Category: soups & starters
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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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Best Split Pea Soup Ever & Terrible Band Names
So the kids are talking at dinner, each one suggesting names for bands they haven’t created and which I am pretty sure no one wants to join. Jamie, almost a teenager says, “The Communists.” Daniel, 10 and still way into Star Wars, suggests, “Luke’s Dilemma.” Julia, 7, says, “Painted Pony.” When her brothers groaned, she… Read more
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Field of Greens Soup & What’s in a Name
super very so green lots o green top o the morning green I have never been able to think of a good name for this soup. For now, it’s Triple Green Soup which makes no sense because there are more than 3 greens in it. But Sextuplet Green Soup sounds creepy. Suggestions? UPDATE: The… 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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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
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Pomegranate-Date Bursts & The Horse Phase
My daughter is teaching herself how to draw horses. She studies the musculature displayed on the library book pages and carefully draws the head, the hindquarters, parts of the horse’s body I can’t name because I was never a horsey girl. Possibly this is due to the fact that I exploded into an allergic fit… Read more
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Cauliflower Cheddar Soup & In Praise of Canada
Dear Canada, Thanks for making winter boots that actually keep my feet warm and dry. We try to imitate your footwear here in the US but we fail. Or we produce boots that are as airtight as a sieve or as heavy as a 5-lb bag of flour (yes, that would make the boots 5… Read more
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Shark Week Soup Week!
If you like shark week – with its gory images of multiple rows of slicing teeth and overly dramatic voice-overs – then you will be disappointed here. However, if you swoon over soup, you’ll be thrilled! What started as “let’s use up the squash and pumpkin from the farm share” turned into “let’s have bisque”… Read more
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Extra Thick Garlic & Mushroom Soup
Advice and observations from my children: Don’t let other people make you feel bad because most of the time they’re only saying that because they feel bad about it. If you get kicked in the ballsack, it will hurt. Especially if it’s your older brother who does it. Save your candy until the movie starts.… Read more
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Warm Vegetable Salad with Beet Greens & Unplugged Parenting (The NYT is Wrong)
Ok, so the NYT isn’t wrong. I just disagree with this article here in which the author describes his terrific “plugged-in summer.” Now, don’t for a second start to think I’m going to rant about parents at the playground who are texting or reading blogs (ahem) instead of interacting or at least enjoying watching their kids.… Read more
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Farmer’s Market Gazpacho (Raw-Vegan) & Perspective
“Are you making sauce?” Julia asks. “It’s actually soup,” I say. “Actually, it’s ketchup,” Will says. He’s 4 and everything is better with ketchup. “It’s soup.” “The cold one?” Julia raises her eyebrows while I nod. “It still looks like sauce. You could use it as sauce.” And thus, the gazpacho sauce was borne. We… Read more
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Labneh (Middle Eastern Yogurt Dip) & Loving Summer
Fall was always my favorite season. Maybe it will be again but when I became a parent I realized the freedom of summer. Do my kids miss homework? They do not but I believe I miss it even less than they do. I fit my work in where I can all year-round but in… Read more