British recipes
Pork Roast with Cider-Cream Gravy
Birdy and I are reading the Little House series, and, save the mind-blowing racism–which prompts many appalled conversations about the early-American murderous imagination–it is just as delicious as ever. So captivating, in fact, that Ben creeps in to squat by the bed, toothbrush in hand, or leans in the doorway, half-clad in pajamas, to listen. [...]
Lentil Soup
Have I mentioned how much I love cooking in the fall? I know. I can’t help saying it again. Because the summer? I mean, my god it’s gorgeous. Our every breath is filled with the crimson tomatoes and the corn bursting sweetly from its cob and the verdant demands of the herbs spilling forth from [...]
Apple Pie Tutorial
I have written before, I know, about Michael’s New Year’s resolutions and their amazing, er,concreteness. And so, with the end of the year looming suddenly, and with apple season in full, fragrant swing, Michael decided to learn how to bake a pie crust. Which was the entirety of his personal goals for 2010. Of course, fulfilling [...]
Fancy Pastries
I don’t care how many mini bags of Whoppers you ate in the night. I don’t want to know about the Sour Patch Kids that are now lodged in your dental situation. You’ve got to shake off that Mama-I’m-sure-you-didn’t-but-did-you-maybe-by-accident-eat-some-of-my-Halloween-candy glycemic stupor and get ready for… Pie Crust: The Sequel! You made the apple pie, right? And now [...]
Whole-wheat Pasta with Broccoli Pesto and Garlicky Breadcrumbs
I was getting a physical last week–whoa, holy Olivia-Newton-John-with-the-terry-cloth-headband flashback!–and my doctor said, “Oh my god, look at this.” A tweet had dinged in from his college-aged son: “Just got mugged!” That was the whole of it. There was no follow-up, and he wasn’t answering his cell phone. “Can you believe my life?” my doctor [...]
Sparkling Cranberry Centerpiece
Birdy sat at the kitchen island this morning, munching these gorgeous sugared cranberries while I packed up school lunches. I wouldn’t typically make them in mid-November, for no reason, but I wanted you to have this recipe before the holidays, so you could plan accordingly: they make the most perfectly beautiful holiday centerpiece–especially if there [...]
Maple Rosemary Popcorn
The season is turning, and I love it. Our shelling nuts are out in a bowl with the nutcrackers, beckoning to Birdy like a siren song of fillingness (“Ooof, I ate too many pecans,” she says, surrounded by shells like a zoo animal.). The woodstove crackles and steams and blasts out its fragrant heat. The [...]
The Mostly Giving Tree
I want to start a The Giving Tree flickr group, and what it will be is a kind of collective parental revision of the book, offered in a diverse series of newly imagined scenes. Like, maybe I would draw a little picture of the tree lying on the couch with a beer, and the speech bubble [...]
Caramelized Brussels Sprouts
Now that so many people cook well, I feel like my kids are actually being deprived of some of life’s classic food horrors. Like spinach, which though know more as a tangy salad spiked with crunchy walnuts and tart dried cranberries than as a creamed plate of mess (not that I don’t love creamed spinach, [...]
Jalapeno-Cheddar Potato Fritters
If you are like me, then you are still, even today (Monday), negotiating Thanksgiving leftovers. There are the easy ones, and they go fast: for instance, the stuffing, if there is any, which I eat for breakfast the morning after; also whatever is left of the turkey’s highly accessible breast, which gets sliced up for [...]