It is 2020 and We Are Food Blogging, Baby!

Sometimes, say during a pandemic, you are in a corner store and you spy stacks of corn tortillas on the shelf. You stock up on them because you’re trying to reduce the frequency of your shopping trips — and because tortillas are a way of life.  But some of them go stale before you get to them. Don’t be sad. This is the perfect time to make migas.  "What are migas?" you might ask — especially if you are my spouse from the East Coast. I think of migas as a kind of Tex-Mex cousin to chilaquiles, another dish that I love (and obsessively eat). They both make magic out of stale tortillas, creating that most tasty food texture of crispy-gone-soggy . Though they're similar in that way, they diverge in the details.  Both often have eggs, but whereas eggs are a key feature of migas, they're merely one option for chilaquiles. The star component of chilaquiles — the thing that can make it or break it — is the sauce. Migas is less intimidating to make because you can ...

There are are many answers to Noah's question of what to do when you have too many eggs . On a whim, I had placed an order with a farm wholesaler but they never confirmed my order. Alas, times are topsy turvy and I didn't think much of it. After our weekly grocery run, I get an email saying my delivery would happen today. I had ordered 30 eggs from them and we had just bought 24 at the grocery. We now had...too many eggs. Baking is a good way to use eggs but what about for meals? Behold, the egg salad sandwich. Humble in its cookery but delightful in flavor. It was a go-to for me on picnics growing up and provides a sense of comfort now. Egg salads are also infinitely customizable. I had originally planned on going with Los Angeles bakery Konbi's infamous egg salad sandwich , which requires a dozen eggs BUT milk bread, which I have not made in awhile (due to lack of motivation). My boyfriend had made some sourdough bread yesterday (yes, we also have made our own ...

Last Tuesday, a friend died unexpectedly. On Wednesday I sat in bed until noon. When I finally got up, I opened my fridge, surveyed its contents, and seeing the container of leftover white rice, I decided to make Spamsilog. First, I smashed some garlic cloves and chopped them, then heated the pieces in olive oil. When the garlic turned fragrant, I dumped the old rice into the pan, breaking up chunks to make garlic rice, similar to the way Brian blogged about it . With a wooden spatula, I turned the rice over and over, pressing down on it sometimes. The longer you wait, the crispier the rice becomes — a reward for patience. A ways into the frying, I thought to add some green onions and hastily snipped a length of some that had been re-growing in a jar. As the rice cooked, I asked my spouse H to slice Spam. I always keep a can of Spam in the pantry, though I don’t eat it much these days. It’s there for emergencies. Now it felt like an emergency. As I browned the slices of Sp...

Cooking is science—or so I've heard. Personally I hate to think of cooking as science and prefer to think about it the same way I think about writing but ANYWAY. Lately I've been getting into emulsions in the kitchen? Which does sound A. Ridiculous B. Like science. So let's talk emulsions, baby! On like day one of social distancing, I really wanted a Jimmy John's sandwich? Do not @ me. I however did not have access to a Jimmy John's sandwich so my totally normal way of processing this was to make my own sandwiches including...mayonnaise made from scratch. Mayonnaise is a classic emulsion and I'm apparently the kind of person who says "classic emulsion" now. My girlfriend recently gifted me a copy of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat, and it is hands down the best cookbook I've ever laid eyes on (I usually don't like cookbooks due to my aforementioned tendency to never follow rules in the kitchen!). But even I will admit emulsions r...

Eggs are really tasty and versatile, and every kitchen probably has a good amount unless you're vegan. I am not vegan, so I enjoy a crisply fried egg on top of some curry rice or poaching an egg in my instant ramen. I was not in danger of running out of eggs before the shelter-in-place notice went out to all 6 major counties in the Bay Area. I have never, in fact, been in danger of running out of eggs, even at work - the school I teach at houses a chicken coop and they produce some pretty superb eggs for our school lunches. At any rate, I had already purchased a dozen eggs before shelter-in-place, so it was all good. When I got to Berkeley Bowl West in...uh, Berkeley on Monday morning, I was still relatively calm about sheltering-in-place. I can cook! I'll be fine. Then I saw the crowds and just let the panic take me. I was no longer in control of my mind or hands, and when I got in line - about 40 carts deep, stretching from the front of the store all the way to the en...