I know mid-August is not the typical time to post a soup recipe, but I am craving vegetables and simplicity, and this soup is that. There’s something extremely comforting about carrot soup – and despite the heat, I find I am still in need of comfort these days.  My mom used to make a carrot soup like this when I was young that I always loved – first she used cream, and then silken tofu.  Neither of those appealed to me this week, so I used coconut milk and it was perfect. The texture is velvet.  The taste is intensely carrot – that sweet and savory double-agent identity.  T ..read more

One of the most strident sensory memories from my childhood is of spending scalding summers in Woodstock, NY, sitting on the back porch and eating pasta.  My mom and I would drive back to the city every week or two to go to Fairways on the Upper West Side (incorrigible city folks; because there was no grocery store upstate?).  I would wander the aisles, smelling the rinds of the cheeses through their wrappers, the brine of the olives in their open buckets, the scented coffees, and I seem to remember semolina on the floor, but that could be a little garnish added by memory.  Did ..read more

Sometimes, you need a ray of sunshine to break through the clouds.  Not everyone gets that from a recipe, but I do, and I imagine that other like me exist.  Lemons are sunshine to me – the sunny, happy color; the bright, exuberant flavor; the unapologetic enthusiasm of its sweet-tart starburst juice.  I love lemons. I tried a technique here that I have wanted to try for a long time – using the whole lemon.  The juice, the pulp, the zest, the pith – the whole shebang.  My Moroccan grandmother Meme always uses the whole lemon, but those are preserved – also wonderful, bu ..read more

For a long time, I thought if I wanted to eat ribs, I needed to go to a barbecue place – or Houston’s, where they are delicious.  If I wanted to make them at home, I would need a barbecue, or a smoker, or forty-five ingredients to make a sauce.  Turns out, not so. All it take is five ingredients, including the ribs, and an oven. A few years ago, I was reading Elizabeth Bard’s first book Lunch in Paris, and ever since then I have been riffing on what I came to call Bistro Ribs.  These ribs are cooked in the oven until fork tender.  No muss, no fuss.  NYC kitchen simple ..read more

When we were in full lockdown, doing full-time work and full-time childcare, and life was – full to say the least – I came up with this recipe for a quick and healthy lunch using what I had stocked from my emergency pantry shopping: frozen vegetables, canned coconut milk, and jarred Thai curry paste. Oh, wait!  Nothing has changed!  I am still doing full-time work and full-time childcare! And I am still making this at least twice a week, even though the fears of living exclusively on dried beans have since dissipated.  Frozen vegetables, however, have been fully rehabbed in my h ..read more

Lately, I have been getting into a rhythm.  Maybe because everything is the same.  My apartment.  My patterns.  My schedule.  Sheltering in place, I have discovered, doesn’t lead to a lot of serendipity, spontaneity, or rushing distractions. And I have come to quietly enjoy the predictable pattern of life now.  I don’t know about you, but I am not among those with “extra time”.  I hear this discussed as a commonality; it just doesn’t apply to me.  I know there are those of you our there who are, like me, full-time parenting and full-time working.  O ..read more

Note: During this time, I am trying to post more regularly in the hopes that in my small way, I can help people cope with a crisis.  As I usually do – through food.  I am trying to fulfill the requests for pantry-focused meals that are wholesome to the mind and the body.  You can find all the recipes here.  Wishing everyone all the very best from NYC! Let me just disclaim that there is NOTHING authentic about this guacamole, but it’s ADDICTIVE. When I was a little kid growing up in NYC, maman and I would go to the Park Slope Food Co-op and buy organic corn chips and avocado ..read more

Note: During this time, I am trying to post more regularly in the hopes that in my small way, I can help people cope with a crisis.  As I usually do – through food.  I am trying to fulfill the requests for pantry-focused meals that are wholesome to the mind and the body.  You can find all the recipes here.  Wishing everyone all the very best from NYC! Eating in quarantine is…interesting.  Much has been made of and written about the vacillations between wanting comfort and joy from food, and pursuing (often in contrast) food’s health-giving promise.  Yesterday, I a ..read more

Note: During this time, I am trying to post more regularly in the hopes that in my small way, I can help people cope with a crisis.  As I usually do – through food.  I am trying to fulfill the requests for pantry-focused meals that are wholesome to the mind and the body.  Wishing everyone all the very best from NYC! In our family, we are HUGE fans of l’apero, or the early evening snack and drink combo commonly observed in France.  Sometimes it’s just olives and a glass of cool seltzer, but it must be observed.  In my mother’s house, this is served every evening around ..read more

Note: During this time, I am trying to post more regularly in the hopes that in my small way, I can help people cope with a crisis.  As I usually do – through food.  I am trying to fulfill the requests for pantry-focused meals that are wholesome to the mind and the body.  Wishing everyone all the very best from NYC! My friends and family and especially my husband like to poke fun at me (that’s what I am calling it) for my inability to compromise.  I want both, is almost always my answer to any choice, difficult or easy. I love cheese and pasta for their ability to comfort a ..read more