Category: soups & starters
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Cold Cucumber Soup with Peas & Imagination
4-year-old Will and 12-year-old Jamie and I rode the T into downtown Boston this weekend. The journey, as they say, was the destination. Will loves trains, the slurring scenery, the tickets, the immovable seats, the automatic doors. We exited at the park and went for a ride on the Swan Boats. “There’s a guy on… Read more
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Black Olive and Caper Tapenade & Proportional Happiness
When I go to Mexico to visit my old friend, Cristina, I like to help her milk goats, eat the cheese she makes from those goats, and wander into the market to buy hand-made blue gorditas and cactus for salad. But what I really love is buying spoons. They are made locally, don’t cost much,… Read more
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Creamy Fennel, Garlic, Onion & Potato Soup & Spinning My Wheels & Free Diapers
When was spinning a craze? I remember my older brother converting to the religion of spin class somewhere in the late 90s…but like many things from that time period, I missed them. My first child was born in 1999. Roughly translated, this means my husband and I ARE STILL WATCHING THE WEST WING. Missed it… Read more
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Summer Squash Ribbon Salad with Lemon-Dill Vinaigrette (Raw) & My Vegan Dog
Perhaps you’re familiar with Newfoundlands as a breed. Maybe you read Peter Pan (in the original book, Nana is a Newfie, not a Saint). My dog, Atticus, is, for lack of a better ford, a beast. He is giant, hairy, drools, has huge teeth, paws that can take out a grown man’s eye (though he’d… Read more
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Cheese & One Reason I Miss Italy
This is just the cheese platter I would serve each day at lunch… Did I mention that in the (lost) green bag was an entire wheel of cheese? Read more
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Zucchini Ribbons with Velvet Onions & The Mystery of the Green Bag
Upon our return from Italy last night we realized a few things: we are tired, which is silly considering we relaxed very hard while there…I’m thinking this had something to do with 19 hour travel day with five kids, two long-haul flights, time changes, system breakdown of in-flight entertainment, the airline somehow having us down… Read more
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Radish Sandwiches & Airport Eating
Why oh why would one have congealed meat products with ice cold bread with plastic cheese and frozen salad when this is on offer? My airport meal consists of: Chewy ficelle bread, one half spread with goat cheese, layered with radishes, cucumbers, and salt. The other half has simple, sweet butter, radishes, and Maldon’s. Hell… Read more
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Beet Salad with Lime Vinaigrette (Raw) & School’s Out for Summer
Nothing says Summer Fun for kids like a raw beet salad, right? Wrong. But this does not mean I won’t make it again. It was a great for items in my CSA delivery and because it’s barely heated through, the beet retains bite Read more
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Asian Broccoli Slaw & An Anatomy Lesson
My mom took Julia, age 7, and her friend Sally for the afternoon. They played make-believe, ate tuna salad and celery and Oreos and run around Grammie’s townhouse and did slippery-slides on the wood floors. That night, Sally’s mom called me to say she was sorry. “For what?” Sally’s mom is a pediatrician. “I think… Read more
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Curried Sweet Sunflower Seeds & Throwing Caution to the Wind
This summer we’re going back to my dad’s house in Italy. It is there where we lose track of the days, eat lots of local cheese, let the kids swim late and look up at the stars without ushering them into bed on time, where gelato is a daily treat, and picking vegetables from the… Read more
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Quick Radish Pickles & Recovery
By now you might know that something very bad happened to one of my kids this year. He’s 9 and has been recovering in a variety of ways; therapy, talking, and, since March, cooking and baking. Sunday nights he flips through cookbooks and decides what he’d like to make. Monday we find the ingredients and… 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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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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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