At home in Palo Alto or Portland in her family’s “center of gravity” (a.k.a. the kitchen), Michelle Tam, founder of the award-winning food blog Nom Nom Paleo, has a goal: no more short-order cookin’. “When the kids were little, I fell into the trap of trying to please everyone by cooking one thing for me and …
It was the handful of chopped cilantro that made me hesitate. Not the sweet potatoes, the ginger, the scallions, or the Makrut lime leaves bobbing in the coconut curry sauce. It definitely wasn’t the tofu, a substance so beloved by the children that they’ll eat it cold, straight from the package. It was the cilantro …
Letter From the Lunch Lady: How to Avoid Cooking Down to Kids Read More »
Every other month, I gather with a dozen or so women to share dishes we’ve made from a specific cookbook. Mind you, usually, I make the kind of food that qualifies as “easy weeknight meals,” meaning it uses ingredients I tend to already have, requires a minimal number of pots, and keeps well so I …
I make sweets and treats for a living, and yet have somehow managed to raise two boys who much prefer store-bought goodies to homemade. Despite the fact that there is often a freshly baked pie on my kitchen counter and a cream-filled one in the fridge; that the cookie jar is always full of butterscotch …
Cinnamon Sugar Donut Holes Are This Pastry Chef’s Secret Weapon Read More »
Ever noticed how excited everyone gets for taco night—even the toddler who only nibbles the crunchy shell and eats half a cherry tomato? Granted, Mexican food, whether it’s uber-authentic with hand-rolled tortillas or made in a pinch with a box of Old El Paso, is delicious. But I’d venture that the appeal of taco night …
A DIY Approach to Dinner Lets the Whole Family Play Chef Read More »
Just to be clear, my family was not cooking oxtails in Montana in 1988. We were not saying to each other, “Hey, there’s this great, traditional, proletarian Roman neighborhood dish, it takes four hours and uses cast-off meats, yum!” (I would venture that awareness of regional Italian cuisine was not acute. Spaghetti, pizza, lasagna: That …
Italian Oxtail Stew is a Surprisingly Good Kid Kitchen Adventure Read More »
A little of this, a sprinkle of that—the right blend of herbs and spices can transform an otherwise bland dish into something magical. And when it comes to creating these flavorful combinations, Lior Lev Sercarz is practically a wizard. The author, chef, and owner of the New York City spice shop La Boîte has made …
With two young kiddos (three-year-old daughter, Amelia, and one-year-old son, Hank) and baby #3 due in August, football player Derek Anderson and his wife Mallory have their hands pretty full at the moment. Derek is often away for weeks at a time (he’s the backup quarterback for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and pretty darn great …
Picky eaters aren’t made; they’re born. That’s the realization food and culture writer Joshua David Stein had when his first son, Achilles, started (not) eating solid food. “Food is a big part of my life, but the only way Achilles and I interacted about food was through fighting,” Stein says. He turned to children’s books …
