Category: Uncategorized
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Ginger Dried Fruit Scones (Thanksgiving Breakfast)
We like to host Thanksgiving. It’s a cacophony of four generations of family around the table, everyone talking, eating, complaining, singing together. Plus, if you host, you benefit from the leftovers (sandwiches, turkey-sweet potato pie, deep dish pot pie). While I cook, the kids and their dad take the giant beast dog on a walk.… Read more
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Chard with Brown Sugar Pumpkin Seeds and Dried Cherries & Fun Foreign Words
Germans have a word for the feeling of being along in the woods. Waldeinsamkeit. Italians have a word for the ring left on a table by a cold glass. Culaccino. I might have to make a word for being alone with a plate of well-seasoned chard that’s dotted with crispy, sweet seeds and a tang… Read more
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Sweet or Savory English Porridge – for breakfast, lunch, or dinner…
How I long to sit and have porridge with my best childhood friend, Jules. We tend to talk for so long that entire days slide by when we’re together. At her charming house outside of London, our kids played in the garden, our spouses talked sports and fish n’ chips, and inside, we laughed about… Read more
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Whole Wheat Lemon Poppy Seed Cake with Lemon Glaze
Given his druthers, one of my kids would have all manner of bread and cheese – grilled cheese, quesadillas, pizza – at all meals. And snacks. So it’s odd (to me) that his favorite muffin is lemon poppy seed. Crunchy, tangy, sweet and sour. I made this cake for him because who doesn’t want cake… Read more
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Galley Cookies (thin, chewy, crispy cookies with chocolate, pretzels, and candy) aka Leftover Candy Cookies
Do you have miniature ghosts or Taylor Swifts or zombies coming to your door tomorrow? Do you end up with four leftover bags of candy or go through your child’s bag for their rejects (pretzels? Who gave me pretzels?). If so, these cookies will help. Eve if it’s not Halloween and you have bits of… Read more
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Pasta with Fresh Mozzarella, Arugula, Peas, and Heirloom Tomatoes
About this time of year the reality of shorter days catches up with me. Winter looms here on the east coast, and crisp days of fall are slipping to the days where the sky looks like old, dried paste. Which is also what I’m using to make this year’s costume for my youngest, who is… Read more
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Tatsoi & Sunflower Pesto
One of the farms near me grows delicious tatsoi (you can read more about it here). It’s great in any spinach dish and also makes a particularly tasty pesto. If you can’t find it near you, just use baby spinach or baby kale. This time of year I tend to get kind of hoardy at… Read more
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Chocolate Crunch Bars (aka Homemade Gourmet Kit-Kats)
Sometimes I see a recipe and immediately know it’s something I have to try. Only, most of the time when I get around to making it, I wind up deciding to change a few things here and there or swap out one item for another based on what I have on hand or what’s in… Read more
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Boozy Preserved Fruit (Apricots in Vodka, Cointreau Peaches, Cherries in Cinnamon Rum)
One part of cooking that I find very satisfying is figuring out what to do to avoid food waste. Soups, sauces, bread puddings, tarts – all great ways to use up odds and ends. This time of year we still have great fruit available, but with school lunches packed and snacks at the soccer field… Read more
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Italian Rainbow Chopped Salad with Lemon-Tarragon Dressing
Salad is so gay, a new friend said to eight-year-old Jamie. Jamie went on to explain – in front of a group of 5 boys gathered at our house for the first time – that salad can’t be gay. Neither can rhubarb, fyi. He talked about people being gay and how everyone has feelings and… Read more
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10-Minute Escarole, White Bean, and Parmesan Soup & (Not) The Smartest Phone
I don’t talk on the phone while driving (nor do I text, but that should be a given, right?). However, I find the hands-free option that comes with my cheap phone very useful while my fingers are caked with cream and espresso from the tiramisu I made this weekend (recipe to come!). My phone is… Read more
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Italian Apple Tart with Salted Caramel Sauce & The Circle
The Youngest: When will I be a baby again? Me: You won’t. You only get to be each age once. Him: Right. Unless you be a circle. Then you just keep coming back. L’chaim! Read more
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Honey Cake & Things You Don’t Want to Fall out of Your Pants
I’m not a shopper. I’m the kind of person who runs into a store as though under time clock pressure, grabs the item in question, tries on twelv pairs, likes one, buys it, and leaves. And yet when it came time to try on jeans, I still found myself pondering… -When did we all decide… Read more
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Best Noodle Pudding (Kugel) & Welcome Back (Rosh Hashana, School, Fall)
Were we on a break? I didn’t intend for us to part. And yet…summer passed with nary a recipe. Why? Because I was too busy listening to the just-turned-5-year-old breathlessly tell me he has a new pet. “What is it?” “A worm.” He is young enough that he still pronounces it “warhm”. “Quick – come… Read more
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Sorrel Labne (Lemony Yogurt Dip) & Breaking Up
From the 5-year-old a few night ago: Him: [In bed, blushing] I have an idea! Me: [in doorway] Oh, yeah? Him: Come here. I go and sit next to him and he wraps his arms around me, using his super-human strength (really, he is oddly strong) to pull my ear to his lips. Him: [whispering]… Read more