An amazingly deliciously great meatloaf recipe

Was there something in the water this week? Did the meatloaf lobby inject our lakes and rivers with some sort of serum that induced mindless meatloaf cravings nationwide? On Monday, Jon had a discussion with Dave, a friend of his in Los Angeles, who was bragging about the meatloaf he made. During this discussion, I [...]

In our kitchen, smaller is better

In a New York City kitchen, smaller is always better. We have lived without a toaster oven because we simply couldn’t find one small enough. And we’ve avoided getting things like a Kitchenaid mixer, a rice cooker, or a crock pot because they’re all too big.
That’s why I was thrilled to receive these two gifts [...]

Why Michael Pollan is wrong about the Food Network

Is the Food Network to blame for the decline in home cooking? Michael Pollan thinks so, and he shared his thoughts in a story in last week’s New York Times magazine. Shows like “The Next Food Network Star” and “Iron Chef,” he says, turn cooking into a sport, while hosts like Rachael Ray encourage cooks to [...]

A cheap(ish) summer picnic (including a GREAT recipe for sesame soba noodles)

Our apartment is so dark, I once was awake for an hour before I realized it was pouring rain outside. It also gets really hot in the summer if we put more than six people inside it. (And yes, we do have air conditioning.) That created a problem for me this year, because my birthday [...]

How to use your freezer

A friend alerted me to this fabulous Mark Bittman article about how to make the best use of your freezer. I’m pretty good at freezing—I make a lot of freezer-friendly foods, like beans, beef stew, curry, and pasta sauce, and I always make enough to freeze. But he suggests freezing foods I never would have [...]