I grew up with a strong Christmas cookie tradition. “Cookie Day” was a really big deal, planned months in advance. We spent a full Saturday each season baking dozens and dozens of cookies with my wonderful Martha Stewart-esque aunt, who would prepare as many as eight different batches of dough in advance so that my sister and I […]
Even as a kid, I was not a Kraft mac & cheese girl. The neon orange color and lack of any discernible cheese confused me. Give me a layer of melty, crispy cheese on top of some noodles, and now we’re talking. But even then, I’d probably rather just have the melted cheese, or real pasta with loads of salty pecorino. So I did not rush out to create a healthier version of good old mac & cheese. Until I had kids, that is.
I have hundreds of cookbooks. Literally. I’m sort of addicted. Can’t stop buying new ones. I read them cover to cover, like a novel, before bed usually. I plaster them with sticky notes, tagging recipes, plotting out a meal agenda for the coming week, month, year. I know, total food nerd, right? The funny thing is, I almost never follow a recipe exactly.
A few years ago we took the whole family to Sicily for two weeks. It still lingers in my memory as one of the best trips. Ever. It was beautiful, and charmingly rough around the edges. We swam in the brilliant teal Aeolian sea and drank cheap (and delicious) Salina Bianco out of small plastic cups on a boat, the salt from the sea drying on our lips and mingling with the wine.
After the Vitamix, the kitchen appliance that gets the most use in our house is the waffle maker. I’d resisted buying one for years, dismissing it as a one-trick pony. But then I had kids, and they grew old enough to demand waffles (or really any vehicle for maple syrup), and I caved. And now […]
Little boys need snacks. Constantly. Ones that can travel, fit in pudgy little hands and go straight to hungry mouths without requiring adult assistance or refrigeration. They also must be healthy, with nutritionally-dense, whole-food ingredients. Oh, and bonus points for being nut-free…
I can’t get enough of ripe, juicy strawberries when they are in season. We mostly devour them straight up, with breakfast. But we were having a few friends over for dinner recently, and I wanted to showcase the first beautiful strawberries of the season in a dessert. Preferably one that went with a bottle of dessert wine.
I was never much of a baker before I had kids. I don’t have a huge sweet tooth myself, and I find the precise, unforgiving nature of baking a bit daunting – I’m an intuitive, free-form cook, and following directions is not my strong suit. But somehow I’ve created a cookie monster in my 4-year old son, and the beast must be fed…
