Real Life

I have three things to say before I begin: I am not a vet. I am not a vet. Did I mention that I am not a vet? I have no medical authority, whatsoever. But I do have the most wonderful 8 1/2 year old epileptic dog, who needs to take 12 pills a day, 15 if you count the fact that the big ones have to be broken in half, which is fair, since it is essentially 15 times that a pill has to get into my dog’s mouth ad down his throat. I have three more things to …

Why Marinades are So Great Marinades are brilliant because essentially you can take any kind of meat or fish or seafood you like, give it a dunk in the mixture and you’ve turned a plain something into a great dinner. The more delicate the protein, the less you want to marinate it, especially if it contains citrus juices which can start to “cook” the food and change its texture (eg, make it mushy). Some Guidelines for Marinating Success The thinner the food, and the less dense the food, the less time it needs in the marinade. The more acid (citrus …

(With Ingredients You Probably Already Have in Your Pantry!) Are there any schools left that haven’t gone nut-free?  If there are a few left, I am surprised, and feeling a little badly for the kids who are sitting at the nut-free lunch table (though perhaps at this point there is a special room for kids who just can’t move on from their PBJs?). I take all of this very seriously – I have horrible nut allergies myself, and have all my life, but when I was a kid I was definitely unusual, and very self-conscious about how I deal with …

The other night, I was traveling, and my husband was on his own. We were on the phone, and he said, “Uh, what do I do for dinner?” We will pause to acknowledge that I have clearly enabled my people to a sad degree, when it comes to feeding themselves. I said, well, if you’re at a total loss, make some pasta and open up a jar of sauce. We have no sauce, says Gary. So I said, well, sauté up a chopped onion and add a can of crushed tomatoes and some basil and oregano. “Will do…What does sauté …

2017 was a bit of a mixed bag, to be blunt. Plenty of things to be happy and grateful about, from work to family to just being renewedly appreciative for some basics, like a warm bed and electricity. But boy oh boy, life isn’t all Instagram filters and cheesecake with raspberry sauce dripping both daintily — yet realistically — over the edge. I have to first address the chronic psychic pain that many of us are feeling terms of the state of the world and our country, and the relentless, incredulous despair that our President is actually our President. My …

My pantry was a total disaster. A black hole. A closet of chaos. Despite periodic efforts to reclaim the area, my pantry closet looked like an eclectic and confusing supermarket had exploded, and someone swept up a large portion of the miscellaneous goods and thrown them onto shelves with no rhyme or reason. Yes, the flour and sugar shared a shelf (most of the time), but they were nestled next to Halloween sprinkles, lentils, and spelt. Tuna fish sat next to blackberry jam. A jar of truffled mushroom spread from a trip to Italy in 2016 nestled up near ramen …