“Mama, is it the weekend yet?” She starts asking on Tuesday. The withdrawals from having everyone together two days prior hits. “Mama, when will daddy be home?” “After work, Hal,” I repeat. At three years old, she knows the value of weekends—when dad’s home indefinitely, when everyone’s home together. She’s always her happiest then. Me too. Read more
I’m going to rename this blog Mel’s Food Truck. Because most of our dinners are composed as if they were just grabbed from the window of a food truck. You know the kind. Familiar with a modern flair. Casual but flavorful. Saucy with ten thousand toppings. We have a new item on our food truck dinner menu—a Walking Bánh Mì. Read more
Kristin, author of Modern Potluck, blogger at Eat Better Drink Better, and former editor at Food & Wine, might disown me after she reads the accidental adaptation of her Chinese Chicken Salad from her new book. Forgive me, Kristin? You see, I didn’t set out to make this salad vegetarian, even though two posts back I waxed on about falling out of love with meat. But a vegetarian Chinese Chicken-less Salad is what happened. Read more
When Kev decided he wanted to become a psychologist, before he took any classes or practiced therapy, he wanted to work in the prison system. This didn’t come as much of a surprise to me. He volunteered at a nearby prison throughout college. He told me he wanted to reduce recidivism. “Recidi-what?” I said. Recidivism is the relapse of criminal behavior after previously serving time. It’s the boomerang effect. Like poverty. Like a lot of touchy subjects that seem too messy to touch. Read more
With the rest of the world, I’ve always been a little smitten with Ina Garten. Mostly for her ability to pack up everything she’s just made into those perfect plastic containers before meeting Jeffrey at the beach. That’s where she cloaks the sand with a beautiful blanket and speckles it with the prepared food that’s somehow still warm. Is it the magic of TV or Ina? Ina does picnics like no one else.
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I don’t think it’ll come as a surprise to you when I say I love good design. It makes my heart flutter and my mind wonder. Good design always comes with a gentle nudge to keep creating, to try something different. I never thought that nudge could come in the form of toast with egg salad on top. Read more
We’re not vegetarians, though Hallie would tell you otherwise. But most days, especially during the hurried weekday dinner hustle, we eat a vegetarian diet, leaning on quick-cooking pantry staples to pull off dinner. I had to figure out a meatless swap for our favorite crunchy, meaty tacos in order to keep it in the regular dinner rotation. With the help of quinoa, black beans, and a little ketchup (just trust me), I give you vegetarian taco “meat.” Read more
Growing up in Texas, we learned about fall, winter, and spring from textbooks and encyclopedias. A feed full of changing leaves on Instagram wasn’t a thing then, and connecting to the internet was about like dialing the man on the moon. I always thought the spelling of seasons was a mistake. It’s season. My pen pals from other countries thought we traveled by horse. Come to find out, we lived in the same country and it wasn’t called Texas. I now joke that Texans have a hard time believing in climate change because the climate never changes. I’m kidding. Kinda. Read more
