About Erin's Kitchen

Who?

I am a 28-year-old Midwestern transplant to New York via Los Angeles. I have more shoes and books than one apartment can comfortably hold, and a very messy spice cupboard. Living in NYC has been a dream of mine for many years, though after 5 years in LA I miss Yuca's Tacos and palm trees.

What?
I like to cook and eat and explore food. Inspired by the Locavores, Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and my family history, I try to eat as locally as possible. My favorite kitchen tools are my bamboo spoons (thanks Aunt Karla!) and my microplane grater. Also, after a long day, my cocktail shaker or my corkscrew.

Why?
I like to eat. I like to explore. I wanted to document my adventures. Also, I like to finish things. My career focus doesn't provide a lot of immediate gratification--instead it's "do it for my (non-existant) children" work. Cooking, on the other hand, allows a start and a finish in a relatively short period of time. You see and enjoy the fruits of your labor, usually making other people happy in the process (unless you greedily eat all the chocolate chip cookies yourself--which is okay every once and awhile).

How?
On my kitchen bookshelf you will find: The Joy of Cooking; Mastering the Art of French Cooking; Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess, Feast, and Forever Summer; The Herbal Kitchen by Jerry Traunfeld; The Babbo Cookbook; Chez Panisse Cafe Cookbook; Moosewood Restaurant New Classics; The Edible Mushroom; The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook; Cooking for Mr. Latte; Vegetariana; Emma's Tea Room Cookbook; La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange; A Slice of Kentucky; and last bust certainly not least, though I haven't cooked from it, The Clinton Presidential Center Cookbook.

The recipes in the Babbo book are remarkably simple and Chez Panisse's pizza dough and crostata di perella can't be beat; Moosewood has the best basic muffins, while Nigella's dense chocolate loaf cake and flourless chocolate cake wow even a non-chocolate-lover like myself. If you want technique and the "why" behind it all, a combination reading of Joy of Cooking, Julia Child and Madame E. Saint-Ange will give you the scoop.

Best Meal(s) in the past few years?
A tie between dinner at Babbo after getting engaged in Washington Square Park in New York City and our family and friend-filled pre-wedding BBQ in Wisconsin with chicken from the Holmen Locker and apple pie from J's grandma and aunts.

Favorite foods?
Depends on the time of day and my mood. Salty always beats sweet. Pork, particularly in cured form, beats beef and chicken, but not duck. If health were no concern, I'd eat every day at French bistros, always steak frites or moules frites. Any fruit, any cheese, any bread. Any vegetable, except cauliflower, especially asparagus.