Category: all
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Deep Dish Raspberry Cornmeal Pudding Cake & Too Darn Hot
Yes, I wrote about deep dish cornbread yesterday. But the bright yellow cornmeal called out to me again and the raspberries are so sweet and plump and let’s be honest: it’s hot as the dickens in the Northeast today. That’s the first time I’ve ever used that expression. This is not the first time I… 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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Summer Creamy Onion Soup & Harry Potter
Parenting makes you grow. It makes you love more than you thought possible. It also makes you say sentences that you never thought you’d say. “Because toothbrushes aren’t for vaginas, that’s why.” “Because I’m positive Axl Rose’s name didn’t used to be Steering Wheel Dandelion.” “Because we don’t eat chili from our hands.” And so… 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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Dear Brunch & Bagels
Dear Brunch, A while back, you were just a late breakfast. Then maybe a quiche or a simple salad in addition. Waffles if one really went wild. Now, there are wasabi-encrusted salmon fritters with chinchilla berries, buckwheat-semolina-semi-freddo cherry froth on an escarole blini. My daughter, age 7, asked why I wasn’t serving squid i its… 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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Garlicky Green Tart with Sunflower Crust & Being Straightforward
4-yr-old: Do you have any gum? Me: No. Ask Daddy. [4-yo goes upstairs, comes back down]: Daddy’s in the shower. he says i can have gum when he gets out. Me: Okay. [4-yr-old considers something]: Can I sleep with gum? Me: that wouldn’t be a good idea. It could get stuck in your hair or… Read more
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Coconut Key Lime Pie & Golf
There are probably topics that are more boring to hear about than golf if one does not play golf, but I can’t think of many. Detailed procedure of root canals. The plight of the silk worm. Someone else’s kid’s toilet training woes. No, I still think golf wins. I know, I know. I respect the… Read more
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Dirty Palmers & Long Weekends
Were you wondering what to drink this afternoon or tomorrow at your BBQ? Read more
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Apricot Bars & Holiday Weekend
Sometimes, a person needs a good, buttery apricot bar with which to greet the day. Or to serve after a bbq lunch. Or to have with a cup of iced tea in the mid-afternoon. Or at night, when the house is quiet and the only light comes from the fridge. Read more
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Sunflower-Arugula Pesto & Bite Me, American Doll
Oh, the glorious days of spring! They are few in New England but the ones we have are perfect for sitting together as a family, each with our own bowl of fresh pasta brightened by arugula pesto. Spring nights are for slow dinners, grass-stained knees, muddy dogs, and relief. They are not meant to be… Read more
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Chopped Salad & Modern Children
Spring lasts for about three days in New England. Today is one of those days. The kids are in shorts but carrying a sweatshirt, the grass isn’t a giant muddy pit, and I’m busy assembling salad. “I’m actually warm!” says Will the 4-year-old. This is a small miracle because he’s notoriously cold all the time.… Read more
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Black Bean Soup with Piloncillo and Mexican Peppers
I love to travel. My somewhat nomadic childhood might be to blame, but there’s nothing quite like the thrill of planning a trip, discovering a new place, and, of course, eating the local food. My friend from high school, Cristina, is from Central Mexico. After college (we also overlapped there), she moved home. I had… Read more
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Double Apricot Tart (wheat-free, nut-free, gluten-free) & Friendship
By now maybe you know that my family had a rough year [known as The Year of the Shit]. I (still) won’t go into too many details but will share that TYOTS involved death, despair, and something really really bad happening to one of my kids. I had a hard time reaching out. Like many… Read more