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
What’s In Season? March
In California, March is when we start to teeter on the edge of Spring. It taunts us. Market sellers hawk the first strawberries, but you know that they’re no better-tasting than the ones from the supermarket because they’re not yet offering samples; samples and Spring officially kick off in April. Towards the end of the […] Read More
Try Something New: Wing-It Red Beans and Rice
I read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food again, and I wanted to try more recipes with dried beans (an ingredient that I often struggle with), whole grains and minimal meat. I read several recipes for red beans and rice, but none of them felt right. Plus, I couldn’t get a ham hock to save […] Read More
No-Knead Bread
I love bread. I don’t really have words for how much I love bread. And there’s little in the world that can beat fresh, warm bread, right from your own oven. Last winter, I tried a variety of no-knead bread recipes. Here are the two winners; the first recipe requires prepping the dough a day […] Read More
Try Something New: Spaghetti Squash
I’ve tried spaghetti squash before, and really, it’s a very likable veggie. How can you go wrong with anything that can be served like a pasta? For me, once a food meets tomato or parmesan, it achieves hallowed status. The problem is that I haven’t been able to convince the Tiny Kitchen Assistant that this […] Read More
Emergency Ziti
Imagine if you will: through the In a Pinch program from the mothers’ club, you’ve agreed to deliver a meal to a new mom. Now, hypothetically speaking, imagine that you’ve completely forgotten that today is the day that you’ve arranged to deliver the aforementioned meal. Complicating factors? You’re due to deliver the meal in an […] Read More
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