Last night was burrito night* at our house, and I lucked out in finding two reasonably ripe avocados in the produce section. We came home and the Tiny Kitchen Assistant helped me make a fresh batch of guacamole.
Keep in mind that the Assistant doesn’t actually eat guacamole, in spite of the fact that it was [...]
Clarifying Complex Ideas
Category Archives: cooking
Guacamole
Lunch at Home
I’ve recently realized that when you work at home, fast food isn’t really all that fast. It’s also a calorie sink. I’ve made two multi-day lunches built entirely from leftovers, random fridge veggies and the stuff in my pantry. Each takes only minutes of prep work.
Quinoa Salad
Quinoa is very versatile and absorbs flavors well. I [...]
Going Retro: Tapioca Pudding
I’m not giving away any big family secrets by revealing that my mother hated to cook. It was rare for her to make special stuff, and for me, tapioca pudding was one of the most mystical things of all. Unlike cake mix — oil, eggs and 2 minutes with the beaters — tapioca required standing [...]
Ham, Lyonnaise Potatoes and Prosciutto Brussels Sprouts
Today, I asked the boy what he wanted for dinner: chicken, pork or beef. His answer? “Ham. Not that stuff that comes in the zippy bags. Thick ham. From the oven. Slices. Can you do that?” Huh. Didn’t see that coming. I also didn’t realize that nobody sells ham outside the holiday season. I hit [...]
Choosing the Right Cookware
For all of the cooking that I do — often as much as three times a day — I entered 2010 using the same, cheap, hand-me-down aluminum cookware that I was given when I married nearly 12 years ago. This includes the saucepan that always scorches at the edges and the two tiny pans that [...]
More Muffins, Now With Extra Assistants
On Monday, I invited the Tiny Kitchen Assistant’s best friend and her younger brother over to make muffins. Three kids under the age of four? What could possibly go wrong?
As you laugh at me from the safety of your clean kitchen, I have to admit that it went much better than I would have expected, [...]
Kids’ Lunches
Next month, the tiny kitchen assistant will be starting a new preschool, one without a hot lunch option. This will require me to get creative five days a week.
This morning, at breakfast, I asked him for some suggestions for what he’d like to take for lunch. After the obvious choice of mac & cheese, he [...]
Muffin Question
Readers: do you have a favorite muffin flavor? The boy wants to make muffins on Monday for his day off from preschool, and I’m looking for new variations. He’s suggested strawberry, which I’ve never seen before, but he says that, “if you can make a muffin with blueberries, you can make one with strawberries.” He’s [...]
(Lazy) Beer and Brats
If you ever have the sort of weekend afternoon where you don’t plan to go anywhere, you might want to make lazy beer and brats. It seems particularly appropriate on Super Bowl Sunday. Hey, they can’t all be classic, wow-the-guests recipes, can they? Sometimes you just have to fall back on something relatively effortless.
Ingredients
2 large [...]
Almost No-Knead Bread (a.k.a. “Failbread”)
Being a devotee of America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Illustrated as I am, I was delighted to see that they had a version of almost no-knead (ANK) bread that I could try. The recipe, typically hidden behind the paywall, can be found in multiple places including here. I was completely fascinated by their modifications, which [...]
