Now that Christmas has passed, our local markets seem to think it’s time for summer, and so they stock the produce section with berries. Considering I live in Southern California, warm weather in January is possible (70s and sunny all week!), so I suppose they’re not wrong about summer approaching. Alas, it isn’t quite berry season, which means I’m sorely tempted, but the quality is spotty and the taste is only perfect if you happen to enjoy tart. Yet, I still adore berries. Well, except blueberries. I think those are disgusting, but I’ll happily stock my fridge with all the others. Whenever I see them in the market, I must…
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My Family’s Top 5 Go-to Dinners
I’m really bad at meal planning. I hate having to think about what’s for dinner. I’d rather be playing with my kids and trying to tell my son he doesn’t have to hide in the same spot every single time. If I’m lucky, I remember and ask my husband what he’d like to eat a couple of days before we go to the market. If I’m really lucky, he tells me exactly what he wants. Most weeks, though, I ask him about 20 minutes before we head out the door and we stand around in the produce section wondering what to make. Our son gets impatient and becomes overly theatrical…
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Rachael Ray’s Spanish Style Beef and Rice
My mom has a habit of collecting recipes, and then never trying them out because she has so many. But her habit is my gain. There are times when my husband turns to me and says, “Let’s try something new this week.” On one hand, I love it because it means I can try a new recipe. On the other hand, I hate it because sometimes I don’t have anything in mind. Cue my mom’s binder of recipes. I’ll flip through it whenever I can, looking for inspiration or something new. This is one of those. It was tucked in the back of a pocket, forgotten, just waiting for me…
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National Shrimp Scampi Day
April 29th is National Shrimp Scampi Day. But I don’t eat seafood. But we like chicken, lemon, butter, and pasta. So we don’t do shrimp scampi, but chicken scampi instead! We were watching The Pioneer Woman one day and she was making shrimp scampi with pasta. Now, my husband is a big fan of lemon butter sauce, but knows I absolutely will not touch seafood. Instead, loving husband that he is, he asked if I could make it with chicken. Of course I could make it with chicken! And it was so easy that, whenever my parents give us lemons from their tree or if we have a couple lying…
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31 Foods That I Love
If I make it to 31 with this one, I will be astounded. Chocolate. Duh. Chocolate chip cookies Brownies Blackberries Cherries Carrots, raw Ritz crackers Peanut butter Bananas, but not banana bread. Go figure. Spaghetti with sausage sauce My mom’s meatloaf Fried Chinese noodles (literally just chow mein noodles fried on both sides. The crunchy parts are the best!) Lop Chong (Chinese sausage – so fatty and bad for you, but so yummy) Barbecue pork buns, steamed Butterfly. Not the insects, but a delicious Chinese sweet. This is basically strips of fried dough drenched in honey. And I mean drenched. Puffs. Not the baby kind. Again, a Chinese dessert made only…
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Establishing Baby on Solids: It Might Take Longer Than You Think
As a new parent, you wonder when to start solids on your baby. Most resources say 4-6 months. From all the reading I did (twice) 6 months seems like your best shot. As a new mom almost 4 years ago, I was ready to talk about this at my son’s 4 month appointment. I thought the pediatrician would say to go for it and provide a few guidelines. Instead, he said, “Wait until he’s 6 months, at least.” I wasn’t devastated, but I was sad. We were excited about giving him food. But he was born 5 weeks early. As a late preterm baby, his doctor recommended we wait a…
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National Chips and Dip Day
Today is Chips and Dip Day. But…I don’t like dip. I like the purity of my chips. Just give me the chip and I’m happy. Instead, I’m going to celebrate a variation. Chips and DIBS. It’s just a letter different… Has anyone here eaten those Dips ice cream bites? Those little bits of ice cream coated in chocolate? (I think I like chocolate too much…No! No such thing!) Chips and Dibs was something of a thing with my best friend and me back in college. We went to different colleges, but were only about a half hour away from each other. One night, my roommate and I were not getting…
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Aeggercrakers
In 2007 I studied abroad in Denmark. I learned a little about the country, culture, and people before going. But the food scared me. I knew there were a lot of fish dishes, but I don’t eat fish! Good thing I wasn’t going for the food. But what was I going to eat? My anxiety led me to scour the Internet for Danish recipes. This wasn’t actually easy, and some of it was entirely in Danish. There was a site full of recipes that I eventually found, but now can’t for the life of me remember. I spent the summer before leaving testing out a few recipes. One of my…
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Pasta with Sausage Sauce
This one is from my mom. Pasta was a family favorite growing up, but tomato sauce gets boring after awhile and my dad isn’t fond of cream sauces, so my mom started making this. It’s really simple and great if you enjoy vegetables because you can put just about anything you like in. The recipe below is the one my mom wrote down for me, the one she uses again and again. My husband and I don’t care for mushrooms, zucchini, and onions, so we leave them out. But we love bell peppers, so we use more of them. Really, the sauce comes from cooking and sweating the vegetables, so…
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Baker’s One Bowl Brownies
If you’ve ever picked up a bar of Baker’s unsweetened chocolate squares, you’ve probably seen this one. My mom and I have always followed this one religiously, though we sometimes add the nuts and sometimes don’t. I remember countless mornings whipping up a batch of brownies and then begging my mom to put it in the fridge to get it cooled off sooner. Now, with babies of my own, I make this one with my toddler’s help while I hold his baby sister with one arm. Really, it’s easy enough to do with one hand, until the stove and oven parts, of course. For years and years, I used a…
