The e-mail questions and lists are flying around today among us and three other families. The burning subject is who's bringing what food for camping under the stars on the Fourth of July. We must have s'mores of course, and who's in charge of which dinner or what breakfast? Some of our favorites ...
Kitchen Chronicles
A Sigh of Relief
With class parties, teacher toasts, birthdays, year-end gifts and kick off the summer BBQ’s, like many of you, I’ve been particularly busy. Thankfully though, I’ve had my friends to help me get through this end-of-the-year craziness, especially in the kitchen. The process of making a jumbo corn ...
Have you ever tried….?
While making meatloaves the other day with my friend Katrina, she asked me if I'd ever tried this crazy recipe called something like "Three-Minute Chocolate Brownie in a Mug." Never heard of it, but we certainly had three minutes and it called for all good ingredients. If I hadn't been there, she ...
Savoring Summer
With seedlings maturing in the garden, my strawberries turning red, the first CSA pick up complete, and the farmer’s market officially open, the summer season has obviously begun. An abundance of local and fresh produce creates endless culinary opportunities, making summer the ideal time to cook ...
Grill Party
A few years ago in the heat of the summer, a hurricane knocked out our neighborhood's power for a shockingly long eight days. Around the third day, the grill parties started. People called around, inviting friends to empty their fridges and cook on the grill, and many people set up a bevy of grills ...
Cooking Away the Rainy Day Blues
It was soggy and rainy for several days in a row and the gloominess was taking over. It was hard for even the most chipper of us to crack a smile. For crying out loud, June was supposed to be sunny and hot, not cloudy and dreary. Everyone was having a hard time shaking the mood. Bus talk chatter ...
The Vegcycle
When I had a community garden plot in Washington, D.C., I was known to leave extra squashes and bags of basil on the desk chairs of my co-workers. In Denver, I gladly accepted dozens of fresh tomatoes from my neighbor Evelyn, who is great at growing tomatoes, but only likes them cooked. And now, in ...
Move over Chicken Challenge
My husband has always been one of those guys who could eat just about everything and never worry about gaining an ounce. Friends would watch in awe as he loaded his dinner plate with mounds of food and then eagerly return for seconds and maybe even thirds. He was just one of the lucky guys with a ...
Cucina Paradiso
Have you ever looked at a spread in a cooking magazine--say Gourmet's recent Tuscan Cucina Paradiso--and said, "I wish I was invited to (or could throw) dinner parties like that!"? I have, so I was thrilled when my friend Erica asked my husband and I to take a look at the magazine, choose a ...
Sometimes You Just Can’t
Last week, my toddler was sick and missed two days of school. Then my older son caught a little something and stayed home too. For most of the week, I was tending to needy and weepy kids and obsessing about the swine flu, a few cases of which have actually come to Montclair. There was no time to ...