Category: sides
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Creamy Carrot Soup & Play These Games (Mother’s Day Gift)
If I were to make a list of life’s necessities for my kids, my friend, Heather, would be in the top five. Well, not Heather, exactly – I mean, she takes great care of herself but she won’t be around forever – but someone like her. Someone in their lives they can call just to… Read more
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Passover Leek, Kale, and Bok Choy Gratin & Freedom ’12
As we prepare for family and discussions of religious, political, and intellectual freedom, my family celebrates the year marker of a different kind of freedom. Freedom from the Year That Was, moving past a dark time and into the spring. My son returns to school, the crocuses bloom in the yard, the weather goes from… Read more
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Vegetarian Boston Baked Beans & Bad Songs to Sing at Bedtime
If there’s a skill of mine that will never be rewarded financially, and in fact only serves as a road trip plus or game night choose me incentive, it is my ability for lyric recall. All that brain space that is supposed to be taken up by useful facts and figures is chock full of… Read more
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Red Chard with Citrus-Pomegranate Glaze & Marital Advice for My Kids
Kids, the day will come when you will ask me about marriage. You will want to know how I was sure about your father, and about certainty in love. And here is what I will say: it is easy to imagine and to live the carousel of love, to find the person you want to… Read more
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Kale Salad with Parmesan and Golden Raisins & Making Progress
You know how hearing a song can transport you to another time, a specific day, a season, or a person? It’s the same with food. A couple of years ago, my best friend and I had a book event in New York City. We read and signed and mingled and then escaped to a shoebox-sized… Read more
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Crispy Spelt-Poppyseed Crackers & Smoky Eggplant Dip & Crappy Dancing
At my cousin’s 100th birthday party (they are each 50, so had a combined party), I was called up to dance with my husband. “Give me Gershwin and I’d be fine,” he yelled over the music’s din. Hits from the 60s and 80s played and while there was a beat, my husband could not find… Read more
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Honey-Soy Shrimp & Keeping Bees
“Do you make your own honey?” someone asked. I was at a book signing and had finished telling a story about taking the four kids to pick berries and how they help make raspberry jam. “Oh, no,” I said and when the person looked surprised I had to explain. Here is what I do: I… Read more
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Vidalia Onion and Leek Tart with Whole Wheat Rosemary Crust & Parental Blame
Not one, but all four of my kids, have been walking around the house singing. Not that I mind. I’m a singer – in cars, as I walk down the street, while I cook. And yet, this singing my offspring are doing the past couple of weeks is…terrible. Off-key? No. Offensive lyrics? No (and I’m… Read more
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Roasted Tomatoes Cured in Olive Oil & 365 Things to Get Annoyed About
It’s so easy to find things annoying – the sound of gum chewing kills my oldest, Daniel can’t stand when people are out of tune, and I could write an essay about the crappy drivers who do the Boston-slow-down-without-fully-stopping-despite-the-stop-sign routine by my house. Remember that book? It filled the stockings of many and either makes… Read more
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Crispy Mushroom & Shallot Toasts & The Weird Table
“Which lunch table did you sit at?” Jamie asks after he’s explained the intricacies of the middle school lunchroom, the center tables and their popular, designer jeans crew, the ‘second tier who basically want to be at the center tables but aren’t,’ and so on. Odd 14-year-old that I was, mushrooms on toast was one… Read more
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Gluten Free Zucchini & Parmesan Fritters & Coming Home
While we were away the dog managed to chew the following items: -a widow flip-flop (its partner never returned from a sailing trip last summer) -an “indestructible” dog chew toy (note: indestructible, noun, see: leak-proof travel mug) -the electric bill -the replacement for the electric bill -the next replacement for the electric bill The good… Read more
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Crispy Broccoli Florets & Healthy Eating
About this time of year we are inundated with ads and suggestions about shedding holiday pounds or resuming/beginning healthy habits. I’m not here to tell you to do that. I am here to tell you that once you make these little crispy, lightly salted*, perfect for picking at snack, your desire for chips or brownies… Read more
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Maple Sweet Potato Spoon Bread & Breasts
Our house was built in 1889. Roughly translated, this means no matter what temperature it is outside, inside is ten degrees colder. So we added a heat system clearly manufactured in hell because its strength and fire is unmatched. Set at 59 degrees, the house is tropical inside. As a result, despite the frigid outside… Read more
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Latkes (Crispy Potato Pancakes) & Positive Energy
Without sounding all yoga, I have the following to say: It takes just as much energy to be and say negative things as it does positive. This time of year – but really in all seasons – life is much more enjoyable when we spread kindness and joy. That is all. That, and the best… Read more
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Creamy Winter Vegetable Soup & Chanukah Hugging Stars
I’ll be honest; I haven’t been underneath any mistletoe since a fantastically bad holiday party that led to an incredibly fun few weeks way back before I was married. We don’t have any mistletoe. What we do have thanks to Will the 4-year-old are hugging stars. What are they? Same concept, less prickly. He wanted… Read more