Messy adventures in the modern kitchen
We started learning temakizushi, or hand rolls, this fall from a friend, but we had no idea they would become our favorite after-school snack! We love hand rolls because they don’t take a ton of skill to make, unlike maki rolls or nigiri (those beautiful ovals of rice topped with […]
When it comes to childhood milestones I like to think outside the box. Watching my kids take their first steps was lovely, really. But seeing them in hysterics when Biff ploughs his car into the manure truck in “Back to the Future”?! These are the moments that make parenting worth […]
Grandma Eileen was an honest cook. She could certainly do fancy if she wanted to; she once transformed an entire watermelon into a lattice of roses with a paring knife and a vivid imagination. But Eileen’s cooking was prized precisely because it was simple. She stuck with what she knew […]
Steel-cut oats don’t just sound badass; they are. They’re made by cutting a full oat, or “groat,” in two or three slices with a steel blade, creating a minimally processed product. Rolled oats, on the other hand, are steamed and then flattened to make them easier to cook and digest. […]
Even in L.A. where the weather is pretty agreeable, winter brings quick changes with its shorter days and cooler air. It’s a time for comforting things like movie marathons, cozy fires and warm, hearty soups. Last winter, just as things were starting to get lonely, some school mom friends and […]
In the American vs. British baking wars, I tend to lean Brit. In college, I spent two glorious semesters abroad in England at Oxford University, and although my passion for the Spice Girls has waned, I remain to this day a huge fan of flour, butter and sugar. Each morning […]
Move over, croutons … there’s a new, healthier crunch in town. Packed with protein and a host of nutrients like iron and calcium, quinoa is by far a better choice to top your caesar salad than day-old bread. And trust us, it’s delicious. Toasting after boiling brings out quinoa’s nutty […]
Milk, breakups, thinking real hard … some things just go well with cookies. So when my son came home from a particularly trying day at school last week, begging to “bake something” with me, our path through the pantry was clear. Cookies are, in my mind, the purest of guilty […]
What do you have in common with a Neolithic hunter-gatherer? Well, among other things, you both may have had pancakes for breakfast. It seems like pancakes are on every culture’s menu. Variations of these quick stovetop cakes have been around for thousands of years all over the world, from the […]
I remember my mom making this Rosemary Bread for every major holiday growing up—including the day after Passover, if that counts. The heavy smell of rosemary and malt would flood the house, and my cousins and I would tear at this bread with our hands and slap it with butter, […]
Perfectly round and just a tad sweet, Meyer lemons are those peachy yellow citrus hybrids that make a fleeting appearance in the store (or if you’re lucky, in a good friend’s garden!) every November through March. A mix of lemon and a sweet orange like mandarin (there is some debate […]
This creamy mix of mushroom, shredded chicken and cheese offers a welcome twist on the classic chicken-mushroom casseroles we grew up eating and loving. You have to hand it to 20th-century American housewives for perfecting easy family recipes that don’t burn, and if you value your time and your stress […]