Category: family favorites
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Twice-Cooked Beans with Smoky Paprika Onions & Laziness
Some recipe are borne of genius. Some, like this one, are borne of sheer laziness. What, you’ve never been enamored of Jacobs Cattle beans, their marble-like texture and splotches of brown and white, so taken with them you keep them cloistered away in a jar just to ogle them? Well, I have. And then I… Read more
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Zucchini Chocolate Chip Loaf, Parmesan Zucchini & A Vegetable that Requires Cooking
This is what is known in the food industry as a shitload of zucchini. Oh, it’s not that much you say? This is just from this morning. NOT this afternoon. NOT tomorrow. I have to start this post by stating a few facts: I am in Italy at my dad’s house (read: not on the… Read more
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Oven Omelet with Garlic Scapes & baby Spinach & Art
In the food-as-modern-scultpure category, garlic scapes win first place. Green in shades from lightest to moss, twisted as witches fingers, lovely enough to use as a centerpiece and yet too delicious to waste on topiary. I love the bite. Are they the love child of garlic and onion? Perhaps. But they make for a flavorful… Read more
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Communal Bowl of Japanese Noodles & Cures for Boredom
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: mess is fine by me. I like a tidy house but I also know that one of the keys to relaxed fun is letting go. In light of that, I set up a couple of activities for the kids. We had a bit of a heat… Read more
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Deep Dish Skillet Cornbread & My Deviant Best Friend
My best friend is from Indiana. She grew up in a tiny town and got kicked off the cheer squad for being too sarcastic. Go team! Many an afternoon have we spent driving the unnamed backroads looking for green tomatoes to fry and corn to steam and eat unbuttered; it’s that fresh and sweet. I… Read more
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Brown Sugar Plums & What We Leave Behind
My husband’s grandma died a few weeks ago. She escaped Germany in 1938 with a fur hat, a determination to survive, an ugly teapot, and money hidden in her vagina. True. In the interview my husband conducted with her and her husband (“Opie”), she recalled stashing “up zer, in ze woo-hoo”. She lived a… Read more
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Grandma Ruth’s Double Streusel Coffee Cake & Einstein’s Theories
Oh, Mr. Einstein with your wondrous hair and brain. You theorized that it would be possible to overlap past and present and I am hoping you can make that possible so that I can dine with the great grandparents I know only from stories of root cellars and Yiddish accents and English maids and also… Read more
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Upside Down Vanilla French Toast & True Love
Bread and eggs are every bit as crucial as blue, red, and yellow. They are the launchpad for many dishes. Plus, baguettes and eggs make decent stand-ins for bats and baseballs. You might know this if you have an almost 12-year-old. I was completely unprepared to fall in love when I met my husband. I… Read more
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Butter Bean Hummus & Helping Hands
This is my 4-year-old doing all of the cooking by himself. If his hands look rather large it is because a) I’m not a very good photographer and b) he is a giant child. People constantly ask what grade he is in. Soon they’ll want to know what hedge fund he manages [I will respond… Read more
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Vegetable Lo Mein with Apricot-Sesame Glaze
When my grandmother turned 95 a couple of years ago I asked her if she felt her age. She paused and said, “No, more like 93.” This winter I felt as though I had crawled into an ancient body, an old mind, and a withered spirit. I don’t mean ancient as in wise, I mean… Read more
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Double Beet Salad with Goat Cheese & a dildo
If the day starts with the following questions all happening at the same time as everyone converges in your kitchen and it is before 7am: Contractor: You know your roof has four leaks in it, right? 9-year-old: Mom? 6-year-old: What do I do if my vagina is itchy? 9 –year-old: Mom? Mom? 4-year-old: How come… Read more
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Passover Potato Gnocchi with Spring Greens
We’re back from a few days of off-season fun on Martha’s Vineyard. We walked in the rain, took the puppy into the cold ocean, looked for shells and seaglass, annoyed siblings in the car, tried to further annoy siblings at dinner/back in the car/at the fudge shop/in front of ye olde houses, made siblings nearly… Read more
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Vegetable Crunch…Meal in a Bowl
I am huge fan of the meal-in-a-bowl. This is not just the lazy parent’s guide to fewer dishes, but because I find it comforting and happy-maing in its simplicity. In winter, a bowl of whole wheat pasta tossed with wilted greens and Bucheron cheese or warmed cannellini beans is my kind of dinner. In summer,… Read more
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Real 30-Minute Meals
The Real Deal about 30-Minute Meals You can’t turn a page or flip a channel these days without being bombarded by a barrage of ever-decreasing cooking times for whole meals. Dinner in under an hour has turned to the thirty-minute meal. Soon we’ll be cooking for eight in under eight. For starters, let’s be honest.… Read more
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Cooking with Leftovers
Waste Not, Want Lots –Or, How I Emptied the Fridge for My Spring Vacation Bizarre child that I was, I loved clipping coupons. I’d grab the shiny inserts from the Sunday papers, cut them with my mother’s special scissors, and arrange them in neat stacks on the counter where my parents would promptly ignore them… Read more