#Healthier. I saw this hashtag the other morning and fell in love. Healthy is a complicated word, a word that’s meant many things to me over my short lifetime. At one point, it meant peppermint mocha Frappaccinos worth 9 points and iceberg lettuce worth 0 points. At another point, it meant sugar-free, fat-free ice cream and unpronounceable ingredients. And then, at another point, it meant no pizza or French fries or dessert. I’m sure you could give an account of this word too. Read more
Never have I ever skipped eating breakfast. Even at 5 am before catching a flight. That’s when I usually pack a bowl of muesli to-go. We’re big muesli eaters over here (even when we’re not traveling), eating it about 3 times during the work week, alternated with scrambled eggs and toast. This breakfast cereal is fit for on-the-go or at the table. Read more
“By all means, break the rules, and break them beautifully, deliberately, and well.” I first read this on a horribly uncomfortable futon for a college Typography class. It’s highlighted in the textbook I still keep—Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst. One of my favorite things about life is that a book about typography can inform this White Wine Mac and Cheese recipe 12 years later. Everything informs everything. That kind of magic is real. Read more
A couple weeks ago, I had all the ingredients to make these Vegetarian Swedish Meatballs again, so I did. I’ve always been a little flighty. Kev is the analytical one of the two of us, the one who thinks through everything in great detail. I’m windy, work with whatever’s right in front of me, and make lots of flubs that only hindsight can teach me. Read more
Mom, why are they singing the same words again? Hal, that’s called a refrain or a chorus. It’s a pattern people use to write songs. The repetition helps to communicate the meaning. (This is an excerpt from a December conversation we had on the way to preschool one snowy morning while listening to the radio.) Red white, red white, red white. It’s a candy cane pattern, Mom! (She’s learning about patterns at school right now.) Read more
Margaret made the Lemon Meringue Pie every Thanksgiving. I only got to spend a couple of those with her. But each time she’d shuffle proudly into my mother-in-law’s kitchen (her daughter) with her homemade pie saying something like, “Isn’t that your favorite pie, Kevin?” It was a rhetorical question. It was everyone’s favorite pie at the Anderson Family Thanksgiving. Read more
I used to think gingerbread cookies were for decorating only. They were always teeth-shattering hard. But these cookies—they’re sturdy enough to decorate and soft enough to eat, using a super easy powdered sugar icing (not royal icing). Friends don’t let friends make rock hard gingerbread cookies. Bookmark this post. Read more
I have two favorite games in the kitchen. The first one: Dishwasher Tetris. He doesn’t realize we’re competing, but I always beat him. I can rearrange that appliance to fit every last dirty dish, even dishes Kev swears will never fit. And the second game: Fridge Foraging. (It’s important to note, these might be the only two games in life that I have the upper hand on Kev.) Read more
