Cooking the Books: Archive

Cooking the Books

November 2011

1 post

July 2011

2 posts

May 2011

1 post

April 2011

1 post

March 2011

1 post

February 2011

1 post

January 2011

2 posts

Jake Cleland: Thoughts While Watching "Cooking The... →

jakec: Cute intro music. I like it when the screen splits into multiple parts like an episode of “24.” Why does that temperature dial only go to 60? Oh it’s the timer. Who’s Doogie Horner? Do I have time to Google him? Oh no, it’s starting. JESSE VENTURA! It’s Gould as in “Ghouled”, that’s… Jake, you raise interesting points and ask pertinent questions. They were cut-offs (we shot this...

I know sometimes when I’m watching a video on the Internet I can get a little bored and tune out if it’s longer than, say, :30 and not about a cat fighting a bear cub (and winning). Nevertheless I have to recommend that you give this episode of Cooking the Books’s flavors time to develop and blossom on your palate, like a fine wine/ vodka-Schlitz-lemonade beverage. Also at...

October 2010

1 post

September 2010

1 post

August 2010

4 posts

July 2010

1 post

Are We Winning author Will Leitch’s episode of Cooking the Books is less of a “cooking” show and more of a “dropping something in warm but not boiling water and leaving it there for 2 minutes” show. Nevertheless it’s one of the best episodes ever for various reasons. The ending is a real shocker. I’m still a little bit shocked.

June 2010

1 post

Julie “Sweet Jewish Noodles” Klausner came to the Cooking the Books studio to discuss her book I Don’t Care About Your Band and make kugel. We ended up mostly speaking Yiddish so I hope you don’t have problems understanding us. This was the first time we’d had a guest who is already a star of the funniest videos on the Internet (cf: Mommy Time, Racist Annie, Welcome...

May 2010

1 post

For A Fortunate Age author Joanna Smith Rakoff’s Cooking the Books, we made a classic brunch dish from late lamented Williamsburg eatery Oznot’s Dish, harissa eggs and rosemary potatoes. This is the easiest thing we’ve ever made and one of the most delicious — if you have harissa around. If you don’t have harissa around, why not make some? It’s cheap and...

April 2010

10 posts

My Cooking the Books, starring Bennett as host and a very awesome Batman tshirt from the Val collection.

Kathryn Borel, the author of Corked, taught us how to make perfect hollandaise sauce and imitated her dad’s French accent.

From the Hips author Ceridwen Morris and her husband The Ask author Sam Lipsyte joined us for some Momofuku pork buns. In the Awl comments Choire pointed out that there is a recipe for these available online, but I feel that it is inferior and that you should just buy the cookbook. It’s a great cookbook — even if you never cook anything from it it’s fun to read and pretty to...

Cleaving author Julie Powell showed us how to make pig liver and onions. Fun fact: I have been mostly a vegetarian since we taped this, not because it wasn’t good, but because a little liver goes a long way.

On episode 5, Girl Power author Marisa Meltzer and I made vegan cupcakes from Alicia Silverstone’s vegan cookbook The Kind Diet. Alicia advocates eating a healthy helping of greens for breakfast every day, and would like to remind you that honey is food for bees, by bees.

The Melting Season author Jami Attenberg made cheeseburgers on episode 4. We tried to replicate the Shake Shack burger with ok results. The Shake Shack sauce was good, at least. Probably Laurie Colwin is right that hamburgers are a restaurant food, not an at-home food.

Obsolete author Anna Jane Grossman made popcorn cookies for Episode 3. This was the only time we made food that was actually not very successful; if you would like to also make kinda-gross cookies with too much going on in them, the recipe is here.