it just doesn't stop coming. Any suggestions on where to eat?

Today was a pretty weird day. Didn't get a lot of sleep last night and had to wake up early to take my cat to the vet in order to get stitches on her eye (well, where her eye used to be, long story) removed. Julie had a work happy hour that I stopped off at and realized I wasn't in a social mood so I went home and ordered tacos for myself. When Julie came home a while later she needed something to eat. Not really having any food on hand since I'm leaving for San Francisco on ...

Two months ago or so it was my friend Christy's birthday. And as it seems tradition stands, I finally got around to making her dinner tonight for it to celebrate. But I did have the added bonus that it was her boyfriend Colin's birthday yesterday so I got to kill two birthdays with one fish. I've been craving crab recently for some inexplicable reason. Crab cakes, crab meat cocktail, crab rolls, what-have-you. But live crabs are a pain and sometimes guests (or Julie for that matter) can be a little squeamish with ...

So remember when I was all "yo, it's fall?" Yeah, well, apparently, I was smoking crystal meth since it's 67F degrees and humid. Being that my apartment really has no cross-breeze, turning on the oven on a day like today means sweating out all the liquids I've drank all day. That and tomorrow is my six month physical check (cholesterol was a little high last time), so that means it's time for something healthy that hopefully that you don't cook. Or at least something that you cook minimally. (Because seriously not eating a healthy meal as your last before a ...

Tonight was one of my favorite things to cook: leftovers spaghetti. We had cauliflower, tomato sauce, chicken sausages and swiss chard still in the fridge from the night before. A quick stop at the supermarket on the way home got us some fennel, another onion, some artichoke hearts and a box of mezze-rigatone. Leftovers pastaSaúteed swiss chard Leftovers Pasta 1 bulb fennel, cut into batons1 medium white onion, frenchedleft-over cauliflowertomato sauce2 chicken sausages, slicedfour or five marinated artichoke hearts, well rinsed, chopped roughlyCouple of cloves of garlic, thinly sliced1 box ...

I love cauliflower. Like seriously love it. And it's not a recent thing — I was the kid who always loved to eat vegetables. Except for my mom's broccoli. *shudder* Anyway, I've been trying to figure out a way to get Julie to eat more cauliflower — she did not like it saúteed with garlic and olive oil; it was too crunchy. I know she likes sweeter things rather than more savory and I realized that the cauliflower at Green Symphony down the street from work was right up her alley. It's softer and sweeter and has a nice ...

Well, it finally got to be fall today. After getting sunburned on Saturday. In October. Sunburned. In October. Well, anyway, it finally got to be fall. And since it was fall, it was time to cook something for fall. What says fall? Pumpkins of course! And what goes with pumpkins? Lots of things come to mind: curry, carrots, ginger, cumin, chiles, raisins, sage and soup! Also, knowing that I was going to be shirking out of my one-year anniversary duties with Julie for a night out with a coworker who was leaving, I figured I'd better make something good. ...