Archive for the 'family dinner' Category
Baccala!
July 29th, 2010by Caroline
Our stay in Portugal was planned as a respite, a no-agenda, unscheduled interlude without a lot of sight-seeing. It’s not that Lisbon and Sintra don’t offer a lot to see, but we know that with kids you can only be a tourist for so long before rebellion sets in and you risk finding yourselves [...]
The Kids Were All Right
July 15th, 2010by Lisa
The table on the Lanai
For some reason, things are easier on Kauai. Take dinner for instance: grilled fresh fish, rice, local vegetables or salad. Fast, easy, delicious. Both Ella and Finn insisted on maybe our second night that things tasted better in Hawaii. They had a point. It might have been the weather. It [...]
Salmon Backs, Redux
June 14th, 2010by Lisa
I’ve written about salmon backs before, twice, actually, but they’re so good, and fast and economical they deserve more notice. If you can get salmon backs from your fishermonger, or counter, or farmer’s market, BUY THEM. Don’t be afraid, even though they’re weird looking and long and bony and flat and will appear to [...]
A Celebration
May 25th, 2010by Caroline
My father-in-law, James Grant, would have been 86 today. He was a husband and father, an engineer and artist, a backyard wine maker and meat smoker. He is remembered, by his friends and family, for his generosity, his straight talk, his gorgeous paintings and sculpture, and his great cooking. I regret that I never [...]
Snacks, disguised
May 12th, 2010by Lisa
You know the moment: dinner is not quite ready but the kids are starving. You don’t want to give them a snack because that would ruin everything. What do you do?
First, I enlist them. Even Finn, at 5, is old enough to set the table. And if they know that I’ll get dinner on [...]
Al Fresco Dinner with Cuban Black Beans
April 29th, 2010by Lisa
We’re having a mini-love affair with all things Cuban in our home, which began with Picadillo and may have reached its peak when I read Pete Wells’ piece about scorching but not ruining a batch of black beans.
These beans take some time, but they are surprisingly easy to make and they are completely, fantastically [...]
Thousand Island Dressing
April 16th, 2010by Lisa
It’s a snack food, a packable lunch dish, a side dish, an appetizer, an all around helpful thing to have in your kitchen. It’s lightening fast to make. It’s completely addictive. It’s a way of getting your kids to eat more raw vegetables. And even you won’t be able to stop eating it with [...]
A Dinner Surprise
April 14th, 2010by Lisa
This is another fast, easy, intensely flavorful recipe that’s great for a weeknight change. It’s also really affordable & relies on things that you can easily keep in your pantry &/or freezer. It saved me over the last month, when I needed to get dinner on table with a minimum of prep work. For [...]
Nuoc Chom
April 12th, 2010by Lisa
This is one of those things that can save your day, and it may be my new favorite thing to keep in the refrigerator. It’s not a dish, per se, but a basic recipe for a Vietnamese dipping sauce that is incredibly versatile and fantastically delicious. The kids go nuts for it.
Composed of garlic, [...]
Sunion Tart
March 4th, 2010by Lisa
Be warned: This is delicious, but not fast. It’s fun, but time consuming. It’s really pretty, but a major commitment of energy. Also, the kids might not eat it. Still.
A few weeks ago, Finn and I went to Chabot Space and Science Center for a kid’s science class about the sun. It was full [...]