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: E
Guacamole
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 [...]
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 [...]
Cook’s Illustrated Chewy Brownies
After my run-in with the Failbread, and after a bad review from a snowbound Philadelphia friend, I was a little bit hesitant to embark on another experimental cooking project. But I had promised E, the tiny kitchen assistant, that there would be brownies, and I’m not the kind to go back on my word, especially [...]
Muffins
I’m doing a bit of a format change in the subjects. Since I now have the Cooking subsection of the blog, I no longer need to separate out the recipes with the Random Recipe tag. Also, the boy almost always cooks with me, so I’ll just include his commentary and insights along with the recipes.
Tonight’s [...]
Cooking with E: Spicy Chicken Soup and Grainy Bread
The boy was greatly displeased that I made soup, and leftover soup at that. “When are we going to chop something?” he whined.
Tonight’s bread was a new creation. Following the format of the original no-knead bread, I scoured the internet for variations and came up with a wheat and oat concoction. I’ll include the ingredient [...]
