I have a kid. That means that every recipe I make either comes with a helper (known as the Tiny Kitchen Assistant) or his alter ego, Captain Distracto, who wants me to play baseball or Legos or do anything other than cook as dinnertime approaches.
Most of the meals are kid-friendly and easy enough to make in 30-45 minutes on a weeknight. The rare, time-consuming “weekend recipes” will be noted accordingly. Believe me, if I can make dinner six nights a week, you can, too.
Where do my recipes come from? Many are things that I’ve made for ages. Some are modifications of a single recipe; I link to or reference the original recipe wherever possible. Others are a strange hybrid of recipes that I find online; if I want to find a good stew recipe, for example, I’ll look at half a dozen and pick and choose the elements and techniques that work best for us.
Ready to cook?
Recent Recipes
“Beef and Beans”
Slow Cooker Hearty Chili First of all, let me sincerely apologize for the lack of photos in this post. In all seriousness: does anyone have any tips for how to photograph soups, stews and chilis that don’t look… well, awful? All suggestions are appreciated. In my house this recipe is known as “Beef and Beans.” […] Read More
The Secrets of Tofu
How to Cook Edible Tofu Living in California, we’re surrounded by Asian restaurants, so I’ve eaten plenty of tofu. The problem is that when I’ve tried to cook it at home, it tastes less “meaty” (for lack of a better explanation) than what the restaurants serve, and more like the unappealing squish of a custard. […] Read More
Bite-Size Roasted Butternut Squash
Roasted Butternut Squash I’ve seen plenty of recipes for roasting butternut squash. Most suggest that you should use butter and brown sugar, or a glaze of orange juice and maple syrup. And that’s fine. I’ve done something similar with acorn squash in the past, and it’s tasty. But for butternut squash, I actually prefer a […] Read More
Enchilada Casserole
Easy Baked Enchilada Casserole I wanted enchiladas for dinner, but I knew that the schedule wasn’t going to accommodate going to my favorite Mexican restaurant. I was going to make them myself, but hand-rolling enchiladas was pretty much the last thing I wanted to do while supervising the Tiny Kitchen Assistant’s homework. So I decided […] Read More
Oatmeal Toffee Coconut Chocolate Cookies
I had a bag of toffee chips in the pantry, but didn’t want to make the standard über-sweet recipe on the side of the bag. I scouted the rest of the pantry for remnants from other recipes: coconut, semisweet chips, white chips. Hmm, this might have potential. As it turns out, I completely oversoftened (melted) […] Read More
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