Posts Categorized: Quick

Start with Frozen Beans

I’m writing this on a Friday around lunch having just made two bowls of what you’re looking at above, one for me and one for Andy, who is working from home. I made it for him because he was like Remember the green beans and egg thing you made last time I was working from home? Damn that was good. And… Read more »

Resolved: Cook More

I didn’t make any resolutions this year. I don’t know if this is because I’ve gotten lazier and grumpier as I’ve gotten older, or if it’s just that I’m more of a realist about these things working out. But it’s a slippery slope from realist to cynic, something I’m resolved (!) to never become in any part of my life,… Read more »

A Can-to-Table Vegetarian Dinner

I could’ve probably come up with a slightly more enticing name for this recipe, especially since it was one of the better meals I’ve made in the last few weeks. But that would be seriously detracting from what makes it DALS-worthy. You know that stunning Margaret Wise Brown baby book The Important Book? Where she poetically itemizes the characteristics of common… Read more »

Pasta with Prosciutto & August Tomatoes

I went on vacation just as my backyard romas and cherry golds were blushing from green to red, but it was hard to feel very sorry for myself considering I was headed to Italy, the land where tomatoes come in only one variety: extraordinary. I picked up most of mine on roadside produce markets in Sicily or from open-air market… Read more »

Dinner for the Road

A few Fridays ago, Andy was on the way home from work early, having drawn the short straw to drive Abby to a soccer tournament in Maryland for the weekend, when Abby asked what the dinner plan was. She was packing her soccer bag and stopped to wait for my answer. I paused — I knew what my dinner plan… Read more »

You Can Roast That?

Last week, a new cookbook landed on my desk called Dinner’s in the Oven: Simple One-Pan Meals. The recipes are unfussy; the design is bright and approachable; it’s shot by David Loftus (one of my favorite photographers) and I loved it almost immediately. I love it for the underlying promise, of course — who doesn’t want to throw a bunch… Read more »

Pizza with Brussels Sprouts & Bacon

Those of you who follow me on instagram know that you are looking at the latest episode of This Week in Pizza, featuring Brussels sprouts and bacon. It was a riff on a pie we order all the time at one of our favorite local haunts, and yes, it was delicious and easy and fast and bla bla bla, but… Read more »

Salmon for Everyone, Even the Baby

It gives me great pleasure to cede the floor to guest-poster Jenna Helwig today. Jenna is the senior food editor at Parents Magazine and author of Baby-Led Feeding, an inspiring manual for raising good eaters and kickstarting the family meal habit nice and early. Yes, your baby can eat the salmon you’re looking at above. Read on for the recipe and for a fun little… Read more »

Technicolor Dream Dinner

This is a quick one and goes out to all my snowed-in Northeastern brethren whose color palette for the past few days has been white, gray, dark gray and darker gray. I developed these Shrimp Tacos with Pineapple for a Bon Appetit dinner column, and they are the rarest of wintry meals: substantive without being stewy; deeply flavorful without being laborious;… Read more »

What to Eat When the Power’s Out

Don’t be alarmed, everyone’s OK! You’re looking at one small part of the neighborhood wreckage left in the wake of last Friday’s Nor’easter and the reason why we’ve been living out of our suitcases for the past five days. We are doing fine. We shacked up with my sister and my parents’ over the weekend and then checked into a… Read more »

Top 10 Quick Dinners

As my dinner diary approaches its 20th birthday (February 22, people, what are you getting me?) I’ve noticed that flipping back through the years to see what was for dinner has become more of an archaeological exercise than a practical one. I love that on Page One, Week One we cooked “Fresh Pasta with Amatriciana Sauce,” a recipe from a cookbook… Read more »

Anatomy of a Wild & Crazy Saturday Night

9:20 Leave track meet, NYC. (Dream come true: watching both girls run a 4×800 relay, literally one handing the baton to the other) Kids will take bus home after meet is over 9:21 Barely pull onto highway when Andy asks What should we do for dinner? My mind instantly goes to eggs when the kids aren’t home. Breakfast burritos. 9:46 Arrive… Read more »

Weeknight Sushi Bowls

Last Thursday, I posted the above photo on instagram stories and it almost blew up my phone. Not the actual photo, but the messages people sent in reaction. The one that sums it up the best is perhaps this: Sushi on a weeknight? I can’t decide if I really love you or really hate you right now.  I’m writing to make sure… Read more »

Weeknight Hero: Panko-Crusted Roast Chicken

As I hand over this genius weeknight recipe, it’s hard not to think of my earliest magazine editor days, when I was expected to constantly pitch story ideas — food and otherwise — to my boss in the dreaded weekly “beat meetings.” I was just starting out and operated under the assumption that anything that was interesting to me was… Read more »

Artichoke Pizza on the Fly

On Saturday, while I performed my weekly-ish refrigerator dump to clear the way for new groceries, I threw two heels of Parmesan and three nearly depleted bags of shredded mozzarella on to the counter. Who knows how or why, but as clear as day, a voice inside me announced: Artichoke Dip. Even though it was before noon. And even though… Read more »

Those Staggered Nights

I am so delighted to feature guest-poster Caroline Campion today. Caroline is a Saveur alum and one of the OG bloggers, having first caught my attention almost a decade ago with her site Devil & Egg; today she co-writes keeperscooks with Kathy Brennan. Their new book, The Dinner Plan, is, obviously, near and dear to my heart, and, among other things discusses the all-too-familiar… Read more »

New Twist on Old Fave: Tortilla Soup

. The first time I wrote about tortilla soup on this blog, the girls were playing cops and robber at recess and were so young I had to call it “taco soup” because tortillas were just so, you know, sophisticated (read: intimidating) sounding. The second time I wrote about it (as an ideal “deconstructable dinner“) was May, 2012, a month… Read more »

Start with Chopped Broccoli

. An abbreviated list of what I feel grateful for on a daily basis: I married a guy who is a Yankees fan even though he grew up in Virginia; I live five miles away from a restaurant that is a destination for diners around the world; and, most relevant for today’s purposes: My children like broccoli. And by “like” I… Read more »