A certain smell can instantly bring me back to a singular moment, or a period of time. I may someday think back to this time of my life when I smell Garam Masala, a spice blend I've been trying out often these days--in Tikka Masala, on roasted chicken, mixed in vegetables and in a sauce for ...
Kitchen Chronicles
A Cooking Year Ahead
Our Denver group met last night for the first group Cooking With Friends of the year--Jamming in January. We had 11 women and 15 kids enjoying the jam Amy made with her dad and I made with my daughter. Check out our schedule below for inspiration in your own cities. I am most excited about the ...
Steady Now
Home with a sick two year old, I make chicken soup alone. Assembling ingredients; two chickens, some carrots, onions and parsley tossed in the pots, and then off to nurse my sad little boy. Soon enough, the bubbling, simmering soup fills the house with therapeutic aromas of my childhood, a chicken ...
Spaghetti Time
Last night, my friend Christine invited four of us and our kids to stay for spaghetti after a playgroup at her house. While she certainly did all the real cooking (the creamy roasted tomato sauce was amazing and I'm hoping she'll post the recipe here), the informality of the evening and the way ...
Judith Jones Cooks with Friends and Family
“Though I am perfectly content cooking alone, I welcome having another body in the kitchen. We all do things a little differently, and we learn from each other. It is also nice to feel like we are passing on our pleasure of cooking to a younger generation, particularly at a time when most kitchens ...
Jamming in January
My daughter Eve's 4-year-old hands are just the right size for crushing bright red strawberries with a potato masher. Together, we made the simple jam recipe that calls only for berries, sugar, lemon juice and pectin. She loves to taste test--often--along the way. Eve, who I call my "sous chef" has ...
A Helping Hand
While rolling balls of cookie dough, the door sensor beeped, and in walked my friend Jackie with her toddler in tow. A casual drop by from a friend led quickly to some unexpected help in the kitchen for me and a spontaneous play date for my little one. As one of my regular cooking pals, Jackie and I ...
Assembly Line of Friends
While the phrase “assembly line” may sound cold and predictable, that’s the opposite of the warm feeling for the assembly line day of lasagna making I did with friends Evelyn and Kathy. We made 10 lasagnas in about two hours together. Kathy suggested we invite our husbands and kids to join us in ...
Sweet Curry
I often talk about what it's like to cook with someone you've never cooked with before. I compare it to dating. And it really is like that. Long before I met Alma, I felt like I already knew her. Mutual friends would talk about Alma -- her cooking, her home made recipe books, her words of kitchen ...
Communal Dumpling Making and more — A NYC Culinary Adventure
This past weekend, with my family in tow (three kids, a husband and my parents), I set off on one of our favorite New York City culinary adventures--- The East Village. It’s like junking it on the boardwalk but city style. We started with a sampling of Belgian French fries at Pomme Frites on 2nd ...