There’s a cookbook I’ve had for years that I keep around almost solely for the last two chapters: one chapter is recipes that use extra egg yolks and the other is recipes that use extra egg whites. I hate throwing out perfectly good food, so I appreciate having options when a recipe I’m preparing leaves me with leftovers. More »

It turns out I like to dabble in Asian and gay porn. Food porn, that is.

In the last few weeks I’ve been slammed with a trove of advanced copies of cookbooks, mostly five-pound coffee-table versions filled with gauzy soft-focus shallow-depth-of-field photography of come-hither canapés and prosaic stories about learning to cook at the feet of mom, grandma or insert-favorite-dead-relative-who-in-reality-almost-killed-you-with-grayish-green-hard-boiled-eggs-and-leaden-fruitcake here. More »

I’ve finally been tapped to contribute to a cookbook. I feel a bit like the lonely relief pitcher stepping up to the mound to save the game.

But in this case there is no Steinbrenner sending a memo down from the luxury box and no Ozzie to give me the nod on my way out of the bullpen. A higher power called me to the stove. The call came down to the field like so:

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