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Kids In The Kitchen

December 22, 2015

the new york times perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe

On the menu for today: we're making cookies for Santa. And when I say "we," I don't mean "I'm making them while the kids watch Bubble Guppies and I yell from the kitchen 'COME HELP YOUR MOTHER'"; I really do mean that we're making them together.

Indy is really into cooking - he has announced that his plans for when he grows up are "to cook and to work at eBay" - which is ridiculously exciting for me. I remember a couple of years ago I posted a photo to Instagram of him standing next to the stove, helping me stir some pasta sauce, and got a bunch of blowback for it (THERE IS FIRE NEAR YOUR CHILD AND KNIVES ALSO, both of which were true). And while I do of course believe in making sure that children are safe when they're in or near a kitchen, my feeling has always been that the safest thing I can do for them is to let them participate in something that they're obviously going to be interested in, if only because it's so clearly a big part of their mother's life. To me, it's always seemed like telling them to stay out of the kitchen ("DON'T TOUCH THAT!") would be equivalent to transforming the room in our house where I spend the most time into an exciting mystery house of stuff they're not allowed to touch but desperately want to. It seems more reasonable to me to open the doors and not just "tell" them, but actually show them how a kitchen can be both safe and fun, so long as you're careful.

But the biggest reason why I encouraged my son to get into cooking from a (to some) bizarrely young age: it's our special time together, standing there side by side and talking about flavors and the difference between penne and rigatoni and what, exactly, happens when water comes to a boil. Indy knows how to measure, how to mix, how to put walnuts into a ziploc bag and whack them with a rolling pin to break them into smaller pieces. We taste sauces together and decide if they need more seasoning; he's responsible for doing virtually all of the pouring. I love that when he's older he'll have so many memories of sitting on the countertop in a warm kitchen, dipping measuring spoons into flour and breaking eggs while his mom chatters away about stuff he doesn't quite understand, but will one day.

It makes me something way beyond "happy."

Decor

Interior Inspiration: Six Nurseries You Need To See

December 17, 2015

white nursery with a white wrought-iron crib

Here is Goldie's room. It's almost identical to the nursery we put together for her back in Westchester (minus the leopard carpet, TEAR) - we even painted it the exact same shade of pale green that we chose during the office-to-nursery redo. I kept it super simple because it also functions as a guest room when people come to stay with us (that couch folds down into a queen-size bed), and also because I figure we have plenty of years of pink sparkle explosions ahead of us without getting started now. (It needs a rug. I'll get on that sometime in the next decade.)

But!

Were I starting from scratch with a nursery concept...ooooooh are the ones pictured here ever good. (They're good for kids' rooms, too, so I'm bookmarking 'em for a future redo.)

ENTREES

Fettuccine with Sweet Tomato Sauce, Ricotta and Asparagus

December 16, 2015

fettuccine with sweet tomato sauce and asparagus on a red and white tablecloth

I once read a Nigella Lawson cookbook (and I do actually *read* cookbooks, cover to cover, as if they were for-real books with plotlines and such; it's my favorite thing to spend Christmas Day doing) in which she described a pasta dish - I think it was carbonara, but I'm not sure - as the kind of dish you carry to your bed and eat straight from the pot, preferably with someone you think is sexy.

I don't know about you, but anything that gets described that way is a thing that I want to eat. Like yesterday. This pasta dish, which I first wrote about back in 2010 (although the recipe has evolved over time into what you see below) is my personal eat-straight-from-the-pot dish: it's rich and creamy and cheesy and a touch sweet, and is - yes - the perfect thing to eat while laying in bed next to someone you think is sexy.

Or alone, in your pajamas, while watching Love, Actually. And I think we all know that's going to happen at some point during the next week or so, god willing, so here you go:

Decor

It’s A Very Tiki Holiday

December 15, 2015

tiki inspired holiday tablescape with green and white elements

Everyone has those friends who make you want to just follow them around all day to see how, exactly, it is that they do life so damn well. For me, that's Stephen and Dave. You've been hearing about them for years now, ever since I started blogging - they're Kendrick's best friends from college, so we've known them forever, but we also lived in the same building for a few years and had some epic rooftop adventures. And then they moved to the West Coast and we thought, cool, let's do that too. (Kidding, but only sort of.)

Every time I go to their apartment - an industrial-style loft in San Francisco - I need to photograph it; it's just that well-done. The most interesting thing about it, though, is that every time I visit, I notice that it looks even better than the last time, but not because they've added stuff...it's usually, rather, that they've taken stuff away. Pared it all down.

Oh.

ENTREES

Homemade Alphabet Soup (Sopa de Fideo)

December 9, 2015

mexican comfort food soup called sopa de fideo

Let me first just say, in case you're under the extremely mistaken impression that I am a food snob, that I have absolutely no problem with canned soup (or canned anything, for that matter). I think it is delicious, and have deeply-entrenched food memories that emerge when I so much as smell some Campbell's chicken noodle.

That stuff is DELICIOUS.

But! I also recognize that it's...maybe not, I don't know, the healthiest thing in the world, what with the sodium and the vaguely questionable meat cube-things that floating around in there. And soup is one of those things that is so easy to make in big batches and then throw a bunch in the freezer to eat later, so:

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